The year 2024 is already in the past. In 2025, Microsoft 365 Copilot is supposed to be able to talk, analyze content shared on-screen in real time and in Teams. Sounds like sci-fi? Nothing could be further from the truth! However, before we fully enter the new year, it is worth summarizing the changes and news in Microsoft Business Applications that took place in December.
Microsoft Teams – no significant updates
In the case of December's new features in Teams, Microsoft is taking the easy way out. Its rather poor blog post is explained by the Microsoft Ignite conference, which took place in November. During this conference many announcements were made about changes in Teams that will appear in the coming year. Therefore, it is worth taking a look at our last blog post in the series "What's new in Microsoft Business Applications" or the “Book of News” published by the Redmond Giant, announced during the mentioned event.
Nevertheless, a few new features have appeared. The first one is something for fans of devices with a "bitten apple" logo. Microsoft has decided that Teams will support external cameras connected via USB-C to, for example, the iPad. It is true that there is no way to switch between the built-in iPad camera and the connected, external one, but Teams will accept the external camera as the default camera. Most USB-C-compatibile cameras are supported.
The second new feature is the ability to “take control” of a shared screen when participating in a meeting via the Teams web app. It may seem like a nuance, but sometimes we call partners or clients via Teams, even though they don't use it. Then they most often join the meeting via the Teams web app. So, the ability to request control while someone is screen-sharing is certainly a useful solution.
Another change is the Whiteboard enhancements on Teams Rooms on Android. Whiteboard is a virtual board that can be used during meetings to, for example, take notes or write down handwritten information. Interestingly, in addition to meetings, it can also be used to collaborate offline with others. When we do not use it as part of a meeting, the content of Whiteboard is retained even when a meeting begins. The "Follow me" function looks promising and allows you to guide participants as you navigate as well as collaborative cursors which let you see how everyone is working in real time.
„Hello World… Copilot?”
The news did not bypass Microsoft 365 Copilot. One looks really promising. Microsoft mentioned its roll out in Word and PowerPoint in December 2024, so in theory it should work, but in practice it is better to trust the roadmap, where we will find it at the “In development” phase. It’s about reading aloud responses in the chat pane. When Copilot responds to a given prompt, we will be able to select the speaker symbol, which will cause the answer to be read aloud.
The next change concerns Copilot in Excel. It is called Clean Data.In the case of Excel for the web, Copilot detects and offers solutions for text inconsistencies, number format issues or extra spaces (the popular "double spaces"). We just have to review it and then accept or ignore.
In addition, Microsoft announced the feature connected with pattern recognition which will roll out on Windows Desktop in January. It sounds a bit complicated, but the idea is that Copilot will suggest a formula if, for example, it recognizes that column C is the result of multiplying the values in column A and B.
Another improvement concerns images and graphics, which can be added to the chat with Copilot in Word and PowerPoint. When writing a prompt, we can refer our command to a specific graphic file by inserting it into the chat box. According to Microsoft documentation, we can ask questions about a given image, get a description of a chart or translate or even extract text.
SharePoint and Approvals
We didn't mention it last month. However, it's worth bringing up this topic. It would seem that no one in the era of Microsoft Teams uses SharePoint anymore. And yet! A company data repository that can act as a company intranet is doing quite well. Currently, in the development phase, there is a function that has been available in Microsoft Lists for some time. It's about adding approvals to any SharePoint document library. To be precise – the feature lets you establish approval business flow from the Automate dropdown menu in SharePoint document library. It uses Microsoft Teams Approvals app, aka Approvals, known e.g. from Power Automate. As a result, when creating a new file from SharePoint, we can immediately submit it for acceptance. The person accepting will receive a notification in the Teams application with the option to approve or reject it. Thanks to this, we don't have to define the acceptance process from Power Automate - native integration will allow it to be created directly from the document library. Doesn't it look great?
New logo, new name, new domain
Finally, a curiosity that appears after logging into your work account on microsoft365.com. What is going to happen is the logo, name, and domain of Microsoft 365 will soon change. While Microsoft announced a unification of the domain and the introduction of the "cloud.microsoft" extension some time ago, we had not previously come across rumors that the name and logo would also change. Nevertheless, this is in line with Microsoft's new philosophy of being recognized as an "AI" company. Is it a good thing? Time will tell. Anyway, it does not change the fact that in addition to adding AI features to almost every cloud service, the Redmond Giant is also changing the name and logo of its flagship subscription product – Microsoft 365 platform.
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