Category: General

Roadmap Watch: what to expect for Microsoft Teams in January 2021?

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 1 Comment

Year 2021 is here. Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft/Office 365 is getting a big number of updates. Just looking what is scheduled for January 2021 that is a big list of interesting capabilities! Some highlights from the list. Share System Audio on Mac is showing as cancelled because there were a duplicate item. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?searchterms=67168&filters=&searchterms=67168 (thank you … Continue reading Roadmap Watch: what to expect for Microsoft Teams in January 2021?

Teams Application highlight: Perfect Wiki

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 1 Comment

Microsoft Teams application store has a big number of applications in it. It means also that it can hold in apps that could be useful to many organizations - but they just don't know that such an app exists. I thought I check out some of them once an a while to share the information … Continue reading Teams Application highlight: Perfect Wiki

Concluding 2020

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

What a year this has been! No, that does not sound right. What a strange year and exceptional this has been. I expected 2020 to be full of wonders and technological leaps while having some fun there as well. I am not mentioning the elephant in the room and due to that many of us … Continue reading Concluding 2020

Microsoft Teams Roadmap Watch updates

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Microsoft Teams roadmap seems to update weekly these days. This time there weren't that many changes but it is good to note that End of meeting notifications has rolled outHistory menu is scheduled now for February 2021Outlook is getting Meeting Options prompt when meeting invite has 40 or more participants or 10 or more distribution … Continue reading Microsoft Teams Roadmap Watch updates

Review: Jabra Evolve2 85 with Microsoft Teams

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 4 Comments

I have been testing several different audio devices for use with Teams in this blog. I can finally add Jabra Evolve2 85 to the list. Can you spot the matching colors of the headset Teams-connected light and my keyboard? 😂 Jabra Evolve2 85 is the high-end headset for work from Jabra. For it's high-end headset … Continue reading Review: Jabra Evolve2 85 with Microsoft Teams

How to use Pop out apps in Teams

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 5 Comments

Microsoft Teams recently got a new feature to Teams Desktop client: ability to Pop out application from Teams UI into a separate window. If you have the New Meeting -experience checked on in Teams Desktop Client Settings you can start utilizing this feature. This is a follow up to earlier Pop out chat -feature. If … Continue reading How to use Pop out apps in Teams

How to guide for custom Praises in Microsoft Teams

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Microsoft Teams got finally Custom Praises out last week. This means you can do awesome praises / endorsements to your colleagues in your own organization theme and color. That makes praises to feel even better and sharing that Good Will & Gratitude makes even more sense. For raising spirits and increasing motivation it is a … Continue reading How to guide for custom Praises in Microsoft Teams

Roadmap watch: Large (1k) & Overflow meetings postponed to Q1/2021

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The Teams Roadmap has been updated again. I can't say I am surprised that some meeting features were postponed with a few months - there hadn't been much noise about them in social media which lead me to guess they won't be out yet. But as always - Roadmap is a estimate of the schedule … Continue reading Roadmap watch: Large (1k) & Overflow meetings postponed to Q1/2021

Live Reactions, Together Mode in Teams Web and native Windows Notifications are available in Teams Public Preview

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 4 Comments

This week brought in several great features to Microsoft Teams! The Breakout Rooms was met with massive success and that might have overshadowed some other great features that came out. Custom PraisesAbility to change Together Mode scenes Teams Public Preview When you enable Teams Public Preview you get your hands on to a few features … Continue reading Live Reactions, Together Mode in Teams Web and native Windows Notifications are available in Teams Public Preview

How to use “Definite Guide” for the new Microsoft Teams Breakout Rooms

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 73 Comments

The new out-of-the-box virtual Microsoft Teams Breakout Rooms became available in December 2020! This blog post is the definite guide how to use Microsoft Teams Virtual Breakout Rooms. Blog post updated 30.9.2021 (dd.mm.yyyy) Some quick facts about Breakout Rooms You can precreate rooms in advance and move invited people to rooms before the meetingYou can … Continue reading How to use “Definite Guide” for the new Microsoft Teams Breakout Rooms

Roadmap watch: new search, video filters and large meetings in Teams delayed

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 1 Comment

When checking out the M365 I found out that there were some changes wort mentioning. New Search Experience in Teams A new search experience in Teams will make finding messages, people, answers, and files faster and more intuitive. A redesigned search results page provides better context and faster results, with AI-powered relevance based on the … Continue reading Roadmap watch: new search, video filters and large meetings in Teams delayed

How to: create and add a OneNote tab to your Microsoft Teams team channel using Power Automate + Graph API

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 20 Comments

I was asked to share how I have been adding new OneNote tabs to a team channel in Microsoft Teams using Power Automate + Graph API. If you look at the documentation it shows you this: Of course I never believed that but found earlier a way to hack OneNote into a channel as tab … Continue reading How to: create and add a OneNote tab to your Microsoft Teams team channel using Power Automate + Graph API

Roadmap watch: latest changes to upcoming Teams meeting schedules

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Another day, another updates to the Microsoft Teams roadmap! While none of is happy to see schedules updating to a later month but I appreciate that they commit to the ready features and also let us know when to expect them to roll out. I would love to see them updating the dates more often, … Continue reading Roadmap watch: latest changes to upcoming Teams meeting schedules

How to: set your status duration in Teams

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 3 Comments

Currently rolling out - and appearing to tenants - is the ability to set your status duration for determined amount of time. As you already might now you can set following statuses in Microsoft Teams: And yes - you can hide yourself being even logged into to Teams by choosing Appear offline. This is useful … Continue reading How to: set your status duration in Teams

Roadmap update: What’s on the Teams roadmap for the end of year?

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 2 Comments

There are plenty of features that should be rolling out to Teams by the end of this year. I think the more recent the "last modified" date is the more accurate the release estimate will be. And vice versa: those features that haven't been updated for a couple of months risk higher chance of getting … Continue reading Roadmap update: What’s on the Teams roadmap for the end of year?

Roadmap update: externals access to Whiteboard in a Microsoft Teams meeting delayed to March 2021

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 1 Comment

Looking at the roadmap updates this got my eye: The long awaited feature that would allow Whiteboard: External access in Teams meetings Any guests, external or anonymous users in a Teams meeting can view and collaborate on the whiteboard during the meeting. They will not have continued access to the whiteboard after the meeting ends. … Continue reading Roadmap update: externals access to Whiteboard in a Microsoft Teams meeting delayed to March 2021

Review: Microsoft Surface Headphones 2

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 2 Comments

First I have to say that I love the way Surface devices look and how usable they are when you think needs of the modern work. So I was of course very thrilled to be able to test the Microsoft Surface Headphones version 2. I almost bought the first version a year and half back … Continue reading Review: Microsoft Surface Headphones 2

Review: Poly Calisto 5300 Speakerphone

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 2 Comments

I have been testing different audio devices for use with Teams/worklife use since the summer. First one of those I want to write a review is Poly Calisto 5300 Speakerphone. The Specs USB-C + USB-C dongle. There are also USB-A models availableUp to 16 hours of talk timeBluetooth 5.0Charge by connecting with wire to USB-C … Continue reading Review: Poly Calisto 5300 Speakerphone

How to add polls to Teams meetings

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The ability to add polls (finally! Just saying..) to Microsoft Teams meetings became possible recently when the feature to add applications to Teams meetings was released to general availability. Among the first applications to add to meetings were Forms and Polly. Let's take a look how you can add polls to meetings in a step-by-step … Continue reading How to add polls to Teams meetings

How to easily use new Teams Power Automate application to increase personal and team productivity (aka creating flows without having to know how)

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 2 Comments

The old Flow application in Teams is updating to become the new Power Automate app experience. If you look into the Flow app today you can see it's content have been already updated - only the name is different. In this blog I will focus on how to use that app as average Teams user … Continue reading How to easily use new Teams Power Automate application to increase personal and team productivity (aka creating flows without having to know how)

Microsoft Teams Desktop: adding more than one account coming in December

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 4 Comments

Teams Desktop is getting the ability to add more accounts! Before you get too excited about this note that it means "add one personal account along with one work/school account". It is not the "add multiple accounts of all kinds" we would love to see - but it is a start. This will allow to … Continue reading Microsoft Teams Desktop: adding more than one account coming in December

How to make your Teams bots richer with markdown

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 12 Comments

Microsoft Teams comes with excellent lowcode/nocode tool for bots: Power Virtual Agents. Project Oakdale, which is now in preview, brought these bots directly to Teams licensed users to create bots that help tackle , for example, overload on people answering routine questions. When you are creating the bot dialogue it is easy to use richer … Continue reading How to make your Teams bots richer with markdown

Teams Nation – Returning May 26th 2021

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

TeamsFest has been an incredible ride. Having just finished the event a few weeks ago, Chris, Adam, Chris and I had the opportunity to catch up before our monthly user group to have a look at the figures. We had over 1300 unique attendees at TeamsFest which was twice as large as our last event, … Continue reading Teams Nation – Returning May 26th 2021

Virtual Breakout Rooms to Microsoft Teams

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 5 Comments

New Breakout Rooms to Microsoft Teams were published and rolled out on 9th of December 2020. Check out my How to Definite Guide for new Breakout Rooms here. This is an old article. More information about upcoming Virtual Breakout Rooms has been shared by Microsoft to organizations via Message Center Major Change Update Notification. Since this … Continue reading Virtual Breakout Rooms to Microsoft Teams

Roadmap watch: latest modifications to Microsoft Teams Roadmap

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There are again several changes in Microsoft Teams Roadmap. While the latest info is found always at the roadmap I copy here the list of most recent changes for easier big picture. One big change, affecting lots of people, is the Virtual Breakout Rooms schedule which has been updated to November 2020. So what's changed … Continue reading Roadmap watch: latest modifications to Microsoft Teams Roadmap

How to use SharePoint Spaces in Microsoft Teams

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 2 Comments

SharePoint Spaces are 3D virtual "spaces" you can create to modern SharePoint Site. They are best experienced with AR/VR Headset but you can use them with 2D displays as well. Since they are in public Preview I thought I give them a real test finally. When you think about use cases for SharePoint Spaces you … Continue reading How to use SharePoint Spaces in Microsoft Teams

It is possible to run two Teams Desktop Apps at the same time

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With a kind of hacking trick it is possible to run two Teams Desktops at the same time. First I need to point out that they won't be running perfectly side-by-side all the time since some actions can affect the another one so this is not the perfect even when it is possible. For example … Continue reading It is possible to run two Teams Desktop Apps at the same time

Microsoft Teams recent Roadmap updates

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 5 Comments

I thought I take a look at the most recent roadmap updates. There has been several changes from September to October rollout but that is always to be expected: roadmap schedule is the best estimate of the time. As always it is best to check the real time situation directly from the roadmap. Feature IDDescriptionStatusLast … Continue reading Microsoft Teams recent Roadmap updates

How to use new Team Templates and how to do custom team provisioning using them as the team template

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 6 Comments

The long awaited Team Templates are starting to appear in tenants around the world. Some get it sooner and some have to wait: don't worry they will come. When they are available the Create a team function on Teams will look somewhat different. Let me first walk you through the end user experience before going … Continue reading How to use new Team Templates and how to do custom team provisioning using them as the team template

How to: create #nocode bots to teams super-easily in 5 minutes using Power Virtual Agents app in Teams

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The new Project Oakdale connected Teams application preview version saw the rollout during the Microsoft Ignite 2020 last week. Now it is easier than even to create a smart bot to Microsoft Teams that can have conversations and perform actions with team members - or with everyone in the company. And all that without coding … Continue reading How to: create #nocode bots to teams super-easily in 5 minutes using Power Virtual Agents app in Teams

How to Spotlight a specific video in Teams meeting

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 3 Comments

The Spotlight-features has appeared to several tenants now. Using it an individual video feed can be spotlighted to meeting attendees. Once spotlight is active it will "lock" that video feed as primary video shown to attendees. If you are sharing content the content will take priority (the big area) over video. This is very useful … Continue reading How to Spotlight a specific video in Teams meeting

Microsoft Ignite 2020 Teams and Office 365 news – rollout schedules summary

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 3 Comments

All this information can be found at Microsoft 365 Roadmap that were added/updated during 22nd and 21st of September (Microsoft Ignite time). While looking through the Roadmap it is not always that easy to get a good summary view. To help that out here is a list of recent updates in the roadmap with their … Continue reading Microsoft Ignite 2020 Teams and Office 365 news – rollout schedules summary

Teams news summary of Microsoft Ignite

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 1 Comment

#MSIgnite, the Microsoft Ignite 2020 - did it again. The big and beautiful Microsoft tech and developer conference delivered again tons of announcements, news and information. In this post I am focusing on Microsoft Teams related news.. and I am not trying to list all of them but ones I see the most essential + … Continue reading Teams news summary of Microsoft Ignite

Review: Jabra Elite Active 75t

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 7 Comments

I like to use wireless buds as a headset when I am outdoors, commuting or traveling (hopefully looking at the future on this part). They have lots of benefits that make them ideal for me when I am going outside. But I also have requirements for them: They and their case can't take too much … Continue reading Review: Jabra Elite Active 75t

Review: Poly Blackwire 8225

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This year has been a good year for Microsoft Teams users in many ways. One of the great things how there are several Teams Certified headsets and devices already out there. I am always looking forward to "find the perfect and best device for my use" so I naturally catched the opportunity to test new … Continue reading Review: Poly Blackwire 8225