"Are you done editing the page? Well, can you check it in before you go on leave? I don't want you to lose your changes." Does this sound familiar? It might soon be a distant memory. Are you also looking forward to silencing those noisy, busy Teams channel posts? Glad to see this feature return. Daniel and Darrell now share their 365 Message Center…

Use new shaped-cropping with your SharePoint images to make eye-catching pages. Copilot improves the amount of time it can go back for time-based prompts. Darrell and Daniel cover: - (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint Online: Apply shapes to images - Microsoft Teams: View attachments to invitations created in Microsoft Outlook - New Microsoft Outlook: …

Catch up with Microsoft 365 Copilot and clever cards that prompt YOU with updates you should know about. Recall in Copilot+ PCs gets "recalled"... more like changed to opt in, among other things. Lastly, SharePoint text goes large. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Copilot in Microsoft 365 and Teams - The new Catch up feature - Viva Engage - A new featur…

Get ready to customize your conversations by uploading custom emoji and animations. This fun way to inject personality into your posts also paves the way for some promotional inspiration. We also welcome back the ability to ask Teams to be notified when someone becomes available. It's a useful feature, but Daniel shares how it might be misused and …

Now we'll be able to recall what we were doing all week when we fill in our timesheets at the end of the week. Ask Copilot questions about our activity. But we can't ignore the cynicism expressed by the public, in spite of the potential benefits. Copilot features a few times in our messages this week. Hear how the M365 Message Center reflected the …

We have a perplexing couple of messages this week that appear to disable useful functionality in Teams and Microsoft 365. But that is countered by giving Copilot Insights and introducing a way to share meeting notes, files and other artifacts automatically for recurring Teams meetings. You want to know more. Come on. That teaser was cleverly crafte…

Welcome to the team. We hope you enjoy your collaborative stay. Take a look at these channels. We suggest you follow them. But that's up to you. You might want to visit SharePoint and see our new no-banner option. A delightful look for the minimalist or the creative who wants more control over the look of their titles. This week's messages bring so…

New options for automatically managing file version history will assist with storage. Copilot for Outlook gets a side-car panel for prompts that are grounded in your mailbox. Archive your SharePoint sites into the new Microsoft 365 Archive service. What else has landed this week in the 365 Message Center? Watch the show and find out. Darrell and Da…

Following a meeting is a great new alternative to a tentative response. Let the organiser know you won't be able to attend but you are definitely interested in the meeting recording and outcomes. Slash commands are coming soon to Teams Chats and Channel posts. Let Teams know what you want to do while you type a message or reply. If your organisatio…

Get ready for the new Brand Center and helpful tools to standardize your SharePoint sites and content you create in Microsoft 365. The Brand Center will begin rolling out capabilities, starting with custom font packages that match your internal brands. As with all new things in M365, the first release is limited in capability. But expect to be able…

Get meeting insights from recordings of meetings you didn't attend, but they were shared with you via Stream. Or maybe you didn't join that Group Chat call because you didn't hear it. We have an interesting combo of messages to discuss this week. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microsoft Teams - Presenter window enhancements while screensharing - Micro…

Configure organizational messages from the Adoption Score admin center that prompt usage of Microsoft Teams features. Also coming to Microsoft 365 Copilot, configure organizational messages from the M365 Usage Analytics report page. This week brings a few messages for Copilot update. What else arrived this past week? Darrell and Daniel cover: - New…

A strangely targeted message this week told us about a new Copilot in Teams feature coming to Teams mobile. See citations in a Copilot-powered meeting recap, from mobile! Trouble is, Daniel and I don't have M365 Copilot. Stick around till the end to learn more. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Teams Meeting details displayed on pre-join screen - Teams I…

This special episode was recorded with Daniel and Darrell together at the Microsoft MVP Summit, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Guest Sharing is finally coming to Microsoft Loop. Teams improves attaching files to posts and OneDrive for the web provides templates to start your office files. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microsoft Loop Guest Sharing - OneD…

New decorative possibilities using SharePoint Online with background images in sections. This will be a welcome addition, though will first arrive with a curated selection of gradients and images. Custom images come later. Perhaps you can use the new Feedback option in SharePoint Online to... give great feedback. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microso…

Teams meeting recaps will be shared into the meeting chat after the meeting ends. Teams premium will see a few more artifacts to help them recap the meeting. Daniel and Darrell get into the minutiae of the messages this week. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microsoft Teams - Access work, school, and personal accounts in a single desktop app - Remove Cu…

Optimizing search takes effort and planning. But what if you could refine your organization's knowledge through simple Q&A and find it in search results? Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026 - Microsoft Teams - Updated labels for external participants in meetings - Microsoft Lists - New form…

Viva Engage is getting a new type of post for organizations that subscribe to Viva Employee Communications and Communities, or the Viva Suite. The Article post type lets you create long form articles with media, much like a SharePoint news post. Also, Microsoft Copilot is getting some UI improvements that make it cleaner, easier to read and identif…

Teams Tags. Strong on targeting conversations. Weak on management. Especially in teams with changing roles and high membership turnover. Introducing Auto Tag Membership. Powered by the same tech that gives us Dynamic group membership. Join us as we read the fine print and click through the levels of pages to find the detail. Darrell and Daniel cove…

We felt this headline was worth jazz-hands. (In truth, I forgot to edit and remove it from the beginning). Set up the email page templates for your SharePoint news that suits your needs. Set a default and show them first to SharePoint news authors. We also cover OneDrive inside Outlook, and duplication of townhall and webinar event details. Darrell…

The Website tab in Teams channels is changing to reduce support for displaying sites within the Teams app. The community feedback suggests this will impact a number of ways that organizations work. It has been a way to bring useful sites into "the hub for teamwork." Now, some of those sites will have to just launch in a separate browser. Darrell an…

Scheduling meetings in Teams with team members from different time zones is going to get a whole lot easier. Now the time will show in the Scheduling Assistant view. Oh, and the Share window for sharing files changed... again. Things are always changing in M365. It has kept us busy for years. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Classic Teams users to be up…

Making adjustments to your audio and video settings during Teams meetings just got simpler. New flyout menus keep you in your meeting while letting you select your devices and tuning your settings. Present your best-self while staying in your meeting. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microsoft Teams: Join Teams work meetings from Microsoft Teams (free) …

Finishing this year's season of the 365 Message Center Show, we discuss the new discovery feed in Teams. Will it save us time and bring all messages together or help us find new conversations of interest? Also, Copilot is coming to Viva Engage to help craft posts. Will they be more authentic and engaging with the help of AI? Daniel and Darrell will…

Tidy up those busy teams that have lots of channels no longer in use. This is one step better than simply hiding them or expecting team members to hide channels in their own personal Teams and channels list. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microsoft Teams: Archive channels - Outlook: Choose how many days of emails sync to your iOS or Android device for…

Using specific people links, share a Microsoft Whiteboard after a meeting and continue the collaboration. Use Community Campaigns to bring communication together using a hashtag and its own landing page. Also in this episode, Daniel asks Microsoft for more pictures on their messages and Darrell draws one on his whiteboard to meet the need for now. …

Start a new chat with people from your organisation, without leaving Outlook. This will be useful when catching up on email and then starting a Chat conversation with the sender of the email. A slower week for messages. But still worth taking a look at the small changes announcement in the MC this week. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Quick Conflict Pe…

Microsoft is extending the reach of Copilot experiences to the Windows 10 desktop. There are still tens of thousands of computers running Windows 10. Microsoft Copilot (formerly known as Bing Chat) will be available as a chat / search experience. Surely this will include the new switch to turn on Copilot to use with your work data (formerly Bing Ch…

Raise engagement in your Microsoft Stream videos using surveys, polls and quizzes. Add a hyperlink and text to direct to supporting resources and related links. This opens up a number of possibilities for webinar recordings, communications, awareness, and training videos. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microsoft Stream: Add a survey, poll, or quiz to …

We discuss two hot topics this week that didn't feature in the Message Center - Availability of Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the unannounced renaming of home pages in SharePoint templates. Microsoft 365 live is full of surprises. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microsoft 365 Copilot General Availability - Microsoft Teams- Files App Updating to OneDrive A…

Forward your chats to other chats, meetings and channel conversations. Just like you can forward email, you will be able to share a message with someone outside of the original chat. But this new power comes with responsibilities. Daniel and Darrell discuss this and more. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microsoft Teams: Automatically view up to 9 video…

The Viva Connections landing page is starting to look more like a ready-to-go intranet home page. News in a carousel. Announcements as banner along the top. Dashboard. But there are significant changes to how Resources work. Listen to learn more. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Viva Engage admin center toggle to disable private messages within a networ…

New Teams still has a few features to catch up on compared with Classic Teams. Announcement backgrounds will be back soon with a zingy twist. We will be able to use Microsoft Designer to create them and customize further. This might be the first integration we've seen between Designer and another Microsoft 365 app. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Loop …

New Teams is now Generally Available, including most of the features on the list to be at parity with Classic Teams. What do Daniel and Darrell think about it? What will your organization do? Darrell and Daniel cover: - Announcing the general availability of the new Microsoft Teams app for Windows and Mac - Microsoft Viva: Create Up To 50 Distinct …

Immersive Microsoft Mesh is almost here. So close we can almost touch it. Is it going to revolutionize meetings? Will it live up to the promise of greater interaction with attendees? Daniel and Darrell discuss the related messages this week and how Mesh might land with organizations as Public Preview looms. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Loop workspac…

Microsoft announced their consolidation of the Copilots and its part to play in serving up assistance direct to you in Windows 11. If your organization is an M365 subscriber and Windows is part of your subscription, you may have seen a Copilot message in the Message Center too. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Viva Connections "Top News" Card Updated to…

Get ready for a new way to bring task management into Microsoft Loop. Planner components are arriving at the end of September 2023. Also, Collaborative notes are coming to Teams mobile, to access notes before, during and after a Teams meeting. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Generate unique join links for external presenters so they can easily join eve…

Two new communications tools arrived in Microsoft 365. SharePoint news in Outlook publishes your news as attractive emails, showing the full page content. In Viva Engage, Campaigns connect communications and activities with hashtags, landing pages, and measurable goals and promote visual sponsorship by leaders. This week's episode is longer, but th…

It's our 300th episode. To celebrate we are wearing cake, talking Python in Excel and giving all of your users a free 60 day trial of Teams Premium. OK, the trial is included in Microsoft 365 and we didn't organize it. But it was nicely timed. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Web links from Microsoft Teams chats to open in Microsoft Edge Teams chat will…

Internal comms people are going to love this update. Post a Viva Engage message on behalf of your leadership by setting a schedule. This means you can time the Engage post to coincide with the scheduled publishing of your SharePoint news post. Fantastic that we finally get this functionality. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Draft and Scheduled Posts wi…

What if we told you that Viva Amplify is coming to Viva Suite and Employee Communications & Connections subscribers in September? Would you be excited to plan your first communications campaign with it? What if we said Amplify can also be used by anyone who would like to send communications across multiple channels in your organization? Would you b…

Send short announcement messages to target audiences through the Viva Connections app. This has potential to replace the Company Communicator app in Microsoft Teams. Recent Planner plans and To Do lists will appear in your recent files on Microsoft 365 home page. SharePoint pages are now easier to share using the new Share button. Darrell and Danie…

The new Teams channel invites will restore faith and interest in using channel meetings. Meeting organizers have more control as to whether team members will receive an emailed invite. SharePoint web parts receive a visual refresh. Loop components will open using loop.microsoft.com and within the Loop app if your organization is using it. Darrell a…

Share a Stream video in Teams chat and channel conversations, and you will be able to preview and play them from within the conversation. OneDrive has a new feed to show up-coming and past meetings and their related files. It has a really interesting way to show files and recordings for recurring meetings too. SharePoint site creation show's more a…

New Outlook gets a separate window for displaying reminders. Microsoft Teams Cloud Intelliframe frames up people in a meeting room so we can see their faces. Browse OneDrive files by people and see what they have been working on recently that has been shared with you. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Browse files by People in OneDrive - Automatic Transc…

OneDrive on the web is changing to bring focus to your content and make it easier to create new files. LinkedIn Learning adds more free courses to Viva Learning basic. Custom list templates will soon included Power Automate flows as part of the template, packaging up a nice reusable app with automation. Darrell and Daniel cover: - OneDrive: Color, …

Now during your Teams meetings, annotate on a live screen. This is an improvement on the freeze-frame screenshot with annotations we had till now. Click through the annotations layer and continue to use the live shared window or desktop. This will be great for support scenarios and collaborative feedback over the top of what is shared. Darrell and …

If your organization is interested in using Microsoft 365 Copilot, you can start preparing now. We talk about the things you can prepare for, things you should be doing anyway, and things you will have to wait for. Darrell and Daniel cover: - (Updated) Future of the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows with Outlook - New Viva Connections Analytics Exp…

If your org has Viva Suite, then Viva Pulse is now available. Send short surveys out to your team to see how they are doing. Teams group chat now lets you share a link to a reply in the chat. Lastly, MFA will stop support for SMS and phone call code authentication. Darrell and Daniel cover: - Microsoft Viva: Answers in Viva on Mobile - Viva Pulse a…

If you've been out of the loop for a while, there's a new way to work with tasks in Microsoft 365. But don't worry, it still connects to your favourite task management apps, Planner and ToDo. You can get started with in a Teams meeting or chat. Add a Task list Loop component to capture actions. Then manage the tasks assigned to you from ToDo. How a…