Introducing new productivity apps People and File Search

Hello, Insiders! I’m Shilpa Patel, a Product Manager on the Microsoft 365 team. I’m thrilled to introduce you to two new apps designed to save you time and streamline your workflows within your Microsoft 365 tenant: People and File Search.

Introducing new productivity apps People and File Search

Have you ever needed an easy way to learn about a person before meeting with them for the first time? Or struggled to find a file that you swear exists, but can’t remember its name or where it was shared?

We created the People and File Search companions to provide a better solution to these obstacles and keep you focused on completing your tasks as quickly and effectively as possible. These mini apps work seamlessly with your existing Microsoft 365 tools, like Teams and OneDrive, complementing the actions you do every day. You’ll recognize familiar flows in these apps, but in a lightning fast and streamlined format. Plus, you can pin both apps to your taskbar so you always know where to access them, no matter how busy your workspace gets.

Upgrade relationship management with People

The People companion helps you learn about your organization’s contacts and pull up relevant and important information on individuals for conversations, meetings, or other communications.

• Access profile cards and organizational charts: Let’s say you’re in a meeting and can’t minimize your screen. In just one click, you can pop in and out of someone’s profile card to view valuable contextual information, like their role, contact information, and placement on the org chart. It’s now easier than ever to understand who anyone is and what they work on!

• Send messages with minimal context-switching: The People companion allows you to send a quick Teams message while working on a document or in a meeting, keeping you in your workflow.

• Search for people by more than just name: In People, you can find a contact whose name you’ve forgotten or discover a new colleague to help with your work by searching by job title, department, location, and project.

Find and share files faster with File Search

File Search makes finding the exact file you need, whether you want to open it or share it, a breeze.

• Find files without a file name: The File Search companion provides easy access to all your Microsoft 365 files. Your most recently opened files will be right there on the homepage, but you can easily re-find other files through the search box. Can’t remember the name of that file you’re absolutely positive your colleague shared in a Teams meeting? No problem! You can search for it by its contents or use the people and file-type filter options to locate the right one.

• Preview before sharing: In File Search, you can preview a file before sharing it to ensure you’re sending the appropriate document or presentation, or check that it’s the correct version.

Pin the apps for easy access

Make sure People and File Search are always in the same spot to help you in your workflows by pinning both apps to your taskbar! To do so, simply right-click on the app icon in the taskbar and select the option Pin to taskbar. To learn more about other configuration options, click here.

Availability

The People and File Search apps will be available for Windows 11 users who have Microsoft 365 desktop apps installed, are part of M365 Insiders (Beta channel only), and are on either Enterprise or Business SKUs.

If you are an admin, learn more about admin controls and deployment schedule here.

Feedback

We’d love to hear what you think of these two apps! Did you try out the suggested actions above? Have a different task you’d like these apps to help with? Let us know by selecting the Feedback button in the upper right-hand corner of People or File Search.

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