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Microsoft Teams Changelog

What's new in Microsoft Teams 1.3.00.33671

Jan 15, 2021
  • Have small group discussions with breakout rooms:
  • With teachers and meeting organizers looking for ways to encourage meaningful discussion, a need for small groups to break out into smaller group discussions. Luckily, you can get just that with breakout rooms in Teams meetings.
  • Organizers can learn how to set up breakout rooms via the Windows or Mac desktop app at Use breakout rooms in Teams meetings.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.3.00.28778 (Nov 8, 2020)

  • Keep it secret, keep it safe:
  • To provide you with even more privacy, Teams now lets you turn off message previews in your desktop notifications. Message previews are on by default. To turn them off, go to your profile picture, select Settings > Notifications > Show message preview. From here, switch the toggle to off.
  • Appear offline in Teams:
  • You can now set your status in Teams to Appear offline, You'll still receive notifications if anyone messages you, but you'll be able to work in Teams while appearing invisible to others. Like magic!
  • Notification settings got a makeover:
  • Check out the new, simplified organization of your notification settings. To access, go to your profile picture, select Settings > Notifications and you're there.
  • New industry-based team templates :
  • Use team templates created specifically for your industry to help you create teams optimized for the way you work. There are also some new templates for project management, employee in-boarding, and more.
  • Transfer meetings between devices:
  • Seamlessly switch between devices when in a Teams meeting. So if you join a meeting from your phone while making your morning cup of caffeine, you can transfer to your computer when you get to your desk and no one will be the wiser.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.3.00.26266 (Oct 16, 2020)

  • Take a peek at your meetings:
  • View meeting details from your calendar without opening the meeting. All you need to do is hover your cursor over the event in your calendar and a brief summary of details will pop up for you to read.
  • Speaker name added to Live captions :
  • Live captions are now able to attribute the name of the speaker when generating captions during a meeting. Live captions is currently available in US English only.
  • New keyboard shortcuts:
  • For improved accessibility in Teams, there are two new shortcuts. To start a new conversation, type Alt+Shift+C on PC and Opt+Shift+C on Mac. To reply to a thread, type Alt+Shift+R on PC and Opt+Shift+R on Mac.
  • New attendee audio option for meetings:
  • Meeting organizers can now disable attendee mics to prevent them from unmuting during a meeting. In Meeting options, go to Allow attendees to unmute and switch the toggle to Yes.
  • Better access to meeting notes:
  • Meeting notes now supports up to 100 meeting participants at a time. Participants who have access to notes will now continue to have access to meeting notes, even after the meeting ends. Also, if anyone joins your meeting after it's scheduled and doesn't have access to notes, they can now request access from the notes owner. Get the full scoop at Take meeting notes in Teams.
  • Share the spotlight:
  • Spotlighting a video is like pinning it for everyone in the meeting. If you're an organizer or a presenter, you can choose anyone's video (including your own) to be the main video people see. Learn how to bring everyone's focus on a specific person in Spotlight someone's video in a Teams meeting.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.3.00.24758 (Sep 25, 2020)

  • Push the big button:
  • Introducing the updated New conversation button in channels. Confidently know you're starting a new conversation (and not replying to a thread) with the new button look. The same old keyboard shortcuts will still work for you and you can find those in Keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Teams.
  • The new button is at the bottom of the channel. Select, New conversation to open the box where you write your message. Just as before, you can type a quick message and press Enter to send, or select Format Expand button to expand the box and use your formatting tools. Select Send Send icon to send your message when in the expanded mode.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.3.00.18164 (Jul 30, 2020)

  • More control in meeting options:
  • Now, you have the option to make everyone—even people from your organization—wait in the meeting lobby when they join a meeting you've organized.
  • To access this setting, open Meeting options. Then, where is asks Who can bypass the lobby?, select Only me. Learn how to access these options at Change participant settings for a Teams meeting.
  • Clearer options when joining a meeting via link:
  • When you join a Teams meeting via a link, you're provided three options for how you can join. If you don't have the app, but want all the meeting functionality it provides, select the first button to download the app compatible with your operating system. Want to join via web? Select Continue on this browser. And, if you already have the app, select Open your Teams app to join the meeting like you would from the Teams calendar.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.3.00.15561 (Jun 17, 2020)

  • Access pinned chats and channels while offline:
  • Your most recent conversations, as well as your pinned chats and channels, are now available when working offline in Teams.
  • Customize your background:
  • Whether it's outer space or your favorite cartoon living room, try out customized backgrounds in your next video call.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.2.00.22561 (Sep 11, 2019)

  • Focus time, sans the interruptions:
  • Teams and MyAnalytics pair up to help you find time to focus on your work. Now, when you book focus time in Outlook using the MyAnalytics add-in, Teams will automatically set your presence to Do Not Disturb. We'll hold your notifications while you work, then send them to you once your focus time ends.
  • Channel moderators—now in Teams:
  • Assign individuals in your team to be moderators for specific channels. Whether it's keeping the discussion on the topic at hand, or helping answer questions during live events, put your moderators to use. Read up on what all a moderator can do for you.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.2.00.21868 (Aug 23, 2019)

  • You asked and we listened. Now, you can share your audio during a Teams meeting, so all participants, near and far, can hear whatever media you're presenting. So go ahead, add that video to your PowerPoint presentation. Your audience awaits!

New in Microsoft Teams 1.2.00.17856 (Aug 5, 2019)

  • Set the priority of your message:
  • Need to get someone's attention? Mark your message as Important. This will place a red exclamation point in the message and in the activity feed.
  • Is it really important? Set it as Urgent. This will alert the recipient every two minutes for twenty minutes, or until they read the message, whichever comes first. To change the priority, select ! under your compose box.
  • All your meeting controls in one place:
  • Everything you need in a meeting now resides in the control bar. You'll find your meeting chat and participants have moved here. And full screen, notes, settings, and meeting details are now in More options More options button . Check out the image below to find your way around the new control bar.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.2.00.13765 (Jun 21, 2019)

  • Zoom into the action:
  • Need a closer look during a meeting? Now you can zoom into presentations and video during meetings to get a better look. To try it out in your next meeting, press Ctrl+ to zoom in and Ctrl- to zoom out. Or hold Ctrl and scroll with your mouse.
  • Group chat—now with 100 people:
  • Group chat size has increased from 50 members to 100. Group video, screen sharing, and calls are still limited to groups of 20 or fewer. The chat history and privacy are still all there. So go ahead, start planning that surprise office party with the new, bigger group chat.
  • New ways to invite people to Teams free:
  • Now you can invite people to join your Teams free org directly from your Microsoft accoun. When you invite your Microsoft contacts, Teams will send them an invitation email. Select Chat Open chat button or Teams Teams button on the left side of the app, then select Invite others to your org at the bottom of the app to start inviting.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.2.00.8866 (Apr 19, 2019)

  • What used to be Favorite and Remove from favorites is now Show and Hide. Choose which teams and channels you want to show in your teams list and hide the rest. You'll still get notified when @mentioned, they just won't clutter your teams list.
  • To try it out, go to a team or channel name in your teams list and select More options More options button > Hide. Want to get a team back in your list? Scroll to the bottom and open the Hidden teams list.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.1.00.25455 (Sep 25, 2018)

  • Zoom on in:
  • Access your zoom controls from your Teams settings. Zoom in, zoom out, and view your zoom percentage by selecting your profile picture.
  • Making chat more accessible:
  • Microsoft Teams is excited to announce that the Immersive Reader has made its way to chats and channels. Use page themes and personalized text size, style, and letter spacing for increased visibility, minimize visual distractions with Line Focus, or follow along with the personalized text reader. To launch the Immersive Reader from any conversation or chat, select More options More options button > Immersive Reader.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.1.00.19253 (Aug 2, 2018)

  • Take private notes and get the whole picture with the new Wiki app:
  • Now you can access your own private wiki and channel wiki pages in one place—the new Wiki app! Find it by selecting More apps More options button on the left side of Teams, then Wiki. In the app, keep your own private notes on the Personal tab, see all the wiki pages you're a part of on the All tab, or get back to ones you've used recently on the Recent tab.
  • Add info to your wiki from anywhere in Teams:
  • A whiz-bang way to get a note into your personal wiki. In the command box at the top of Teams, type /wiki, then press Enter and type your note. Press Enter again when you're finished and the note will go right to the Personal tab in the Wiki app.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.1.00.17852 (Jul 16, 2018)

  • Teams free is here:
  • Starting today, Teams free is available worldwide in 40 languages. Whether you’re a freelancer, a small business owner, or part of a team inside a large organization, you can start using Teams today.
  • Read more in the blog post at:
  • https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2018/07/12/4-new-ways-microsoft-365-takes-the-work-out-of-teamwork-including-free-version-of-microsoft-teams/

New in Microsoft Teams 1.1.00.7851 (Apr 4, 2018)

  • Copy a link to a post:
  • Copy and paste a link to a channel post to bring someone up to speed or share important info. Copying a link to a response will take someone straight to that point in the conversation. From there, they'll be able to scroll up to see the original post.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.1.00.5952 (Mar 16, 2018)

  • Expanded guest access:
  • We've expanded guest access in Microsoft Teams to include anyone with a valid email address. From now on, anyone with a business or consumer email account (like Outlook.com or Gmail.com) can be added to a team.
  • For more info, check out Collaborate securely with anyone in Microsoft Teams at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/what-s-new-in-microsoft-teams-d7092a6d-c896-424c-b362-a472d5f105de?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US#PickTab=Desktop_and_web.
  • More channels per team:
  • You're now able to create up to 200 channels per team (this includes channels you've deleted). Go forth and make channels!

New in Microsoft Teams 1.1.00.5851 (Mar 7, 2018)

  • Access Teams plans in the Planner hub:
  • You now have access to plans you created in Teams right in the Planner web app. Favorite a plan or view the teams and channels associated with it, then open it in Teams or keep working in Planner. Don't worry—this feature is coming to the Planner mobile app soon.
  • For more info, check out Access Plans from Microsoft Teams in Planner apps.
  • Improved badging in your tray or taskbar:
  • Badges got a little better this week. Use them to check if your status is set to Available, Away, Busy, or Do not disturb. They'll also tell you if you have unseen activity or if Teams is offline, got disconnected, or ran into an error.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.1.00.1752 (Jan 31, 2018)

  • Create custom links in messages:
  • There's a new button in the compose box that lets you customize your links. Expand your compose box to check it out, or just highlight the text you want to use and press Ctrl+K or Command+K to add a link.
  • Mute someone in a meeting:
  • Mute individual meeting participants straight from the meeting roster to cut down on background noise. If someone has been muted, they'll get a notification letting them know. They'll be able to unmute themselves if they need to chime in.
  • Mute everyone in a meeting:
  • If you ever need to mute all the other participants in a meeting, head to your meeting roster and select Mute all. Each individual will get a notification and be able to unmute themselves if they need to.
  • Have your meeting call you back:
  • If you've got a Skype for Business Audio Conferencing license, you're now able to dial out to your own phone number from a current meeting. This allows you to transfer meeting audio to your phone if you're having network problems or on a slow connection.
  • Audio conferencing in channel meetings:
  • Audio conferencing features now work in channel meetings, too! (Why should scheduled meetings have all the fun?)
  • Support for calling and meetings in Edge:
  • If you're using Edge, you'll be able to preview making in-app calls and joining Teams meetings.
  • Support for meetings in Chrome:
  • Right now, you're able to preview audio meetings and conferencing in Chrome! (Don't worry, video support is coming soon.)

New in Microsoft Teams 1.1.00.253 (Jan 12, 2018)

  • FEATURES:
  • A better OneNote tab:
  • When you create a new OneNote tab in a channel, you now have the option of linking to an existing notebook or pasting a link to a OneNote page or section. Doing that also lets everyone in the channel explore the entire notebook that the page or section belongs to (provided they have access).
  • Like a chat:
  • You're now able to like a message in a chat just like you would in a channel! This makes responding to messages and approving decisions a lot easier—no typing necessary.
  • Hide a chat:
  • Clean up your chat list by hiding old or inactive chats. Your chat history will still be available if you search for any of the chat participants, and you'll be able to resurface a hidden chat back just by sending or receiving a new message.
  • Request and grant screen control:
  • Now, you're able to request control of someone else's desktop or grant control of your screen while you're sharing. While you're in control of someone's screen, you'll be able to use your own mouse and keyboard to select or move content or type and make edits. To start controlling someone else's screen, click Request control when you're in a meeting and wait for approval.
  • Resize images in Wiki:
  • If you've pasted any images into a Wiki, you're now able to resize them instantly. Hover over the image, then click and drag the resizer until you get the size you want.
  • EDUCATION:
  • Assignments are more immersive with full-screen mode:
  • While creating, reviewing, or completing an assignment, teachers and students can select the Expand tab icon to work in full-screen mode.
  • Create separate Collaboration Space permissions in a team’s Class Notebook:
  • This popular Class Notebook feature is now available for notebooks created in Microsoft Teams—great for small group work.
  • Smoother assignment flow:
  • Students can begin work on an assignment using an Office app directly from the assignment itself. This saves time and is helpful for students who don’t have access to Office apps at home.
  • Introducing assignment notifications:
  • When a teacher creates a new assignment, students will receive a notification in their activity bells and a rich assignment card will appear in the General channel’s Conversation tab with a due date and link to the assignment’s details.
  • Organize assignment discussions in one place:
  • New assignment notification cards provide a perfect launching point for contextual discussion. Students and teachers can collaborate and exchange messages right under the assignment's post in the conversation stream.
  • Find assignments quickly:
  • Students and teachers will be able to search for assignments in the search bar using keywords from an assignment’s title.
  • Improved Class Notebook integration with Assignments:
  • Create a new assignment and specify a Class Notebook page for students to turn in, or to attach as reference material. You select the student notebook section where you’d like the new page distributed.
  • Review and add feedback to Class Notebook pages in full-screen mode. Launch by choosing an assignment to review and selecting the student’s document under Student work.
  • Sync assignments and grades from OneNote Class Notebook back to Microsoft Teams. Here's a short training video that explains how this works.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.0.00.34151 (Dec 16, 2017)

  • CALLS IN TEAMS ARE HERE:
  • Teams is supporting voice calls in a big way. With the right license (read on), here's what you'll be able to do:
  • Make calls to people outside of Teams or Skype for Business
  • See dedicated spaces for your contacts, call history, and voicemail
  • Personalize your voicemail greeting
  • Transfer calls (to people inside and outside of Teams)
  • Use Enhanced 911 (E911) in Teams to get location-based emergency calling
  • Look for the new Calls app on the left side of Teams. You need the Enterprise Voice license to see it. If you don’t see the app, talk to your IT admin about getting a license.
  • HERE ARE A COUPLE OF OTHER THINGS YOU’LL GET WITH THE ENTERPRISE VOICE LICENSE:
  • Mask calller ID:
  • There’s a new setting that lets you hide your phone number any time you make a call to someone outside of Teams. Talk to your IT admin to set it up.
  • TTY devices:
  • You’ll now be able to speak to people in Teams using a USB-connected phone and a TTY device. Turn on TTY support in Settings. Click your profile picture, then Settings > Calls. When you get a call, plug a headset into your TTY device and you're good to go.
  • FINALLY, SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, NO MATTER WHAT LICENSE YOU HAVE:
  • Calls to and from Skype for Business:
  • Missing your friends on Skype for Business? Give them a call from Teams. You'll be able to receive calls from anyone on Skype for Business, too

New in Microsoft Teams 1.0.00.19452 (Jul 24, 2017)

  • The following features have been added for this release of Microsoft Teams.
  • View meeting content while multitasking: Now, you can keep an eye on any content being presented even if you've clicked away from your meeting. That means you can check your messages or pop into another channel then click back whenever you like—without losing any context!
  • Perform actions on multiple files: Now, you can select multiple files at a time and right-click to perform bulk actions like copy, move, or delete.
  • T-Bot just got smarter: Good news, everyone! In addition to speaking English and French, T-Bot can now converse in German and Spanish as well.

New in Microsoft Teams 1.0.00.6701 (Mar 15, 2017)

  • NEW COMPOSE BOX:
  • ICYMI, your compose box got a complete redesign. We improved the experience behind a lot of the actions surrounding composing and editing messages. Now, you have separate icons for the following actions:
  • Expanding your compose box
  • Adding an emoji to a message
  • Sending a GIF
  • Creating and sending a custom meme or sticker
  • Attaching a file
  • Scheduling a meeting
  • You'll find that your expanded compose box still offers all the same formatting options, but you’ve got a lot more space to play around with creating custom memes and stickers, or searching for popular or trending GIFs. Clicking the meetings icon below your compose box will take you straight to our meeting form, where you can immediately schedule a meeting with whoever you're talking to in a channel or chat. Check it out; we hope you like it!
  • MEETINGS GOT A LOT SMARTER:
  • Schedule a private meeting: Schedule a private meeting with anyone in your organization! They'll be able to join by clicking "Meetings" on the left side of the app.
  • Meetings have a smart new scheduling assistant: Our new scheduling assistant will let you know when all your invitees are free to meet. The scheduling assistant also provides a calendar view of the coming week that will show you when all your meeting attendees are busy or unavailable.
  • BOTS NOW WORK IN TEAMS:
  • New Bots tab in your team page: You might have noticed there's a new tab in your team view. The Bots tab gives you a list of all the bots that have been added to that team. It's also the place to go if you want to discover new bots or get started creating a custom bot or tab!
  • Brand new bot gallery: We built a new bot gallery that will show you a list of all the bots that are currently available in Microsoft Teams. Alongside the Bots tab, the bot gallery is also the place to go when you want to find out which bots have already been added to one of your teams.
  • Discover bots via search: To see a list of all available bots, just click on the search bar at the top of the app and then select "Discover bots". Click on a bot to start a one-on-one chat or click "Add" to add it to a team.
  • Add a bot using an @mention: To add a bot to a channel, just type '@' in your compose box, then select "Add a bot".
  • Custom bots: Now, you can quickly and easily integrate an external service with one of your teams by adding a custom bot! Established and aspiring developers can sideload a bot or tab or even create a custom bot using a call back URL. Just head to the new Bots tab and click the links at the bottom right to get started.
  • PUBLIC TEAMS ARE HERE:
  • With public teams, anyone can search for, view, and join your team! This means that when anyone from your organization clicks through "Add a team", they'll see a collection of public teams that they can browse and join. If you want to create a new public team, you'll be able to choose 'public' or 'private' settings for your team privacy as you go through the steps of creating a new team.
  • CHECK OUT THE NEW WIKI TAB:
  • We've reimagined the way you collaborate. The Wiki tab is a great place for you to draft or edit documents and communicate in real time. It's a full-fledged text editor that lets you @mention teammates right on the page, leave comments when you're editing someone else's work, or respond to feedback!
  • EVEN MORE NEW TABS:
  • We've been quietly adding new options to the tab gallery so you can connect all your favorite external services. Now, you can add a tab to integrate services like Zendesk, Asana, and more. Head over to the desktop app to see what's available.
  • FEEDS GOT A MAKEOVER:
  • We've redesigned your Activity feed so it's more transparent and gives you more control over what you see. Click on the Activity icon on the left side of the app; you'll be taken right to your feed. You'll be able to filter your feed by notification type (if you just want to check your mentions, replies, likes, or news from channels you follow). You also have the option of opening Team activity (which will show you all the latest news from your favorite channels) or My activity (which will give you a list of all the actions you've performed recently in Microsoft Teams). Hope you like it!
  • EMAIL INTEGRATION WITH MICROSOFT TEAMS:
  • You can now post a forwarded email to a channel in Microsoft Teams, thanks to channel email addresses. Click on the "Get email address" option in your channel menu to start sending emails to a channel. Once an email is forwarded, you can have a conversation about it directly in the channel (FYI, any comments or messages that are posted in a channel about an email will only be visible from Microsoft Teams). You'll also have the option of restricting who can send emails to a channel.
  • MICROSOFT TEAMS WILL SHOW UP IN APPS VIEW:
  • If you've got the right license, Microsoft Teams will now show up in your apps view for your desktop (when you press the Windows key) along with all your other Office 365 web apps.
  • T-BOT SPEAKS FRENCH:
  • Pour nos utilisateurs francophones, nous sommes heureux d'annoncer que le contenu de T-bot et de l'aide prend désormais en charge le français. Vous êtes le bienvenu :)
  • Translation: "For our French speaking users, we are happy to announce that T-bot and Help content now supports French. You're welcome :)"
  • ACCESSIBILITY IMPROVEMENTS:
  • We take accessibility seriously, and we’re very proud of our continued commitment to making our product a great experience for users of all abilities. With that in mind, we've been hard at work improving accessibility across Microsoft Teams. Please don't hesitate to get in touch should you have concerns or comments!
  • IMPROVEMENTS IN YOUR FILES TAB:
  • The Files tab has a new look and feel! Now, there's an action bar that includes an option to open the SharePoint site for your team. Additionally, you can get links to folders so you can easily share files within Teams.