Summary of Ignite 2023 – part 1 – Modern Workplace.site

Microsoft Ignite 2023 is over but there are so much news and updates so it will take some time to dig through all of them. I summarized the most important things from Teams, SharePoint, and Planner areas in this post. Let’s go and find out what will come next year to Microsoft 365.

Teams

Hide attendees’ names in webinars

This is one of the most important features for webinar creators – you will be able to hide attendees’ names during your webinar. All participants will see only “Attendee” instead of real names. Once enabled, this feature will prevent real names from transcriptions and recordings.

Ok, but why it’s so important? You can host a webinar without sharing your mailing lists (even by names) or customers. It’s also one of the basic features in 3^rd party webinar tools.

It will be available by the end of November in the Teams Premium package.

Webinar Graph API

The API allows you to access webinar data such as attendee names, attendance duration, registration, and registrant cancellations. You can use that data to enhance your CRM or other marketing tools and add additional automation. It’s available in beta.

Voice isolation

Teams recognize your voice and suppresses other noises. The AI models will learn and recognize your voice to make it the only one during your meetings. Voice isolation will be added to Teams Phone and Teams Meetings and will be available in early 2024.

Decorate your background

This is the latest update to meeting background features. You will be able to enhance your real background (for instance, your office wall). The AII will use it to generate a new one by removing some objects and adding Christmas lights or plants.

This capability will be available in early 2024 for users with a Teams Premium license.

Loop in channels

Loop components will be available inside posts in channel chats. You can use it to add always-synced objects (such as tables, text paragraphs, etc.) and share it with your colleagues. Available later this year.

Forward chat

Small but super-helpful – Share a message with your colleagues by simply forwarding the message instead of copy paste (and removing some additional text/dates). Supports 1:1 chats and group chats. Available in early 2024.

Watermarking support for meeting recording and playback

Right now you cannot record a protected meeting – the option is simply grayed out. Once the features are available, you can record such meetings and access the recorded content on both web and mobile platforms. Available in early 2024, a Teams Premium license is required.

Simplified notifications

Another “small but powerful” feature is coming to Teams. You will be able to clear notifications with a single click!! Pure Magic 😉 Available January 2024.

Microsoft Mesh will be Generally Available in January 2024

After a long development journey, Teams Mesh is finally coming to users. If you’re not familiar with this concept – it’s a dedicated feature for hybrid/remote work. It removes distance barriers and gives you the tool to collaborate with remote colleagues, external teams, office workers, etc. It’s just a virtual workspace where you can walk around, chat with colleagues, and work together. You can create this space to mimic your existing physical office or make something completely different. In a nutshell, Mesh is a three-dimensional (3D) immersive experience for your workplace.

Mesh comes with:

customizable and animated 3D avatars
fully customizable 3D environments (in fact, you can build your own space)
Seat assignments (similar to Together Mode editor – select where you sit in a meeting or an event)
Spatial Audio and audio zones
Interactive activities – interactive games for team bonding
Live reactions (emojis in virtual spaces)

Available in January 2024, Teams Premium required

Immersive spaces in Microsoft Teams will also be Generally Available in January 2024

This is the second part of Mesh – immersive spaces editor. You can select from a set of predefined features and configure them to their needs. There are images, videos, screen sharing in a shared 3D canvas, etc. These customizations can then be saved as a template for anyone in your organization to reuse. You can prepare one template for a town hall meeting, one for an internal training session, one for workshops, etc.

Available in January 2024, Teams Premium required

SharePoint

The biggest announcement for me – SharePoint Premium. This is a new set of features encapsulated in a dedicated license. Part of those features are already available (such as Microsoft Syntex), some are in preview, and some are coming soon to Microsoft 365. Those already available require additional licenses so don’t worry – you will not pay for basic SharePoint features.

Content processing

Existing Microsoft Syntex features such as document processing, OCR, or generating documents from templates will be part of SharePoint Premium next year. Microsoft has announced many new features and enhancements to this area:

SharePoint eSignature – similar feature to the one in Teams Approvals. You will be able to use Adobe Sign and DocuSign in approval workflows in SharePoint
Translation for files and Stream video – convert files and Stream video transcripts among dozens of supported languages
Autofill columns – dynamically add a new column to a document library and use AI to automatically fill in discovered values
PII detection – flag files containing personally identifiable information such as addresses, phone numbers, credit card details, and more.
Multilabel classifier – AI model that automatically sets content type and determines the right model to apply for full data extraction and analysis
Redaction – Find and remove visibility for select sensitive information

Integrated file viewer – SharePoint file viewer will support over 400 file types. You’ll be able to add ink, comments, mentions, tasks, and more to any supported file type – imagine opening a CAD file or adding notes, directly from the SharePoint library!

Microsoft 365 Archive and Microsoft 365 Backup

Two complementary tools are now in public preview. Archive lets you manage your files and decide what should be stored outside of SharePoint in a “cold storage” (cost-effective). For example, you can create a SharePoint Premium policy for out-of-date marketing files to move them to Microsoft 365 archive storage.

Backup gives you an additional protection layer – use additional storage to store your critical files and restore them when needed. All those with extreme backup and recovery speed, scale, and reliability.

Planner

This news is huge! Microsoft announcement –
“We’re bringing together the simplicity of Microsoft To Do, the collaboration of Microsoft Planner, the power of Microsoft Project for the web, and the intelligence of Microsoft Copilot into a simple, familiar experience. Discover a new way to manage tasks for individual plans and team initiatives, as well as larger scale project management, aligned to goals and key strategic objectives.”

For the first time, we will be able to use ONE tool for task management in Microsoft 365. No more multiple tools (Planner/To Do/Project for Web, etc.) and complex synchronization Flows/jobs to make it consistent. If this is implemented as announced – it will change the way we work in M365.

Main features:

One simple experience for all tasks in M365

Flexibility – designed for small teams and large org-wide projects. Dedicated templates, views, and approaches including lists, boards, timelines, sprints, agile sprint planning, team workload, goals alignment, custom fields, and task history will give you the right tool at the right time.
Scalable – The new Planner is built on Microsoft Power Platform, and you use its features to extend base functions. Add customized reporting through Microsoft Power BI, configurable workflows through Microsoft Power Automate, or use integration with Microsoft Viva Goals.
Copilot in Planner (coming in Spring 2024) will help you generate new plans, set goals, track status, and react to changes as projects evolve. All with natural languages and using your corporate data.
Integrations – you will be able to use Planner plans inside a Loop workspace, Outlook, Teams, or Viva Goals and track your team plan alongside other project content in one place.

Rollout timeline for the new Planner:

Spring 2024: The new Planner app in Teams will be generally available (the current Tasks by Planner and To Do app in Teams will be renamed to Planner). Microsoft Project for the web will be renamed to Planner.
Later in 2024: The web experience of the new Planner will be generally available. The features you know and love in Microsoft Project for the web will be available in the new Planner app in Teams and the Planner web app.

Summary

That’s not all – there are many more new features and enhancements coming to Microsoft 365 and Azure. Copilots took so many sessions so it’s hard to summarize it in one post (I will write a dedicated one with the most important news).

For more information check the following links: