Microsoft 365 gets some whopping new features during the corona crisis

Microsoft 365 has new things to offer this March amidst the pandemic. It will feature new capabilities to help people stay connected during this lockdown and help people carry on their businesses.

Focused online meetings

New capabilities in Microsoft Teams will offer effective online meetings while a crisis management site in SharePoint will let the users quickly share information during emergencies. The mailbox, Outlook comes with a new search option that lets the users find a specific mail in no time.

The online meetings will go without any glitches or interruptions thanks to the realtime noise suppression. The raise hand feature lets everyone know involved in a meeting that they have something to say.

Microsoft has not forgotten about the first-line workers who can avail of new head-mounted gear, made with the help of Teams and RealWear, that will access information for the workers and let them communicate hands-free. The Bookings app in Teams would make everything, from scheduling to managing meetings, easier.

More importantly, offline and low-bandwidth support lets the users read chat messages and write responses without an internet connection.

Microsoft is also implementing new devices for Teams, such as the Yealink VC210 and the Bose Noise Cancelling headphones. Microsoft 365 Business Voice in Teams is now available in the U.S., which focuses on making and receiving phone calls from anywhere.

Offering to Businesses

Crisis management site in Sharepoint

The crisis management system in SharePoint will make sure the swift action is taken during an emergency. It enables anyone to consolidate news, related resources, and topical Q&A in response to emergency events in under two hours.

App updates to streamline conversations, create professional content, and maximize productivity.

New app updates

The new interactive Yammer emails in Outlook on the web enable users to interact with Yammer conversations, polls, and questions, and deliver praise, transforming the inbox into a multitasking area where users can see the full Yammer thread and reply, like, vote, attach files, share GIFs, and even watch videos. These features are now available to all Enterprise tenants with releases in Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac, and Outlook for iOS and Android coming next quarter.

Office Mobile lets the users edit and view their data in Excel in a less complicated manner. PowerPoint Designer which is a new feature of Office mobile will function just as easily and exactly like the PowerPoint. These features will be available in the next few months in the Office app for Android and iOS.

Simply mentioning a name on the online Word or Excel document, with a simple @mention, will notify the recipient through an email that a task was assigned to them with a link to the document. This feature will come out in April with Tasks in PowerPoint, and for the web, it will come out in June.

Visio for the web is coming equipped with a new feature for a better alignment. The feature will let the user move the connection point on a shape so that it can be aligned properly. Multiple arrows could be used to represent to-and-from relationships.

Microsoft Search Innovations

Microsoft Search now can recognize any natural language and narrow the search for files, either by speaking it or typing it.

Furthermore, Microsoft will also announce a private preview of Universal Print, a new cloud-based print infrastructure that creates a secure print experience. Organizations do not need to install printer drivers on devices. Using the Universal Print, users will get a simple print experience that will let them print anything to nearby printers.

Additionally, Microsoft 365 announced Mover, a cloud-to-cloud file migration tool. What is cool about this cloud service is that it is completely free of cost.