Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly - Join Teams work meetings from the free version and more

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After a fairly slow couple of weeks, the Microsoft 365 Roadmap website getting busy again with a number of upcoming features being added to the last in the past seven days, particularly for future Teams additions.

Microsoft Teams - Join a work meeting from the free version and more

If you want to join a Teams work meeting but couldn't use the paid version to sign in, an upcoming update for all Teams platforms in February 2024 will fix that issue:

This feature enables Microsoft Teams (free) users, those using a personal Microsoft Account, to directly join Teams for work meetings from within the client and stay connected even after the meeting has ended. This feature similarly also enables Microsoft Teams (work or school) users to join the Microsoft Teams (free) meetings directly from within the client. These users are no longer prompted to join via a browser and treated as meeting guests (anonymous).

Another upcoming feature for Premium desktop and Mac Teams clients in February 2024 will add the recent Intelligent Meeting Recap feature for transcript-only meetings:

Intelligent recap will support meetings with only transcript enabled, and without recording enabled. In the case when only transcript is enabled for a meeting, the features from intelligent recap that users can access are AI-generated meeting notes, AI-generated tasks, and name mentions.

The new Teams for Windows app will add a feature in January 2024 to make it easier to control your microphone:

This feature, available in the new Teams experience on Windows, enables you to mute and unmute your audio by clicking the mic icon in Windows taskbar. To control your mic during the meeting from the taskbar, do the following: select the mic icon on your taskbar or press Windows logo key + Alt + K to mute or unmute.

Microsoft Outlook - Opening the To Do app and more

Microsoft is continuing to add new features to the recent revamp of the Outlook email client for Windows. One of them will launch in January 2024, according to the roadmap:

Use the To Do app without leaving the new Outlook for Windows! Clicking the To Do icon in the navigation bar will open inline and will no longer open in a separate browser window.

That's all for this week, but come back in seven days for another look at the Windows 365 Roadmap.