Hello Champions! Here is a recap and top Q+A from our October monthly call. This month featured Pages in Teams Channels with Alice Zhang, Senior Product Manager with Microsoft Teams. Alice introduced and demonstrated the new Pages in Channels feature in Microsoft Teams, powered by Loop. This feature enables teams to collaborate directly within their channel context by adding Loop pages as tabs. This feature allows teams to work on shared content without leaving the context of their conversations.
Benefits include:
- Centralized Access: Pin important documents or resources as tabs so team members can easily find them.
- Real-Time Collaboration: Updates made to a page are instantly visible to everyone in the channel.
- Contextual Workflows: Keep discussions and related content together, reducing time spent searching for files.
Alice highlighted key scenarios where Pages in Teams Channels can be helpful including the following:
- Project Resources: Add a project proposal or research guide as a tab so new members can quickly get up to speed.
- Recurring Information: Link frequently requested documents (e.g., “How to sign up for office hours”) to reduce repetitive questions.
- Decision Tracking: Use pages to document evolving decisions (e.g., marketing plans) alongside ongoing channel discussions.
Alice showcased the feature via a demo of how to add an existing page, update content, sharing the page and more in our October call. She was then joined by her colleagues from Copilot Pages, Notebook and Microsoft Loop, Greg Howard, Principal PM Manager, Caroline Gervais, Senior Product Manager and Alen Delic, Principal Engineering manager for our live Q+A where attendees asked us their top questions.
Q+A from this month's session
1. Q: As always, it is super confusing when there are so many entry points to do the same thing (seen with notes, lists, and other things as well). We now have Loop, Workspaces, Teams, Copilot Notes and now Pages. Our customers need -one- solution and stick to that instead of getting all these directions not knowing what is what. Can you create some clarity in all of the offered solutions?
A: Loop pages are a modern, collaboration-oriented canvas for all sorts of scenarios. You can embed them as components in Teams chats and channels (and emails, etc.), pin them as tabs (the channel pages we discussed today), and add them to workspaces when you need to organize a collection of pages. Meeting notes also use the pages format, and you can find all your pages no matter where they're created in the Loop app. We have some documentation that we're hoping will help make sense of this.
2. Q: Is Microsoft planning a fix for the issue where AI-generated meeting notes (Loop pages) are stored in the OneDrive of the first person who opens them, making them inaccessible to others who weren’t originally invited and causing access requests to be sent to that person? So far loop is always user-owned and thus not very great for our company-purpose.
A: We've heard this feedback and we're looking into ways we might be able to address it. Restricting access to the meeting notes is an important security and privacy feature for many organizations, but we appreciate that approval would be better asked of the meeting organizer, not "whoever clicked the button."
3. Q: What is the difference between a "Page" and a OneNote in a channel OR routing to a SharePoint file?
A: M365 offers a variety of formats and tools to meet diverse collaboration needs. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and now Pages as a format that can be flexibly embedded across a number of different scenarios (and within other authoring canvases) throughout the ecosystem. Because of this capability, Pages are great when you and your team need a single source of truth that meets colleagues wherever they choose to do their work and lets them contribute, comment, and coauthor without needing to context-switch to a different app.
4. Q: How are organizations approaching Microsoft 365 Copilot training and starting to build AI fluency? Looking for scalable solutions for 7k+ users.
A: Start with our Copilot Success Kit https://aka.ms/Copilot/SuccessKit - we have deep guidance on both technical readiness and user enablement/adoption.
5. Q: Is one weekly newsletter containing updates a possibility? I'm not an admin, I am a one person training department. If I could see all MS product updates in a weekly/monthly email, my life would be easier. Happy to sign up for that!
A: You could request reader access to Message Center from your tenant admin, but you can also watch Mondays at Microsoft https://aka.ms/MondaysatMicrosoft for quick updates from Karuana Gatimu and Heather Cook every two weeks.
6.Q: Can you add a workspace?
A: Correct, you can add Loop Workspaces to standard channels as a way to give your team more space to share and grow content across a number of pages and easily navigate between them without switching tabs. Loop Workspaces are not yet available in private or shared channels, but do let us know if that's important to your organization!
7. Q: Could using pages in channels reduce the need for a Sharepoint site or would they complement each other? We are a team of 30 and trying to streamline communications.
A: This is great feedback. I personally think they complement each other. Pages are canvas right there and editable in the channel where as the SharePoint site is a repository for all the files for the team. Some of the files in the SharePoint sites are Loop pages.
8. Q: Should we anticipate a convergence of Microsoft Loop and Microsoft OneNote?
A: Loop pages, including those you pin as channel pages, shine when your team needs to brainstorm, track progress and decisions, or maintain living lists/tables together—and especially when it's helpful to reuse that content across chats, emails, and meetings. You can also embed Loop pages as components in OneNote so collaborators see updates wherever they prefer to work. But we see Loop and OneNote as complementary options: OneNote continues to be great as a personal knowledge base, for taking notes with pen/ink, and more. OneNote can also now host our new Copilot Notebooks, which offer exciting new AI-first ways of working, including reasoning over your work and drafting content as Loop pages. But we're always eager to hear your feedback about how your organization prefers to collaborate and how you'd like to see these tools to work together.
9. Q: When will Pages in Channels be available to everyone?
A: We are currently in the process of rolling it out to everyone - it will be available very soon!
10. Q: You noted Pages are powered by Loop but how are they different from Loop? How do we educate end users on when to use which?
A: This is great feedback! Pages in Channel is the same experience as Loop component in Channels. They are they same file type. Pages are pinned to the top of the Channel unlike components which are in a thread. Loop pages pinned to a channel are easier find as they are always present in the tab at the top of the channel. The pages in channels can be sent as Loop component in thread or chats. As well as, Loop components in channel threads will now have the ability to be pinned too.
11. Q: I was struggling to understand when we would use the Pages as a Channel Tab vs. Workspaces. This makes perfect sense -- we have lots of Teams who use a Loop page for things like tracking in/out of office or planning upcoming team events.
A: You can start a new page as a channel tab (then embed it as a component in a chat or channel) or, vice versa: start with a component and then pin as a channel tab. These are both Loop pages (as are the pages you create in the Loop app) and all have the same capabilities. What to use when is really a question of how visible/durable you need the content to be for your team. (Caveat: there are a handful features that are available for pages in the Loop app in the browser and as a "personal app" on the Teams left-rail that aren't available within Teams as components or tabs. Let us know if these gaps are blocking key scenarios for you while we work to close them.)
12. Q: Is there a step by step guide for Teams Pages that we can refer to rather than a live demo?
A: Please refer our documentation here: https://support.microsoft.com/office/manage-pages-and-loop-components-in-channels-de98aa0a-277e-4cb4-8a4f-b93b6c80fcab
13. Q: Users at my org want to be informed about upcoming changes or updates to products their team uses specifically. Is there a way to do this/automate this as opposed to looking at the roadmap?
A: If you have access to the Message Center in the admin center, you can sync to Tasks in Teams: Your team deserves a work platform they'll actually love
14. Q: Is there a plan to allow Pages to be moved to a new Workspace? We can add/link them to another workspace, but can't easily move them which is a barrier for our adoption of Channel workspaces. We have to manually copy/paste Page content into new Channel Workspaces, which is a pain point.
A: Thanks for the feedback! Yes, we don't yet support Move but this is a top customer ask which is top of mind.
15. Q: Where are the pages in Teams channels stored?
A: Pages created in Channels are stored in the Channels SharePoint Site. If you go to the "Shared" tab in the Channel, you'll find the pages in the Shared Documents folder.
16. Q: What happens when I submit feedback and recommendations in the app?
A: Feedback submitted through any app goes straight to the engineering teams that work on that particular app.
17. Q: Is support for querying Excel files in Copilot being improved?
A: Features are constantly being fine tuned, especially the Copilot ones. Please be sure to always click the thumbs up or down in every prompt response - that lets the engineering teams know what your feedback is.
18. Q: When can we expect to see voice conversation capabilities for M365 Copilot?
A: Great question. We don't have any dates to share on this yet but we'll share when we know more.
19 Q: Do Loop/Channel pages meet accessibility requirements?
A: Yes, pages in Channels will meet the accessibility standard promised by Microsoft.
20. Q: Where are the files stored in a Loop app pinned to a channel?
A: Pages created in Channels are stored in the Channels SharePoint Site. If you go to the "Shared" tab, you'll find the pages in the Shared Documents folder.
21. Q: Can we still use Pages in Teams if we do not have Loop Workspaces enabled?
A: Great question, as long as you have Loop enabled for your tenant, you can use Pages in Channels. It's not necessary to have Workspaces enabled.
22. Q: I've noticed when I @mention anyone in Loop, it takes a really long time (a few seconds) to load suggested contacts--this has been putting a wrench in my flow--what is the best avenue (as an end user) to report this problem?
A: Thank you for the feedback! Yes, we have noticed this slowness as well and are working on understanding the problem to fix it.
23. Q: How did she(Alice) paste the URL into the word "here" without hitting edit link?
A: A: You just highlight the word you want to hyperlink and directly click CTRL-V or paste link! This shortcut works not only with Teams, but also a lot of other apps. Now you know!
24. Q: Remind me how I can get the deck with the links embedded, thanks a million!
A: The recording will be published on the Driving Adoption community on the Tech Community in about 48 hours after this call. However, only Champion program members have access to the presentation (see the link in your welcome email or the latest newsletter). If you're not a member yet, join here: https://aka.ms/BecomeAChampion.
25. Q: We have seen the Collaborative Chat Notes coming now to 1to1 and group chats (also powered by loop components) but were not able to find out where this Note page is stored. It seems it's not a loop page. Can you explain a bit more pls?
A: Chat notes are powered by Loop. Access to these notes is linked to your chat membership, ensuring that only chat participants can view or edit them. The notes are securely stored in a container that is associated with the chat, keeping everything organized and protected.
26. Q: So in case a person is leaving the company, this notes will not get deleted, as the users personal OneDrive stuff would do?
A: Correct, Chat Notes are stored in tenant-level storage. Channel Pages are stored in the SharePoint associated with the channel. Components users create in Teams chats are stored in their OneDrive, like other files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) dragged into chats to share them.
27. Q: Can you link Loop workspaces (not just pages)?
A: In standard Channels, you can add the Loop app where you'll be able to create a Loop workspace which has the same membership as the channel. To learn more: Collaborate in real time with workspaces in Teams
28. Q: Where can we find more information for Pages on Channels? Is there a link for it?
A: Manage pages and loop components in channels - Microsoft Support
29. Q: I have created a Loop Channel workspace + pages and it worked great. Q1 - Where are the files stored? I'm not seeing them in my Teams files for the relevant channel. Q2 - Can you confirm if/how we can transfer ownership of a Channel workspace/page, if the original owner no longer is a member of the Channel?
A: Loop Workspaces use SharePoint Embedded for storage. It sounds like you expected those pages in your channel's SharePoint instead? (Good feedback, thanks.) The workspace and its pages are associated with the lifecycle of the channel itself. The original owner departing the company should not affects the channel's workspace or its pages.
30. Q: For admin purposes are loop pages stored in the SharePoint site for the team or elsewhere?
A: Pages created in Channels are stored in the Channels SharePoint Site. If you go to the "Shared" tab in the Channel, you'll find the pages in the Shared Documents folder. If the page was created elsewhere and is linked to channel. It is stored in the original location.
31. Q: What does MOCA stand for again please?
A: MOCA = Modern Collaboration Architecture; https://adoption.microsoft.com/enabling-modern-collaboration/
32. Q: Is there a default retention for the pages?
A: Since pages are persisted in Sharepoint, retention policies follow that of Sharepoint: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/retention-policies-sharepoint
33. Q: If I use M365 Copilot Research and add results to a page, can that page be added to a teams channel?
A: Yes! The page you create in M365 Copilot and Researcher can be added as a page to the Teams Channel.
Join us next month on November 25th for our next community call, featuring Microsoft Ignite Recap.
- Haven't joined the program yet? It's free! Join here: https://aka.ms/M365Champion.
- Bring your questions to our discussion forum: https://aka.ms/DriveAdoption.
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