As usual, during the last part of each month, the Microsoft Teams division has a new blog post that goes over the many updates it has added during the last month of January 2024. We have already reported on some of these additions, including the new 3D avatar and locations that are available for Teams users with the Microsoft Mesh technology. We have also reported that the AI-based background feature became generally available earlier this week.
Another new feature that is new to us is the ability to forward chat messages. Microsoft stated in the blog post:
Share a message with another colleague by right clicking the message and selecting “forward” or by clicking the “…” on the message and then “forward”. You can also add additional context to the message to provide greater clarity for the recipient. Messages can be forwarded to 1:1 chats and group chats.
If you are using Teams with Google"s Chrome or Microsoft"s Edge browser, you now has support for up to 9 video chats on screen in a 3x3 layout, instead of the previous 4 videos in a 2x2 design.
Business administrators and managers can now set up specific employees to handle on-demand services with their own appointment time duration in Teams.
The Teams mobile apps have received a few improvements in January as well. They include a new user interface for calls, as well as the ability for mobile Teams users to see the current status of a meeting, including who is in the meeting, how long it has lasted up until that moment, and if someone is recording it.
Microsoft also revealed a number of new third-party apps that launched for Teams in January. One of them is the well-known Calm sleep and meditation app. Microsoft says:
This includes content to prepare for key moments at work, music to help focus, breathing exercises, movement, and more. You can access mindfulness sessions for yourself or with others during meetings, share mindfulness content via chat, and set reminders for mental health breaks to help reduce stress and anxiety, reset, refocus, and build resilience.
The Calm app for Teams has a total of over 3,000 sessions that can be accessed.