Be Prepared for These Changes to Teams, Microsoft 365, and Windows 11

Don’t you often find that it’s the small things that make the biggest difference? That is certainly the case with technology. Minor updates to the software that you and your team use every day can have a surprising effect on your overall productivity.

Microsoft has recently announced a series of small improvements to Teams, Microsoft 365 and Windows 11. It’s keeping its foot on the gas despite the holidays being just a few weeks away.

TEAMS

In Teams, there’s a new feature being developed to show the time zone of everyone in your business. If you’ve ever collaborated with people working in other time zones, you’ll know how invaluable that can be. It will now be much easier to schedule calls that everyone can attend. This feature can also prevent you from bombarding someone with emails at the start of their workday. If you’ve ever worked with colleagues who are at work while you’re still in bed, you know the dread of having to start your workday with hours of their emails waiting for you.

Spreading awareness of colleagues’ time zones will also encourage people to schedule emails using “send later”. That new Teams feature is due out by the end of January.

Another major Teams development is the introduction of Loop components, which have just rolled out in a recent update. These allow you to integrate complex data more easily into Teams and work on it in real time. For example, in a Teams chat you might draw a table and fill it with numbers or text. Now anyone can edit that table and the changes show in real time for everyone. You can use this to co-author reports, pull together ideas without endless chats, or work on data together.

MICROSOFT 365

Over to Microsoft 365. Which now has the ability for you to say how you’ll be attending a meeting you’ve been invited to. You can say whether you’ll be there in person or on a video call. Hybrid working is here to stay, and this is a very welcome update.

WINDOWS 11

Windows 11 also brings a very welcome update. At the moment, when you put your computer into Airplane mode, it turns off all connections regardless of your preferences. Soon your computer will be able to remember how you like your device to be setup in Airplane mode. For example, if you like to leave Bluetooth on to keep your headphones connected, Windows 11 will remember that.

Microsoft is also working on improvements to notifications. It will let apps with high priority notifications, such as alarms and reminders, stack up reminders.

Want help navigating any of these (or any other) updates? Book a 15 minute, no obligation call with us at www.durham-it.ca/book-a-call/.

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.