On Tuesday, Microsoft continued its drumbeat of enhancements to Microsoft Teams and its different collaborative apps, saying new options and readying others for deployment into preview or different modes.
Microsoft’s bulletins have been made at Inspire, its annual companion convention that’s now developed right into a digital showcase. There, Microsoft confirmed off Microsoft Lists, the newest app in its Microsoft 365 suite. Meanwhile, Microsoft Teams has emerged the star. Microsoft merely can’t cease including extra to the Teams platform, which now has its personal inside apps. Microsoft additionally added a contemporary coat of paint to Yammer, and the corporate plans to launch a cloud-printing resolution that would choose up the place Google Cloud Print leaves off.
Meet Microsoft Lists
Lists was disclosed earlier this yr on the firm’s Build developer occasion, and now it is formally being introduced into the Microsoft 365 steady. Microsoft stated Lists will be a part of Microsoft 365 in late July, and Teams in August.
Microsoft’s Lists can be found in quite a few templates…
Lists represents Microsoft at its best. On the floor, Lists takes the notion of a listing to virtually ridiculous ranges. In an enterprise setting, nevertheless, Lists turns into certainly one of many transferring components in collaboration and mission administration. Microsoft’s Lists really builds on SharePoint Lists, one other enterprise device.
Lists might be accessible from the Microsoft 365 “grid” or “waffle,” mostly discovered within the upper-lefthand nook of Microsoft 365 internet apps like Outlook. In August, it is going to be built-in instantly into Teams. In both app, a listing begins with certainly one of Microsoft’s templates, which may be populated with knowledge imported from Excel or created manually. Preformatted templates embody a bug checklist, a launch planner, contact data, or extra.
Where they will get sophisticated is that Lists aren’t simply lists—they are often playing cards, a grid view, or perhaps a calendar. Naturally, Lists may be shared. In truth, they’re designed to be.
YouTube / Microsoft …and, in fact, as a cell app.
Where Lists will get actually sophisticated is with the appliance of guidelines—which adjustments Lists from an “app” to a platform. “Building rules is as easy as writing a sentence,” Microsoft defined in a prolonged blog post. “Once you decide on the outcome, click-fill if/then steps to design your rules. Choose people, status, and value changes to send notifications or programmatically update values elsewhere in the list. Finally, use rules to set reminders to keep everyone informed.”
Where Lists will get complicated is when you think about Microsoft To-Do, Planner, and Outlook’s personal Tasks—all of which overlap with Lists’ performance. All three are already built-in in Microsoft 365 to some extent. Outlook’s internet app, for instance, has its personal Tasks operate, plus a hyperlink to To-Do within the sidebar.
It’s attainable that Microsoft thinks of this as an app-specific operate of the “modalities” it’s constructed into Windows—you don’t have to make use of contact or a pen to work together with Windows, however these choices are there. Microsoft would additionally such as you to think about To-Do as a “checkoff app,” one the place duties disappear as soon as they’re accomplished. In Tasks, the duty stays, in order that customers can see what has been accomplished and what stays to be finished. But Tasks doesn’t seem to work together with both To-Do or Planner but.
Microsoft Teams will get its personal apps, too
It looks as if simply yesterday that Microsoft was adding its “Together Mode” to Teams—however no, that was really a bit greater than every week in the past. Now, there’s much more integration with different Microsoft providers. Developers will now have the ability to take Power Apps—Microsoft’s instruments for customers to create their very own “no-code” internet and cell apps—and hook them into Teams. Microsoft stated this can enable builders so as to add options like Power Virtual Agents chatbots to Teams, which may lend AI assistant options to Teams chats. Power Apps might be accessible in early August in a preview, Microsoft stated, with the Power Virtual Agents capabilities showing in late August in preview, too.
MicrosoftMicrosoft says it’s constructing in help for apps and extra performance to be added to Teams calls, like this one.
Microsoft is extending the idea of Teams-as-a-platform to the bottom Teams interface, too. Currently, a Teams assembly consists of chat, a shared file folder, assembly notes and a whiteboard, in addition to the flexibility to file and transcribe the assembly. Microsoft’s saying that apps can now be added as tabs or sidebars to Teams conferences, which sounds fairly a bit like an internet app that may be opened inside a browser. This functionality might be accessible in late July in preview kind, in response to Microsoft.
Microsoft Walkie-Talkie is a cell Teams function that enables customers to broadcast audio messages.
While the Teams mobile Walkie-Talkie feature is likely to be controversial—permitting supervisors to “blast” notifications through push-to-talk capabilities to cellphones—that function is now additionally in public preview, Microsoft stated. Walkie-Talkie works along with a functionality known as Shifts, which Microsoft has enhanced with the flexibility so as to add staff schedules. That function is listed as “coming soon,” Microsoft says.
Yammer tries out a brand new look
Microsoft has given Yammer a brand new look, in line with a number of the Fluent Design components that it’s tried to work into Windows and different apps. This new UI is instantly accessible to everybody, Microsoft stated, starting right this moment.
MicrosoftWhat does Yammer do this different Microsoft apps, like Teams, doesn’t? That reply isn’t clear?
Yammer was initially designed as a social community of kinds to share data round an organization. Since then, nevertheless, Microsoft has developed Teams, and the 2 apps now look considerably alike on the floor, with the aptitude to share polls, hyperlinks, and movies. Microsoft says that Teams is healthier for collaboration regularly, whereas Yammer allows open conversations centered round an organization’s tradition. Yammer is open to the corporate at massive, whereas Teams groups are managed and restricted.
Still, each apps look very related. Teams may even add a Communities app, which offers a full-fledged Yammer expertise inside Teams, to make the excellence much more tough.
Universal Print nears completion
In March, Microsoft quietly announced Universal Print, Microsoft’s tackle the Google Cloud Print service that supported Chromebooks for years. Google is shutting down Google Cloud Print on the finish of the yr, by the way.
Can Microsoft do higher? We’ll see. Like Google Cloud Print, Universal Print replaces an on-premises print server, shifting print administration to the cloud and eliminating the necessity to set up printer-specific drivers on a person’s PC. The person expertise, although, is meant to be the identical: Select a close-by printer and print. Universal Print is now in public preview, Microsoft stated.
While Canon was the primary to signal on to Universal Print, HP, Konica Minolta, and Lexmark have additionally agreed to make Universal Print-compatible {hardware}, Microsoft stated Tuesday.
Microsoft Universal Print seems to be extra advanced for directors than for customers; a employee merely selects a networked printer, as normal.