New Features in Microsoft 365 to Make 2023 More Productive, Creative, and Collaborative

In the last quarter of 2022, Microsoft announced a host of exciting new features in Microsoft 365. From sign language view and intelligent recap in Teams meetings to new creativity tools, these features help us work smarter and connect more effectively.

Make Meetings More Intelligent, Personalized and Secure with Microsoft Teams Premium

Recognizing that hybrid workplaces will continue to shape work patterns moving forward, Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams Premium this fall. Teams Premium offers several key features to improve meetings, including the following:

• Meeting guides to streamline meeting creation – With meeting guides, administrators can create meeting types with appropriate default options and restrictions. For instance, a client call requires different meeting settings than a team brainstorming session.
• Customized meeting branding – Create a custom-branded meeting lobby, as well as custom backgrounds and together modes that reflect the company brand.
• Intelligent recap – Powered by AI, intelligent recap will suggest action items and owners based on meeting content. Additionally, smarter recordings include automatically generated chapters. They will also alert you to key points, such as when your name was mentioned or when someone shared a screen.
• Live translations for captions – Teams meetings already offer live captions with speaker attribution. With Premium, meetings can include real-time caption translations for 40 languages.
• Advanced meeting protection – Advanced meeting options such as watermarking and limiting who can record help protect the confidentiality of sensitive meetings.
• Advanced virtual appointments – Manage the appointment experience end to end with text reminders and appointment queuing.
• Improved webinars – Improve the registration process with a registration waitlist and build anticipation with automated reminder emails.

Scheduled for public preview this month, Teams Premium has an expected launch date of February 2023.

New Creator Tools Power Video Editing, Graphic Design and More

Microsoft launched a new website called Create to pull together various design features into a central location. In addition to the creative features already available in PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Forms, Create adds two new apps: Clipchamp and Designer.

Clipchamp, available now, adds video editing capabilities to the Microsoft 365 family of apps. With an easy-to-use interface and a variety of templates, it allows even new users to quickly create professional-grade videos.

Microsoft Designer, on the other hand, offers graphic design tools for creating digital postcards, social media posts, invitations and more. Powered by AI, Designer simplifies the process of building unique and effective content. Microsoft promises to make a free preview of the app available soon.

Spark Team Building with Games for Work App

A recent study by Brigham Young University suggests that playing short games together increases productivity significantly more than traditional team-building activities. With that in mind, Microsoft introduced the new Games for Work app, embedded directly into the Teams workspace.

The app includes a variety of games available in multiplayer versions. For instance, coworkers can bond over Icebreakers or a cooperative game of Minesweeper. The game Wordament allows for large groups of up to 250.

Schedule Messages in Teams

Outlook users love the ability to craft an email and then specify exactly when it will send. Now, Teams users can do the same thing with Chat messages. For instance, when working with a coworker in another time zone, you can schedule a message to delay sending until the coworker returns to the office.

Sign Language View Keeps Signers and Interpreters Connected

Virtual meetings can prove challenging for people who are hard of hearing. Now, sign language view improves inclusivity by keeping the video feeds for interpreters and other signers in a consistent location. The feature also ensures that signers’ video feeds use the highest available quality and appear in the optimal shape and size.

Individuals can turn on sign language view as a general setting or on the fly during a meeting. The view does not affect the way other participants view the meeting.

Discover More Exciting New Features in Microsoft 365

Dedicated to driving productivity, creativity, and collaboration, Microsoft regularly adds new features and tools to the Microsoft 365 workspace. The Microsoft 365 experts at eMazzanti Technologies help organizations choose the best options and configure them for optimal use.

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