Microsoft Teams gets custom templates, chatbots, virtual appointments

San Francisco: Microsoft has introduced several new capabilities in its video meet app Teams which has become a hub for teamwork combining meetings, calls, chat, and collaboration into a single tool.

Now, one can create teams quickly with customizable templates.

“Choose from common business scenarios, like event management and crisis response, as well as industry-specific templates, like a hospital ward or bank branch. Each template comes with pre-defined channels, apps, and guidance,” said By Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365.

Admins will also be able to create new custom templates and templatize existing teams in their organization, allowing them to standardize team structures, surface relevant apps, and scale best practices.

“Templates in Teams will roll out in the next few months and appear automatically,” Spataro announced during the ‘Build 2020′ developer conference on Wednesday.

Now Teams users can easily create and manage chatbots and integrating with Teams is also easier than ever.

“Just select the bot you want to use and then click Add to Teams. For additional convenience, Power Virtual Agents now supports single sign-on (SSO), so users will no longer have to reauthenticate when using Teams for the first time,” informed Spataro.

Developers and admins will soon be able to add their custom applications from Power Apps to Teams with a single click of the Add to Teams button.

“Meanwhile, new Power Automate business process templates for Teams will allow creators to streamline workflows using pre-built templates, or as a base to customize their own,” said Microsoft.

Organizations will now be able to schedule, manage, and conduct business-to-consumer virtual appointments through the new Bookings app integration in Microsoft Teams.

According to the tech giant, un healthcare alone, there were more than 34 million Teams meetings in the past month, including virtual



visits.

Microsoft introduced new Network Device Interface (NDI) support and Skype TX interoperability for Teams.

It offers a more advanced set of production options for both public and private, customized, high-scale broadcasts.

Coming soon, NDI for Microsoft Teams will transform a Teams meeting into a virtual stage by converting each participant’s video into a discrete video source that can be used in the production tool of your choice.

The company also announced new features in Microsoft 365.

At Ignite 2019, Microsoft announced the public preview of Microsoft Fluid Framework – a new set of experiences designed to make collaboration seamless by breaking down barriers between apps.

“The first Fluid Framework integrations in Microsoft 365, coming to Outlook and Office.com, will enable you to collaborate on dynamic content and create connected components that can be shared simultaneously and seamlessly across apps,” said Spataro.

Tables, charts, and task lists can be easily inserted in Outlook for the web, so your sales numbers, project tasks, and research reports are always up to date.

Within Office.com, Fluid workspaces can be created and managed, including within your document activity feed, Recommended list, and @mentions—or search for them across Office.com.

Fluid Framework is now open source and can be used to instantly make apps collaborative.

Outlook on the web can now help compose email messages with text predictions.

“Using intelligent technology to infer meaning and intention, Outlook can help you compose faster, avoid typos, and craft polished email messages,” said Microsoft.

The company also launched a new Lists app which is smart information tracking app across Microsoft 365.

With Lists, users can easily track data and information to stay updated on the latest status.