Preparing for Windows 11 with new Microsoft 365 updates

As more businesses continue to shift towards their own versions of hybrid and/or remote working, Microsoft have been working hard in the background to bring out innovative features across 365 that will enable workforces to be productive from anywhere and on any device.

With that said, in this edition we will run through enhanced captioning in Microsoft Teams meetings, co-authoring in encrypted documents and expanded Microsoft Endpoint Manager capabilities in preparation for Windows 11. If you weren’t already aware, Windows 11 is now available as of the 5^th October!

Inclusive meetings for everyone

Live captioning and transcripts in more languages

Any meetings that are held in available languages (there are currently 27) will now be supported by real-time captioning and live transcripts. Mobile users can view caption in the support languages, whilst desktop users will be able to switch the spoken language. These new features provide further flexibility for all users to be able to engage in meetings. To get started, users simply need to click ‘more actions’ in a Teams Meeting via the desktop app.

Topics integration between Yammer and Viva

In order to enhance the Microsoft 365 experience, and make community-sourced knowledge more accessible, Yammer will now integrate with Microsoft Viva and will pull Viva Topics. The new integration will allow users to view topics in Yammer, but enhanced with Viva Topics experiences, such as Topic cards. Viva Topics experiences such as pages and cards will be inclusive of content from Yammer, including questions & answers, and conversations.

Admins will need to download the Yammer Topic API Changes documentation for guidance on how to get started.

Co-author encrypted documents

Back in 2019, Microsoft added support for sensitivity labelling in OneDrive and SharePoint, allowing labelled and encrypted documents be open, edited and automatically saved in Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the web. Co-authoring and auto-save will now be extended to Microsoft 365 apps on the desktop, both for Windows and MacOS.

This new feature will allow multiple users to co-author in Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents in real-time, whilst maintaining the sensitivity labelling and document protections across the web and desktop apps. This will enable your business to keep sensitive data protected, whilst empowering your users to stay productive.

Maintaining productivity across your workforce

Device readiness for Windows 11 with Endpoint analytics

Windows 11 has now released, so you’ll need to know which devices are ready for an update. The Endpoint analytics service in Microsoft Endpoint Managers is equipped with a new Windows metric which enables you to measure how many devices are running on older versions of Windows. It will then suggest remediation guidance on to upgrade your Windows OS version.

To understand user satisfaction, experience and productivity, the service provides metrics and insights to measure the quality of user experience, whilst assessing the performance and health of endpoints managed by Microsoft Endpoint Manager.

If you’re looking for more information on navigating the new updates, or looking to know more about Windows 11, contact our cloud team today.