Why is the UserVoice rarely updated by Microsoft Techs?

[Todd_Edwards]

Most of the ideas, even ones that have over a thousand votes, have not received any more updates or information since last year (2018). Is there a reason for this? Just being kept in the loop would be nice, So many comments are "can you please give an update on this?". As I am trying to roll out teams in my workplace I need to know if a function will be coming available, yet all I can say is its "under review/working on it", and this is based on updates was from over a year ago

[#2]

Honestly the best place to keep an eye on things is Message Center in admin center and the Office 365 roadmap for things getting added as In Development. But even then, that is sketchy. Microsoft hasn't been doing a really good job of keeping up with public facing items and sticking to dates. The Roadmap linked here is probably been the most up to date thing, but that's not really saying much.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=

[#3]

It really depends on the team/person. There are some folks that do a really good job of reviewing the items, providing updates and most importantly listening to what the customers actually say. Others just update items every once in a while, and then there are those that simply ignore it. Teams UV is actually in a good share compared to most of the other products' UV spaces, where items with thousands of votes have been ignored for years :)

But as Chris said, if you want to base your rollout on Microsoft's future plans, UV is not the place to look at. The Roadmap, the Teams blog, the upcoming sessions at Ignite or your Microsoft TAM are a more suitable sources of information. And keep in mind that in the SaaS world, Microsoft can just change their mind on any given feature, at any time, and there's almost nothing you can do about it.

[#4]

The Teams UserVoice at the moment seems to be a place into which to divert criticism, not to have it acted on. It's where we can be sent to complain about issues among ourselves and where nothing ever happens.

I can't vote multiple times for the same thing, so how can I raise the profile of an item I've already voted on? The only way to do this is to raise the problem in other forums, which is why I am here.

A serious problem is that I feel like we're not just being ignored, but that we are being actively misled about the status of enhancements, in order to try to stop us changing to other applications.

Here's my #1 example: compact mode for chat. This was raised late in 2016 (!) and immediately attracted a large number of votes. For most of the next 3 years it was the #3 issue and the #1 UI issue (it has recently been overtaken by multi-window mode.)

It was marked as "Working on it" on 9 February 2017. More feedback was asked for. We told you what we wanted (more chat visible in a much smaller window), and were told "We are working on changes that will be made in the coming weeks" - in June 2017.

In March 2018, 9 months later, we were given an update saying that you had implemented something which reduced the amount of visible chat on screen - the precise opposite of what was asked for.

In December 2018, it was demoted to "Planned".

In March 2019, a full year on, we were then asked for more feedback. Unsurprisingly, we still wanted something which showed more chat in a small window.

In July, you were still working on "defining the experience". None of this requires new features - it's just tweaking parameters of the CSS that sets the layout of the embedded HTML page.

People (including me) prototyped this with style managers in the web client and shared our results. We achieved more in a lunchtime than had been achieved by the actual developers in literally years.

You said you had designs. We asked to see them. Nothing.

We told you what we wanted. You said you were working on it, then waited a year and asked the same questions again.

The same thing happens for any user customisation options.

I think it's reasonable at this point to assume that no work has actually been done on this, and that there is zero intention of doing it at all.

If that's the case, tell us, and we can move on. If it isn't, show us any evidence at all of the work that you've been doing. It would go a long way to rebuilding trust with the UserVoice community.

[#5]

The Teams UserVoice at the moment seems to be a place into which to divert criticism, not to have it acted on. It's where we can be sent to complain about issues among ourselves and where nothing ever happens.

[#6]

I can't vote multiple times for the same thing, so how can I raise the profile of an item I've already voted on? The only way to do this is to raise the problem in other forums, which is why I am here.

[#7]

A serious problem is that I feel like we're not just being ignored, but that we are being actively misled about the status of enhancements, in order to try to stop us changing to other applications.

[#8]

Here's my #1 example: compact mode for chat. This was raised late in 2016 (!) and immediately attracted a large number of votes. For most of the next 3 years it was the #3 issue and the #1 UI issue (it has recently been overtaken by multi-window mode.)

[#9]

It was marked as "Working on it" on 9 February 2017. More feedback was asked for. We told you what we wanted (more chat visible in a much smaller window), and were told "We are working on changes that will be made in the coming weeks" - in June 2017.

[#10]

In March 2018, 9 months later, we were given an update saying that you had implemented something which reduced the amount of visible chat on screen - the precise opposite of what was asked for.

[#11]

In December 2018, it was demoted to "Planned".

[#12]

In March 2019, a full year on, we were then asked for more feedback. Unsurprisingly, we still wanted something which showed more chat in a small window.

[#13]

In July, you were still working on "defining the experience". None of this requires new features - it's just tweaking parameters of the CSS that sets the layout of the embedded HTML page.

[#14]

People (including me) prototyped this with style managers in the web client and shared our results. We achieved more in a lunchtime than had been achieved by the actual developers in literally years.

[#15]

You said you had designs. We asked to see them. Nothing.

[#16]

We told you what we wanted. You said you were working on it, then waited a year and asked the same questions again.

[#17]

The same thing happens for any user customisation options.

[#18]

I think it's reasonable at this point to assume that no work has actually been done on this, and that there is zero intention of doing it at all.

[#19]

If that's the case, tell us, and we can move on. If it isn't, show us any evidence at all of the work that you've been doing. It would go a long way to rebuilding trust with the UserVoice community.