Published 28 January 25

1. Microsoft Teams: Pop out Chat, Copilot, and Notes panes in meetings 

What’s new? 

Users will be able to pop out the side panes for Notes, Chat, and Microsoft Copilot panes in Microsoft Teams meetings. 

Why is this important? 

Seeing a pop-out icon at the top of their Notes, Chat, and Copilot side panes in Teams meetings is crucial for users as it enhances their productivity. This feature is enabled by default. It allows users to click the icon and pop out the pane into a separate, resizable window. By being able to adjust the window’s position according to their screen setup, users can optimise their workspace, ensuring they don’t miss any chat messages while keeping an eye on meeting notes. This capability helps users manage multiple aspects of a meeting simultaneously, leading to a more efficient and effective meeting experience. 

When is it coming? 

This update will be generally available from late February with expected completion by late February 2025. 

2. Microsoft Teams: Embed support for Teams town hall

What’s new?

End users will be able to embed Teams town hall events into sites they manage.

Why is this important?

Embedding Teams town hall events on user-managed sites is crucial for enhancing accessibility and engagement. Attendees can watch and interact with the event directly on the website, using features like Q&A, Captions, and Reactions. This seamless integration ensures participants have a consistent experience, whether they join via the Teams app or the embedded event Url.

When is it coming?

This feature is already available if you are part of Microsoft Teams targeted release. Otherwise, it will be generally available by mid-January.

3. Power Automate: Copilot in Power Automate for desktop

What’s new?

Users will be able to use this feature to describe their desired automation tasks in plain language, and Copilot will generate or modify flows accordingly.

Why is this important?

The Copilot in Power Automate for desktop feature aims to simplify the creation and enhancement of desktop flows using natural language prompts. This feature is highly anticipated as it simplifies workflow creation, enhances productivity by reducing the time and effort required to set up and manage desktop automations, provides early access for user feedback, and supports natural language, making automation more accessible.

Further information about this new feature can be found here.

When is it coming?

This feature will be generally available by 31 January.

4. Microsoft SharePoint: New “Editorial card” web part for Pages and News

What’s new?

This new SharePoint Online web part for content pages and news posts will improve manual content customisation.

Why is this important?

This new feature will provide SharePoint Content Authors the flexibility to manually tailor content presentation to their exact needs, unlike automated web parts like News and Events.

After this rollout, users will be able to showcase content in an engaging card format with advanced background and content settings, which will enhance the visual appeal and user engagement. They will also have the ability to configure content to suit varied author needs, ensuring that each piece of information will be presented in the most effective way possible.

Note this change will be available to users by default, making it easily accessible to all. This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout.

When is it coming?

Targeted release commences late January with expected completion by mid-February. General availability will commence mid-February with expected completion by late February.

5. Microsoft Teams: New “Tag mentions” filter for the Activity feed

What’s new?

This feature will allow users to easily see their tag mentions alongside existing @Mentions in chat and channel messages in Microsoft Teams.

Why is this important?

This feature will help staff stay organised and ensures they don’t miss any important tag mentions. It will allow them to easily see their tag mentions alongside existing @Mentions in chat and channel messages. Note this rollout will happen automatically thus requiring no admin action.

Further information about this new feature can be found here.

When is it coming?

Targeted release commences early February. General availability will commence mid-February with expected completion by late February.

6. Microsoft Viva Engage: Multi-pin Conversations Carousel is now available

What’s new?

This update will allow up to six Viva Engage posts to be pinned with a carousel feature for two or more pins.

Why is this important?

Increase visibility and engagement to your posts and point readers to important conversations with this upcoming feature. Viva Engage Community admins will be able to pin up to six posts at the top of the community feed. Once done, a thumbtack icon will show pinned conversations in the feed. If two or more posts are pinned, a carousel feature will activate automatically and will automatically display the most recently pinned post first.

When is it coming?

General availability will commence mid-January with expected completion by early February.

7. & 8. Microsoft SharePoint and Viva Amplify: Flexible Sections in Pages

What’s new?

This feature will allow page customisation without strict column structures.

Why is this important?

Flexible sections in SharePoint and Viva Amplify will make it easier to design pages without a strict column structure. Users will be able to resize and move web parts within these sections, creating custom layouts. The content pane toolbox will offer new section templates, both flexible and column-based, which can be adjusted to meet user needs. This will help improve creativity and efficiency in page building.

Users will be able to resize flexible sections manually, change the arrangement of overlapping web parts, multi-select web parts, and group web parts. They will be able to select or drag and drop a new section template from the content pane toolbox. After the template is added to the canvas, users will adjust the web parts and the section until ready to publish.

Card-based web parts, such as Quick Links, People, or Hero, only have four different width options (full width, 1/3 canvas width, ½ canvas width, and 2/3 canvas width). These web parts can only be resized to one of the four options. Non-card-based web parts, such as Text, Image, and File & Media, can be resized to any width. Web parts will snap to the closest grid line when being resized.

When is it coming?

Targeted release commences late January with expected completion by mid-March. General availability will commence mid-March with expected completion by late April.

9. Microsoft Teams: Enable transcription policy by default

What’s new? 

The transcription policy will now be enabled by default in Microsoft Teams for new tenants.

Why is this important?

Users will be able to leverage transcription during meetings as needed.

Previously turned off by default, this update will switch so the transcription policy will be enabled by default. Existing policies in the Teams admin centre will remain unchanged. However, tenants that have not customised their Teams meeting policy will be impacted:

• Tenants without customised policies: The new default settings will apply, impacting these tenants.
• Tenants with customised policies: Policies for user-level or group-level assignments will remain unchanged and unaffected.

This update will streamline the adoption of transcription and enhance the use of AI features and will align transcription with the default policy for recording (also be enabled by default in the Teams Admin Center). Note this update will apply to Teams for Windows desktop and Teams for Mac desktop.

Note that this update will not automatically activate transcription for every meeting.

When is it coming?

This update will be generally available from mid-November with expected completion by late November 2024.

10. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery: Export enhancements

What’s new?

Microsoft Purview eDiscovery’s Export feature will soon have a unified structure and direct browser downloads for Standard users, faster exports, improved reporting, more options, and new columns in the Export item report.

Why is this important?

• Key changes to the Export enhancements are as follows: Unified structure for exports: eDiscovery’s new modern experience has streamlined the Export function for both Standard and Premium cases, ensuring a consistent experience for downloads, reports, and error messages.
• No application needed for Standard customers: Standard users can now download data directly through eDiscovery in the browser, without the need for installing an application.
• Faster exports: Enhancements to the architecture and partitioning have resulted in faster exports. Additionally, the limit on the number of ZIP files created for exports has been removed, allowing for multiple ZIPs with optimised sizes.
• Better reporting: The new Export feature includes improved reporting capabilities, generating four reports for each export from Search or Review set, available for all formats.
• More export options: Administrators can now export files in .msg format, a feature highly requested by customers. Options for Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive are now grouped separately from Microsoft Teams and Viva Engage.
• Options removed: The Microsoft Office 365 eDiscovery Export Tool (eDiscovery Standard) and the export to a customer-owned Azure Storage location option (eDiscovery Premium) have been retired due to customer feedback and security protocols. The .eml export format option has also been removed due to low usage.
• New columns for the Export item report: New columns for Classification types, Documentation parts, and Meeting names have been added for increased efficiency.

Learn more about exporting search results in eDiscovery here.

When is it coming?

This feature is available for public preview now. General availability rollout commences mid-February (previously mid-December) with expected completion by mid-March (previously mid-December).

It’s no secret we are one of the best when it comes to understanding your needs and how the Microsoft platform can reconnect, reinvigorate, and strengthen employee experience. Keen to use your existing digital landscape as a way to engage your employees? Want to discuss how we can work with you to best leverage the upcoming Microsoft technology? Contact us at info@engagesq.com to see how we can help.