How time flies. Not so long ago we welcomed the New Year, and we have already started its second month now. However, we are getting specific updates and changes in Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform this time. Did you know that Copilot can summarize presentations containing 150 slides? Read about this and more new features in our latest blog post from the series "What’s new in Microsoft business applications".
What’s new in Microsoft Teams? January 2025
While there were few changes in Microsoft Teams in December, there was no shortage of them in the January summary. This includes both new features that have appeared in the application and those that have been announced. One of them is quick hyperlink insertion in chat messages. This is about a situation in which the link is to be "stitched" in the text, under a specific word or sentence. Just copy the link you want to insert, then type the message, highlight the text you want to hyperlink and use the Ctrl + V shortcut.
Another new feature is the ability to forward channel messages. When you have a 1:1 chat with someone and want to share information with the whole team, instead of copying it, you can use the forward option. It works for channel message post, 1:1 or group chats. After clicking, you need to select a specific chat or channel and choose "Forward". This will save you a few extra mouse clicks.
Announced several times – finally available to all users. What is it about? The new calendar experience in Microsoft Teams. It refers very strongly to the one you know from Microsoft Outlook now. Thanks to this, you no longer have to switch between the email client and Teams from which you can share the calendar, change its view to, for example, monthly, filter it or schedule meetings with participants in different time zones. Additionally, just like the Outlook calendar, the one in Teams integrates with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Places. This allows for easier agenda creation for a meeting or setup settings related to working time and desk reservations in Places.
Another new feature worth mentioning is the ability to move between breakout rooms. This new feature allows the meeting organizer to share a list of breakout rooms with participants and allow them to choose which room to join.
Enhancements in Microsoft 365 Copilot
We can say that Microsoft 365 Copilot is the "apple of the eye" of the Redmond Giant. Well, it’s hard to be surprised if you invest such a huge amount of money in it. Hence, Microsoft regularly publishes quite a few new improvements to it. One of them is the announced Copilot Prompt Gallery app. The so-called "prompt library" is a place where you can get inspiration and use ready-made prompts templates that you can use within Copilot chat. This is a very good solution whenlearning how to create prompts. The new feature associated with it is that you will not have to switch between Teams and the browser to get to the mentioned library. You can have it as an app pinned in Teams, an app in Outlook or added to the home page of the Microsoft 365 portal. February is the month in which Microsoft begins its rollout.
The next change concerns Copilot in Excel. The Copilot symbol is to be the new entry point for the user to take further action with the data in the spreadsheet. For example, by selecting a cell in the table and clicking the Copilot icon, you will receive several options to choose e.g. formula suggestions, conditional formatting ideas. Is it a good solution? Time will tell. Subjectively, the ubiquitous AI assistant symbol can be a bit annoying. Nevertheless, in February you will learn the details of this feature.
Further improvements have been made to Copilot in PowerPoint. The limit for summarizations has been increased – Copilot can now summarize longer presentations that are up to 40,000 words or about 150 slides. It is worth noting that until now the maximum limit was 15,000 words. In addition, by adding a Word document to the prompt, Copilot Narrative Builder can create a good narrative, and thus a draft of the presentation.
The text editor has not been spared from changes. One of them is a chat with Copilot within the scope of a selected text. Thanks to this, Copilot can answer the prompt much more precisely. In addition, Microsoft has added the option of referring to a .txt file in the prompt, which gives further possibilities in creating more precise queries. One more thing is personalized prompt suggestions that are displayed when using the chat with Copilot. Thanks to this, you can easily return to historical commands that you have used in the past.
Dynamics 365 – the next release wave is coming
April is still a long way off, but Microsoft already published the so-called release plans for Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Copilot in Dynamics 365 last month. This is a list of changes and new features that Microsoft plans to introduce to products such as Dynamics 365 Business Central as part of the next – this year’s first – wave of updates. It looks really promising. It’s worth familiarizing yourself with the changes being prepared or waiting for our upcoming post on this topic.
What’s interesting in Power BI?
Microsoft has also not been idle in the context of its Business Intelligence tool, Power BI. One of the features announced for February is "Answer a question about data". This of course applies to Copilot in Power BI, which is available only in the case of per capacity licensing model (and to make matters worse - only in specific "capacities"). When you use the chat with Copilot in the context of Power BI and use the ready-made "Answer a question about data" prompt, it will unlock 3 suggested questions that will help you start exploring the data in the report.
It’s in preview, but the next thing that’s new is a few improvements added to the Text Slicer. We are talking about new Slicer settings allowing the slicer to accept multiple values.
Improvements have also been made to the Treemap visual. They mainly refer to three new tiling methods and the ability to define the size of the spaces between individual tiles and groups. In the case of Power BI, the saying that "a picture says more than 1000 words" is perfect so we strongly encourage you to visit the post on the official Power BI blog, where new options regarding Treemap visual are presented.
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