Skip to main content

Everything new in Microsoft Teams announced at Build 2021

Microsoft Teams is usually a big highlight at Microsoft’s Build developer conference, and that was the case again this year. There were several key updates announced for Teams that should be rolling out through the rest of 2021, mainly for developers.

Following the launch of Teams apps for meetings last year, Microsoft is following up to give developers more opportunities in this area. Developers are now able to build apps for the main stage in the meeting.

Recommended Videos

For you, this means more in-meeting experiences such as whiteboard apps and project board apps. Developers can also use new meeting event APIs in Teams to automate meeting-related workflows.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Other changes include the ability for developers to create new Together mode scenes. There’s also the ability for developers to have real-time access to video streams for transcription, translation, note-taking, insight gathering, and more.

Microsoft

As for the actual app-building process, Microsoft is now rolling out a dedicated app-management console (now known as the Developer portal for Microsoft Teams) that’s available via the web or within Teams. This is for developers to register and configure apps within a single, central location.

Other developer-related changes rolling out to Teams include new support for Message extensions in Outlook on the Web. This makes it easier for developers to code one extension that works across and pulls info from Outlook. Then, there’s the Adaptive Cad support in Teams and Outlook, which allows developers to easily share user interface data across both Microsoft services.

Microsoft

Finally, there are Fluid components in Microsoft Teams chat. With this developer feature, users can send a message with a table, action items, or a list that can be co-authored and edited by everyone in line, minimizing the need for long chat threads and meetings.

Some other changes rolling out include the ability to purchase third-party app license subscriptions directly from the Microsoft Teams app store and Teams admincenter. Microsoft even updated the Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code in preview, so less code is needed to build Teams apps.

Arif Bacchus
Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…
Microsoft brought back this feature to the new version of Outlook
A tablet and a phone showing the calendar feature in the Outlook app.

 

Microsoft soft-launched a redesigned version of its Outlook app this year, and it hasn't received the best reception. Not only will the new version of Outlook replace the old one, but it'll also replace the default Windows Mail & Calendar app.

Read more
I have really good news about Microsoft Teams
The Microsoft Windows logo surrounded by colors of red, green, yellow and blue.

Microsoft is bringing some changes to its Teams app in the near-ish future, according to The Verge, including a combined chats and channels view that will go into public preview in November. There are also plans to bring threaded conversations to the app sometime in 2025.

Right now, the Teams app organizes your chats (both one-on-one and group chats) under one tab and your channels under another. Whenever you’re on the chats tab, your channels are just one tap or click away — and yet that one click has a pretty significant impact.

Read more
Sorry, Microsoft — AI isn’t the reason people are buying new laptops
Asus Vivobook S 15 CoPilot+ front angled view showing display and keyboard.

New research by the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that although AI PCs are selling well and will likely continue to, it's not the onboard generative AI that's driving sales -- it's just the usual refresh cycle.

Companies like Microsoft are aggressively pushing the advantages of generative AI for the average consumer's workflow, but the IDC thinks customers aren't responding to the AI features specifically. People need new PCs on a regular basis -- which we call a refresh cycle -- and since so many of the laptops launching this year are AI PCs, the consumers who need upgrades are naturally just buying what's available.

Read more