Mark’s Microsoft Monthly: what did we learn in October?

This month’s Microsoft monthly is a little shorter than usual – probably because Microsoft is saving up its big guns for their Ignite conference from 4 November.

As it’s Halloween, instead of my normal inspiring quote, I thought I’d consider the scary side of technology – or maybe I’ve just watched too many films that have Skynet becoming self-aware?

Is this door-opening ‘dog’ from Boston Dynamics to help or attack? Don’t have nightmares!

Another boost for permissions

We just missed this feature in September, but it’s worth including this month.

You may have seen options for controlling who can email a Microsoft Teams Channel already but it’s new in education tenants. To view these settings, go to the Channel ellipsis and click Get email address > advanced settings:

Peace at last – muting channels

Have you ever engaged in a channel conversation, only to regret it because of the notifications that follow? You can now mute a conversation in a channel. To access the notification settings for a conversation, go to the original post and select More options > Turn off notifications/Turn on notifications

Messages for multiple audiences in Teams?

Time to catch up on cross-channel posting that’s rolling out now. You can share information with multiple teams simultaneously though you have to use the compose box to do this. On the upside this may encourage more people to add a subject too and structure their message more usefully to others! It’s up to us to make sure this function isn’t over-used and abused like the CC buttons in email.

1. Create your message and select <Post in multiple channels>

2. Select your Team and Channel(s) then click update:

Detecting your active Teams

From now on, Teams that are actively used will be renewed automatically. This means the Team owner is spared this manual action. More automation is a handy thing!

Switching tenants

Did you miss this feature? If you’ve been added to another tenant, you can easily switch between them using the drop-down next to your photo:

Don’t lose your thread

If you’re using the mobile app for Microsoft Teams, like WhatsApp and other messenger services, you can include another message in your reply. It’s a handy way to know which part of a conversation you’re referring too and helps avoid crossed wires. Just long press on a message and click reply to quote the original text in your response. Let’s hope they roll it out to the desktop version soon!

If you don’t have this already, look out for this any day now: Pinned Channels in Teams. With this feature, users will be able to pin the channels that are important to them at the top of their sidebar. Once a channel is pinned, its placed in a new category ‘Pinned’ at the top of their teams and channel list.

Outlook calendar alerts on mobile

The Outlook mobile client will begin surfacing information about what’s Up Next in your calendar to the top of your Inbox, 30 minutes before the start of the event:

That’s it for October. Can’t wait to see what Microsoft has up its sleeves for the beginning of November – remember to follow #MSIgnite hashtag or the event’s Twitter account to stay in the loop. My money is on the discovery of private teams and the long-awaited private channels. Fingers crossed.

Want to keep learning about Microsoft Office 365? Watch what’s new every month in the Microsoft’s regular YouTube update.

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