Hello it's Matt and welcome to Collaboration Coach.
This is the Roadmap Radar for April 2022.
This time I've got lots of new features for Teams to show you
including workflow, Loop components for chat and a soft focus to make us look nice in meetings.
And we'll look at the new templates coming from Microsoft Forms.
This is a new feature for Teams that allows us to create simple workflows.
It's built on top of Power Automate but it simplifies the creation process
and takes some of the friction out of it.
It will let us automate repetitive tasks and processes that link one or more apps in Teams.
Some workflows can be run manually and some are just automatic.
When workflows are available you can go to the Teams app store
and you'll see a new workflow section.
The workflows are organised into categories and you can search for them here too.
So for example, this 'follow-up on message' workflow will send me a reminder
to do something in my activity feed.
I can choose it from the list and with a couple of clicks it's ready to go.
To use it I can pick a message from the chat app in Teams,
go to the 'more actions' menu,
and then choose 'follow up on message' which is the workflow name.
I can choose a time and date
and then the workflow will post that reminder to my activity feed.
And for more advanced users,
you can use the Power Automate app in Teams or in your browser
to have more granular control over what the workflow does.
Workflows for Teams rolled out in March so should be available for everybody now.
We can now use Loop Components in Teams chats.
Loop Components is a new way to share content in Teams
and components can be things like tables, lists or text.
You should see a Loop icon in the toolbar in every message in your Teams chat app now
and when you create a Loop,
everyone in the chat can view and update the content
and the updates are seen by everyone in real time.
Loop Components were first launched on desktop, mac, android and ios
and now they're rolling out to the browser version of Teams.
Whenever you create a loop in chat, they're stored in your OneDrive
in a folder called 'Microsoft Teams chat files'.
Today they have a '.fluid' extension
but that's going to change to '.loop' as part of this update.
These .loop files can be moved around and shared
and you can apply governance features to them like auditing, reporting and version history
just like a normal file.
This Loop Components for Teams chat updates should be available to everyone now.
With this update
we'll be able to share our computer audio in a Teams meeting with a browser.
So this is really good when you need to play a video
and you want the attendees to hear the audio from it.
Any attendee who can share a screen in a Teams meeting
can use the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers to share computer audio
along with a window or a desktop screen share.
Note here that it isn't available for Safari yet.
This update should roll out during April.
With this update
we'll be able to create power apps using Microsoft Lists from inside of Teams.
Power apps are low code ways of building mobile friendly apps
and with this update we'll be able to build a power app based on the data in a Microsoft List
and then add it as a tab in a Teams channel,
so everyone who has access to the channel can update the list.
You just need to add the list to Teams,
then go to the 'integrate' drop down and choose 'powerapps', and then create the app.
This update is a little delayed but it's rolling out now and should be complete by the end of April.
This new update for Teams will allow us to restore deleted tags from the manage tags page.
Currently once tags are deleted they're gone for good.
This feature will show a deleted tag section where team owners can restore them.
So, restoring tags is rolling out now and should be complete by June.
Firefox is getting some love from Microsoft.
With this new feature, Microsoft Teams meetings running in the Firefox browser
will now support full audio and screen sharing.
This feature is rolling out now and should be complete by the end of April.
When we use polls in Teams meetings and chats we add the Forms app
and Microsoft have been promising since October last year to change the app's name to Polls.
It's been delayed but it finally appears to be happening.
The Forms app will be renamed 'Polls' and the original Forms app will be retired.
This update is rolling out now and should be complete by the end of April.
Two new video effects are coming to Teams.
'Soft focus' and 'adjust brightness' are filters
you can switch on for your video meetings.
We'll be able to access and apply both settings before and during meetings.
Soft focus applies a smoothing effect
and the adjust brightness enhances the video quality when the lighting is poor.
So, these video filters are rolling out now and should be complete by the end of April.
The Microsoft Forms home page is getting a refresh.
The layout is getting an update so it's easier to create new forms and quizzes
and find your forms
and we'll soon have a choice of templates to select from when we create a new form.
The templates will be available from the Forms homepage
and they'll have questions and formatting already created for you to speed up the process.
There'll be a bunch of different scenarios with a specific goal in mind
like event planning and feedback surveys and well-being questionnaires.
These new updates for Forms will roll out at the end of April
and should finish by the end of May.
So that's your lot for this month.
Thank you so much for watching the Roadmap Radar and I'll see you next time.