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Hello, it's Matt and welcome to Collaboration Coach.
And this is the road map radar for April 2020.
The road map radar is all about what's new and next in Office 365.
We've scoured the Office 365 road map for any new updates so you don't have to.
April is a huge month for Microsoft Teams so it dominates the list this time
and we have a couple of new features for SharePoint and Yammer.
So let's get started.
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First we had "blur backgrounds" and now we can select background images
during our video calls.
These will be provided by Microsoft to start with
but we should be able to add our own custom images some time in May.
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So far the "meet now" button in channel posts
has been tucked away in the toolbar at the bottom of the posts window.
Starting from late-April, we'll see a "meet" button in the channel header
at the top right corner, making it easier for us to start a meeting in a channel.
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When launching a Teams meeting from a link
users will be provided with clearer options for how they would like to join the meeting.
This is going to be so helpful for people new to Teams.
When this update arrives it will give very clear instructions
on what to do next.
Download the app, continue in the browser or open in Teams.
This will be rolling out from late-April.
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This update will allow us to pop out chat windows
and separate them from the Teams app.
Multi-window capabilities have already started rolling out
and will be complete in May, but for Windows clients only.
Mac and Linux updates will follow later.
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Further integrations with Microsoft Outlook were due to land early-February
but have now been pushed out to mid-April.
Lots of my customers were looking forward to this,
so they'll be glad to finally see these updates
which include the "share email to Teams" feature
where a new button will be added to the toolbar that can forward an email
from Outlook to a Teams channel.
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Microsoft will soon be increasing Microsoft Teams membership capacity
from 5,000 to 10,000 members for org-wide groups.
This still isn't quite big enough for some of my customers who want to have
one team for their whole company, but it's a step forward.
This update is going to be switched on for all tenants starting at the end of April
and will be complete by the end of May.
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There was a lot of interest in "walkie-talkie" when it was first announced
a couple of months ago.
This feature will allow you to use the Teams app on your phone to do real-time chat
just like a walkie-talkie.
So Samsung will release the new phone, called the "Xcover pro"
that has a dedicated button on the side that will allow you to press and talk
and release to listen.
The idea is that frontline workers who currently carry phones and walkie-talkies
can just have one device instead.
And it also means that the phone will be able to securely communicate
over wi-fi or cellular and have global range.
Samsung will start selling the Xcover pro through the Microsoft retail stores
starting this month, and the Walkie-Talkie feature in Teams will be available in July.
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This item isn't necessarily useful to everyone but I thought it was a
cool new way of collaborating with Teams so I included it anyway.
It's about Microsoft's partnership with RealWear
who make wearable digital devices for industry.
They've integrated Teams into their head-mounted Android tablet
so it can be used to enhance what the device can do.
In this example, the RealWear device is mounted onto a hardhat.
The wearer has a small screen and a camera which are integrated with Teams.
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Bad news now for those waiting for the new task manager in Teams.
This feature was supposed to consolidate all the tasks from Planner, Outlook and others
but its rollout has been delayed.
It was due to be made available to the public early this year
but now Microsoft has announced through a blog post at the end of last month
that it will be available in the middle of this year instead.
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SharePoint Spaces was first announced in 2018.
It's a new web-based mixed-reality platform
that will allow us to build modern SharePoint sites
embed 3D objects into them and view them with VR headsets.
So we'll be able to share 3D virtual spaces and collaborate in them
just like we do today with modern sites.
Microsoft have announced that SharePoint Spaces is now ready for the public
and they'll be rolling out a version for targeted users of Office 365 in April.
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Microsoft have announced that live events in Yammer are now generally available to everybody.
That means you can start using them now.
Yammer live events is the same concept as Teams live events.
They're meant for large-scale meetings online
that go some way to replacing physical meetings.
Yammer live events are for the type of meetings
where you want to produce with an external app or device
like a camera setup and a vision mixer.
For example, you might have a leadership meeting where the leaders are together in a studio
being filmed - and then that video is mixed and streamed to everyone else
who joined online with Yammer.
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Okay so that's your lot!
That's the road map radar for April 2020.
Thank you so much for watching, and we'll see you next time.
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