This week, Microsoft Teams is receiving its biggest functional update since the initial launch of the app last March.

“New features in Microsoft Teams make it an even more powerful hub for teamwork by enabling you to use apps in new ways, including the ability to command apps and take quick actions from the command box, as well as include content from an app in a conversation,” a new post to the Office Blogs notes. “Teams brings together everything a team needs in one place. You can integrate the apps and services you need, including Office 365 apps like Excel, and ones from our partners, including Trello, InVision, and SurveyMonkey.”

New features include:

App gallery. This new Store feature helps users customize their Teams experience and discover apps and services. These apps can by searched by capability, category or name.

Command apps. Type @ into the command box to display a list of apps you can query and command. “In the same way that you can add an emoji or GIF [to a conversation], you can now bring information from apps into a chat or channel message with a simple click,” Microsoft notes. “For example, you can search for a specific task in Trello, a work item in Wrike, or a weather forecast, and include an interactive card with that information into a message.”

Slash commands. These new shortcuts can be used to perform tasks or navigate in Teams. You can set your status, go to your last conversation, add another user to a team, locate files, call a coworker, and more. Just Type / to see a list of commands.

Who. This new app is powered by Microsoft Graph and it allows you to search for people in your organization by name or topic. To access your personal apps space, click the … in the left navigation menu.

Search bar. The new Search bar is located front and center at the top of the Teams window and it lets you find quick commands actions and content, messages, and files.

Since Teams is part of Office 365 commercial, I was expecting to see some information about a deployment schedule, but all it says is that “these features are rolling out starting today” and “you can expect to see them in your Teams client shortly.”

Tagged with Microsoft Teams