Microsoft Teams: A Shower of Features in Summer

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Das Wichtigste in Kürze

Improved collaboration: new threads in channels, multiple emoji reactions per message, emoji-triggered workflows and multi-step /slash commands
More convenience: share PowerPoint control in a meeting, calls in a small window, "Save this message" for later, and external file attachments in chats and meetings

First a little Teams trick: To edit the last chat message you wrote, simply press the «Up» arrow key to switch into edit mode.

Following the new chat and channel experience and a streamlined user interface introduced at the start of the year, important innovations are now arriving to strengthen collaboration, with features such as threads or emoji-driven workflows. People – and increasingly AI agents – collaborate in Teams. Routine tasks are automated. We briefly present the latest new features. They are in preview or will be rolled out in a few weeks.

Improved Collaboration

The new threads in channels group related messages and offer direct reply options. They make collaboration more efficient and focused. Context and order are preserved. You can subscribe to individual threads. You can send updates and decisions back to the main conversation, so not everyone has to search through every reply. If you follow threads, you see them bundled in a new view («Followed Threads»). When creating a new channel, you can choose between a threads or posts layout. This can also be changed later.

More Emotional Collaboration

In a hybrid working world, the ability to express yourself in Teams with the help of emojis strengthens team culture. You can now react with multiple reactions per message. This lets you express your feelings more precisely.

More than that: emojis can now also trigger workflows. With a click on the right one, helpdesk tickets can be created or messages forwarded to another channel. This helps ensure that urgent matters are handled quickly and without manual follow-up. Use emojis to automate DevOps, incident response, team collaboration and more with the Workflows app.

/Slash commands with more power

With support for multi-step inputs you can now complete more complex tasks – such as searching for a GIF or jumping directly to a channel with /goto – without ever leaving your chat.

A smoother Teams call experience

Answer or start calls in a small window and enlarge or shrink the window as needed: in the settings under «Calls» exactly that is possible. Perfect for users who have many windows open, want to keep the meeting visible and check information on the side, for example. Also pleasant: if another caller is waiting on the line, Teams now signals this more subtly and less intrusively.

Calls with announcement are now even easier to handle: the new view of such a call enables transferring with fewer clicks – the Teams call no longer hides behind the chat.

Keep messages for later

Sometimes there is simply not enough time to deal with a message or a chat. With the new «Save this message» feature you can postpone handling it, save the messages and view them in a dedicated view. When you click on a saved message, the full conversation opens in the right-hand pane. This lets you review the context or reply directly without having to scroll through long threads.

Better collaboration with customers and partners

In a meeting or group chat you can now share attachments with participants outside the organisation. A shared file receives an «External» tag. The feature is switched off by default. The prerequisite is that this is allowed in a «FileSharingInChatsWithExternalUsers» policy via Teams PowerShell. Users then see an attach file option in the + menu of the chat input field when they send messages to external users.