What's New in Microsoft Teams | August - September 2026
A quick note before we get into it: What's New in Teams is shifting from a monthly to a quarterly rhythm. You'll hear from us next in December, March, and June, and each edition will round up everything announced and released over the full quarter. One post, one fuller view of what's new. Two investments shape where Teams is heading, and you'll see both in this quarter's releases: AI transforming teamwork with agents as part of the team, and a simpler, smarter, more secure foundation underneath it all. AI in Teams is showing up in the flow of your work. Teams Phone Agent brings that to your phone line, helping callers with common requests in more than 60 languages and routing them with context attached, so a missed call turns into a next step instead of a lost one. Context carries forward, too. Video recap turns a meeting you missed into a short, narrated highlight reel, so what a meeting decided outlasts the conversation itself. And protection for everyday collaboration is always top of mind. The new Security Detection Report brings detections such as impersonation and malicious URLs into one view in the Teams admin center, so admins see the whole picture in one place. Read on for all the latest updates! Feature categories: (All features listed are generally available unless otherwise noted) Chat and Collaboration Meetings Teams Phone Workplace Teams Events Fundamentals and Security Teams Platform Certified devices Chat and Collaboration Ask Copilot in Teams conversations Stay in the flow of work and get help from Copilot directly within your conversations. Open Copilot from a message or selected text in a Teams conversation, with the relevant context already included, making it easier to gain insights, explore questions, and move work forward without needing to re-explain information. Find agents and apps faster through Teams search Discover the tools you need with agents and apps surfaced directly in Teams search results. As you type in the search bar, matching agents and apps appear alongside other relevant results, helping you spend less time searching and more time getting things done. Find and share files faster in Teams Locate the files you need while sharing content in Teams. Search for cloud-based files directly from the attachment experience, making it easier to find and share the right content without interrupting the flow of collaboration. Emoji shortcuts on iOS and Android Express yourself with emoji shortcuts. Desktop emoji shortcuts now work on iOS and Android. Insert emojis directly in the compose box by typing a word between colons, so :smile: becomes 😊. Autocomplete suggestions help speed up entry, and custom emojis are also supported. Clearer text highlighting in dark mode and high contrast mode Make highlighted text easier to read while composing messages in Teams. Improvements to text highlighting in dark mode and high contrast mode provide a more consistent and accessible editing experience, helping content stand out more clearly. Meetings Video recap in Teams Meeting recap now delivers a bite-sized video recap of with key highlights from your Teams meeting. It combines AI-generated voiceover summaries with video snippets, spotlighting the most important moments while preserving the original tone and flow, so you can catch up on key topics in a few minutes. Video recaps now support meetings in 23 languages across 31 regional variants, learn more. Translation button to change the language for intelligent meeting recaps After an intelligent meeting recap is generated, you can change the recap language at any time using a translation button, even if a different language was selected during the meeting. Multilingual teams get more flexibility to read meeting insights, action items, and discussion summaries in the language that is most comfortable for them. Redesigned meeting controls Stay focused on your conversations with a customizable meeting toolbar that keeps the controls you need within easy reach. Pin your most-used controls, unpin those you don’t need, and drag and drop them into the order that works for you. Raise Hand now lives inside the React button, while Leave has its own spot on the right to help avoid accidental exits. Teams Phone Teams Phone Agent Teams Phone Agent is an AI-powered receptionist for your business’s phone line, so callers can get help with common requests even after hours. For customer-facing organizations and departments using Teams Phone, such as bank branches or IT help desks, it takes repetitive calls off employees' plates so they can focus on the conversations that truly need a human touch. With support for over 60 languages and locales, Teams Phone Agent handles common requests such as answering routine questions or booking appointments. , And it can route a caller to the right department or employee with an AI-generated summary of the conversation, so customers do not have to navigate phone menus or repeat themselves. Custom voice agents are available for specialized workflows. Teams Phone Agent is now generally available, learn more. If the player doesn’t load, open the video in a new window: Open video Intelligent call recap in Queues app Intelligent call recaps in Queues app help you catch up on recorded or transcribed queue calls with AI-generated summary notes covering key discussion points and follow-up actions. To open a recap, find the call record in the Queues app call history and select Recap. Copilot in Queues app’s shared call history for post-call insights Quickly catch up on a call queue call and uncover key details with the ability to use Copilot in the shared call history in Queues app. After a recorded call is completed, users with Copilot can now open the call record in the shared call history, access the Copilot Chat sidecar from the Recap tab, and ask questions about the call. Automatic recording and transcription for call queues Capture customer interactions without requiring your organization’s calling representatives to manually start recording. Admins can enable automatic recording and transcription for individual Teams call queues and control access to recordings. Recordings are stored in SharePoint and accessible through call recaps in the shared call history in Queues app. View and manage auto attendant shared voicemails in Queues app Help your team stay on top of customer messages by managing auto attendant shared voicemails directly in Queues app. Calls routed from an auto attendant to voicemail will appear in Queues app, giving collaborative calling teams a centralized place to track, triage, and respond to messages. Customize recording and transcription notifications for Teams calls Give your organization greater control over how recording and transcription are communicated during Teams calls. IT admins can customize select user notification strings for recording and transcription in the Teams admin center, helping tailor the experience for participants in Teams VoIP calls. Enhance control of delegated calls with call lock and delegate join alerts Call delegation in Teams gains real controls: a delegator can lock an active call and see when a delegate joins. Locking prevents delegates from joining or resuming the call, and optional warning tones notify participants when a delegate joins or resumes. Workplace Interpreter agent support in Teams Rooms on Android The Interpreter agent acts as a translator in Microsoft Teams meetings, letting participants listen in their chosen language with real-time translation. It is now available in Teams Rooms on Android licensed for Teams Rooms Pro. New room optimization mode in Teams desktop Room optimization mode makes it easier to use your laptop for meetings and collaboration in spaces such as focus or huddle rooms that do not yet have a Teams Rooms system. It replaces shared display mode, has a new location, and enables or disables room-specific features. When room peripherals are connected, Teams can automatically select audio and video devices, enable speaker recognition and shared display, and disable voice isolation. Modernized Gallery view in Teams Rooms on Android The updated Gallery view in Teams Rooms on Android prioritizes video on the meeting stage, arranges participants in consistent aspect ratios, and minimizes movement of participant tiles on stage. You can hide the room self-preview video and choose to see audio and video participants equally on stage instead of prioritizing video participants. Admins can set the default behavior using local device settings and the Pro Management portal. Teams Events Breakout rooms in Teams Meetings & Events Breakout rooms are now supported in Teams Meetings & Teams Events with up to 1,000 participants across 100 rooms, increased from the previous limit of 300 participants across 50 rooms. Organizers can use breakout rooms to create smaller focused sessions within an event for more interaction and collaboration. Specify who has control of production tools in Teams Events Organizers can designate who controls production tools, granting chosen people access to Manage what attendees see and the green room so event production stays with the right crew. The setting is a new meeting option applied when the event is set up. Expanding presenter visibility in “Manage what attendees see” Producers can resize and expand the presenter panel in Manage what attendees see, making it easier to view, manage, and switch between presenters while a live event is running. New layout when sharing content for Teams events Organizers and presenters who have access to production tools now see updated layout options when sharing content in the “Manage what attendees see” experience for Teams events. The available layouts are speaker focused, content focused, and content only. The new speaker focused layout prioritizes presenter video alongside shared content for greater visibility. Available for Teams events organizers on Teams for Windows desktop and Mac desktop. Fundamentals and Security Enhanced real-time alerting rule management in Teams admin center Administrators can now duplicate an existing alerting rule to create a similar configuration without rebuilding it, bulk upload users when creating or editing a rule, and delete rules directly from the management experience. These capabilities are available for in-progress meetings and calls rule types, and organizations can configure monitoring for up to 500 users across their real-time alerting rules. Security Detection Report in Teams admin center A new Security Detection Report in the Teams admin center gives admins a unified view of messaging security detections across signals such as impersonation, malicious URLs, and weaponizable file types. Admins can review detection activity in one place and export detailed data for further investigation, improving visibility into threats in Teams. Single pane for monitoring and troubleshooting meetings and calls (Windows) Administrators can monitor meeting and call health across the organization from one place, identifying recurring issues, uncovering trends, and proactively troubleshooting problems affecting people in both live and past meetings and calls. Meeting participant detail audit records in all participating tenants Admins can now access participant-level audit records for their own users in cross-tenant meetings, helping investigate incidents even when another organization hosted the meeting. Teams audit logging now shares meeting participant detail records with all participating tenants, not just the organizer tenant, and each record includes organizer information so admins can tell whether a meeting was organized inside or outside their tenant. Teams optimization for VDI now supports Teams Events (Windows) Attendees joining Teams Events from virtualized Windows desktops can offload audio and video to their local device, supporting high definition playback while easing load on the virtual desktop. Optimization works on Windows endpoints connecting to Azure Virtual Desktop, Windows 365, Citrix, Omnissa, or Amazon. Captions, DVR, reactions, streaming chat, and Q&A are all supported, as are first-party and third-party eCDNs. Teams Platform Real-time buying signals, now in Teams Sales Navigator for Microsoft Teams delivers real-time lead and account insights directly within Microsoft Teams. Sellers can stay on top of key buying signals, discover opportunities where they work, and take action while opportunities are most relevant. The integration helps teams move from insight to action faster by surfacing Sales Navigator intelligence in their daily workflow. Unified agent and app installation management across Microsoft 365 and Teams admin center (Windows) Administrators using the Microsoft 365 admin center and Teams admin center can apply app and agent installation changes once and have them enforced consistently across Teams, Outlook, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. Previously, installation changes made in the Microsoft 365 admin center applied only to Outlook and Microsoft 365, and changes made in the Teams admin center applied only to Teams. Identify custom Teams apps that need updates for private and shared channels Admins can view a list in Teams admin center of custom apps in their tenant that need updates to work in private and shared channels. The list helps admins identify impacted apps, understand which ones require developer action, and coordinate updates so people can keep using custom apps across all supported channel types. Prominent search for app and agent discovery in the Store Search now sits in the middle of the Store page, with improved type-ahead suggestions, a more informative results page, and natural language processing to surface the most relevant apps and agents. Add multiple steps when building a workflow from scratch When building a workflow from scratch, you can add several steps at once, so you can assemble multi-step automation without returning to edit it step by step, reducing repetitive setup work and simplifying the creation of more advanced automations. Collect information with List Form in Workflows A workflow can open with a form that gathers the details it needs up front, so automation runs on structured input rather than chasing information midway. Single-character keyboard shortcuts for focused message actions (Windows) Single-character shortcuts let you quickly take common messaging actions such as edit, delete, reply, forward, pin, save, mark unread, quote reply, and react when a message has keyboard focus. The shortcuts are a predefined messaging set, and they are discoverable and customizable in the keyboard shortcuts dialog. Certified devices EPOS IMPACT 1000 MS UC ANC WL USB-C+A On-ear Bluetooth® headset. Supplied with a BTD 900c dongle, a USB‑C to USB‑A adapter, and a USB‑C charging cable. Features ANC, EPOS BrainAdapt™ technologies, and EPOS AI™â€‘powered voice pickup and noise cancellation, ensuring your voice sounds natural and clear in any environment. EPOS IMPACT 1000 MS UC ANC WL USB-C+A Stand On-ear Bluetooth® headset. Supplied with a table stand for wireless charging, a BTD 900c dongle, a USB‑C to USB‑A adapter, and a USB‑C charging cable. Features ANC, EPOS BrainAdapt™ technologies, and EPOS AI™â€‘powered voice pickup and noise cancellation, ensuring your voice sounds natural and clear in any environment. EPOS IMPACT 1000 MS UC Mono WL / ANC WL Dongle-free Bluetooth® headsets available in monaural and binaural on-ear configurations. Supplied with a USB-C charging cable and a USB-C to USB-A adapter. Features EPOS BrainAdapt™ technologies and EPOS AI™-powered voice pickup and noise cancellation for clear, natural-sounding communication in any environment. The binaural ANC WL model also includes Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) to help reduce background distractions. EPOS IMPACT 1000 MS UC ANC WL Stand On-ear, dongle-free Bluetooth® headset. Supplied with a table stand for wireless charging, a USB‑C charging cable, and a USB‑C to USB‑A adapter. Features ANC, EPOS BrainAdapt™ technologies, and EPOS AI™â€‘powered voice pickup and noise cancellation, ensuring your voice sounds natural and clear in any environment. Q-SYS RoomSuite Collaboration Bar + Controller The Q-SYS RoomSuite Collaboration Bar and expansion devices provide a scalable AV solution for standard small-to-large meeting spaces. This Windows-based solution features built-in audio, video, and supports Microsoft Teams Rooms and bring-your-own-meeting conferencing. Includes a touch panel for control and allows for optional table microphones for extended audio coverage. Q-SYS RoomSuite Collaboration Bar + Controller + Expansion Mic The Q-SYS RoomSuite Collaboration Bar and expansion devices provide a scalable AV solution for standard small-to-large meeting spaces. This Windows-based solution features built-in audio, video, and supports Microsoft Teams Rooms and bring-your-own-meeting conferencing. Includes a touch panel for control and allows for optional table microphones for extended audio coverage. The Q-SYS RoomSuite Collaboration Bar can support up to 4 expansion mics. Shure IntelliMix Room Kit 30 | 50 | 70 | 80 Microsoft Teams Rooms-certified solutions for small, medium, and large meeting spaces. Shure IntelliMix Room Kits include a Windows-based Teams Rooms compute with Shure’s premium audio signal processing, an intuitive touch panel, an all-in-one ceiling array microphone and loudspeaker, and intelligent high-resolution video. Designed for streamlined deployment with zero-touch or low-touch setup, the kits provide high-quality audio and video experiences across a range of room sizes. Simply connect devices, power on, and sign in to get started. Shure IntelliMix™ Bar Pro Kit (Black) Clearly capture precise audio and video for AI-powered meetings in medium to large collaboration spaces with this powerful all-in-one Android based video conference bar. Enterprise ready with auto-setup and simple global management, IT managers can create meeting experiences focused on participants with reliable transcription for enhanced AI tools. Shure MXA925 Ceiling Array Microphone + MXP-6 Pendant Passive Loudspeaker + MXN-AMP PoE + IntelliMix P300 This Microsoft Teams–certified bundle combines the MXA925 ceiling array microphone, IntelliMix® P300 DSP, MXN‑AMP PoE+ multichannel amplifier, and MXP‑6 pendant loudspeakers to deliver a fully validated, end‑to‑end room audio solution for medium to large spaces. Designed to meet Microsoft’s performance and reliability requirements, it provides automatic, precise speech capture, enterprise‑grade echo cancellation, and evenly distributed sound reinforcement while simplifying deployment through networked audio, PoE+ power, and a single‑vendor ecosystem. Shure MXA925 Ceiling Array Microphone + MXP-5 Ceiling-Mount Passive Loudspeaker + MXN-AMP PoE + IntelliMix P300 This Microsoft Teams–certified bundle delivers a complete, scalable room audio solution by combining the MXA925 ceiling array microphone with IntelliMix P300 DSP, the MXN‑AMP PoE+ multichannel amplifier, and MXP‑5 ceiling speakers for clear speech capture and consistent sound coverage in medium to large meeting spaces. The MXA925 uses Automatic Coverage™ and advanced IntelliMix DSP to capture natural, intelligible speech without complex setup, while the P300 provides powerful echo cancellation, noise reduction, and USB connectivity to Teams Rooms systems. The MXN‑AMP and MXP‑5 speakers simplify installation with networked audio and PoE+ power, delivering balanced, room‑filling audio for both in‑room and remote participants. Shure MXA320 Table Array Microphone+MXN5-C Networked Loudspeaker + Intellimix P300 Audio Conferencing Processor The Shure MXA320 Table Array Microphone, MXN5‑C Networked Loudspeaker System, and IntelliMix P300 Conferencing Processor form a fully certified Microsoft Teams Rooms audio bundle designed for Medium meeting spaces. This integrated solution delivers clear, consistent, and intelligible audio through advanced DSP, Steerable Coverage™ technology, and optimized networked loudspeaker performance. The MXA320 captures voices with precision while minimizing ambient noise, the P300 enhances audio quality with powerful IntelliMix® processing, and the MXN5‑C ensures natural, room‑filling sound playback. Together, they provide a seamless, scalable, and easy‑to‑deploy conferencing experience that meets Microsoft’s stringent certification requirements for performance, reliability, and user experience. Shure MXA902 Ceiling Microphone & Loudspeaker + ANIUSB-MATRIX Audio Conferencing Ki High-quality, reliable meeting room audio is now easier than ever. Certified for Microsoft Teams, the Shure MXA902 Integrated Ceiling Array Microphone + Loudspeaker, paired with the ANIUSB-MATRIX Audio Network Interface, delivers a complete, easy to install, ready to use audio solution. Designed for small and medium sized spaces, it provides premium sound, full room coverage, and seamless connectivity. Shure MXW neXt 4&8 Wireless Microphone Systems with boundary microphone configuration + MXN5W-C Networked Loudspeaker This Microsoft Teams-certified solution combines MXW neXt wireless microphones, IntelliMix® DSP, and the MXN5W-C networked ceiling loudspeaker to deliver consistent speech capture and clear room audio for hybrid learning and collaboration spaces. With flexible wireless deployment, integrated signal processing, and cloud-based management, the solution simplifies installation while providing reliable audio performance for both in-room and remote participants. Shure MXW neXt 2 Wireless Microphone System with Boundary Microphone Configuration and MXN5W-C This Microsoft Teams certified bundle combines the MXW neXt 2 wireless microphone system with boundary microphones and the MXN5W-C networked ceiling loudspeaker to deliver clear speech capture and consistent room audio for classrooms and collaboration spaces. Easy to deploy and cloud enabled for remote management, the solution simplifies installation while providing reliable wireless performance for both in-room and remote participants. Logitech Zone Vibe Pro for Business Zone Vibe Pro for Business is certified for Microsoft Teams and offers the over-ear design that people love — purpose-built for open offices and wide deployment. Our AI-powered voice isolation uses machine learning to capture your voice clearly. Adaptive hybrid ANC minimizes distractions, while custom 40 mm drivers deliver vivid, true-to-life audio.Introducing a new feature on Microsoft Teams: "Save this message"
Exciting news - alongside pinning your posts/messages, you can now save them too. All your saved messages will be neatly organized under the "Saved" menu within Teams, right below the "Followed Thread" section. Look out for a special icon marking your saved messages for easy reference. And the best part? You have the flexibility to unsave messages whenever you wish. Stay organized and never lose track of important information with this handy
Shared Channels: @Channel mentions fail to trigger activity notifications for team-shared members
Hello everyone, I am facing a persistent issue regarding notification behavior in Microsoft Teams Shared Channels that I hope someone can clarify or help with. Scenario: We have a Shared Channel that is shared with multiple teams (e.g., 17 teams in total). Note: I know that this way of communicating is not the recommended way, but we are not allowed to use any Viva products etc. Users accessing the channel are members of those shared-in teams, but they are not listed as direct individual members in the Shared Channel's own member list. Users have their channel notification settings correctly configured to receive notifications (e.g., "All new posts" or standard banner/activity settings). The Problem: When someone uses a channel mention (e.g., @ChannelName) in this shared channel, the users who have access via the team-sharing mechanism do not receive any activity feed notifications. The workaround/oddity: They only receive the activity notification if we explicitly add each user as a direct individual member to the Shared Channel. The dilemma: Since the channel is shared with 17 teams, adding hundreds of users manually or via scripts as direct members creates massive redundancy and clutters the UI (users see the team and the channel redundantly). Inconsistency: We noticed that in older shared channels created some time ago, channel mentions worked across team shares without needing direct individual memberships. It seems newer shared channels behave differently and strictly require direct membership to trigger activity feed notifications for @Channel mentions. Questions: Is this a known design limitation or a recent backend change in Microsoft Teams for newer Shared Channels regarding how @Channel mentions resolve indirect team members? How are organizations supposed to utilize @Channel mentions effectively in large-scale collaborations involving multiple shared teams without bloating the direct membership list? Any insights or workarounds would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!How to automatically record all Teams meetings?
I have subscribed to a Teams Premium trial and added the license to a user's account. As global admin, I'm trying to enable automatic recording on ALL Teams meetings for that user. I don't want the user to need to remember to record meetings. In the Teams Admin Center, I open the Global (org-wide default) meeting policy, but there is no option here to automatically record all meetings. Instead, the only option is to enable optional recording, but users still have to manually start recording or enable recording before the meeting starts. If the user forgets to select one of these options, the meeting is not recorded. In the Teams Admin Center, I have created a custom meeting template called 'Coaching'. There is an option called 'Record meetings automatically' with a toggle. That option is disabled. When I hover over it, it says, 'Locked by another option's default value setting'. There is no hint or documentation about which other option is conflicting with the 'Record meetings automatically' option. How do I record all meetings automatically for a user? It seems so simple in Zoom!
Cannot deploy Custom backgrounds for Teams in VDI environment
We have detected (or so we think) a malfunction in Teams on VDI when attempting to deploy Teams backgrounds that should be available to users for their video calls. The only article that documents how to do this is the following: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/custom-meeting-backgrounds It clearly states that the path where custom Teams backgrounds are stored is in the user profile, specifically in the folder: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams\Backgrounds\Uploads Expected Process The process is not direct, but it is straightforward. Using a script, a UUID is generated, which is used to create two image files (JPG, BMP, or PNG format, depending on the original image). For example, if the original is a JPG: UUID.JPG UUID_thumb.JPG These two files are copied to the path above, and on the next Teams session startup they should be available to the user. ✅ This works correctly in physical (non-VDI) environments. Tested many times without issues. What We Have Observed in VDI Even when the file pair is copied to the correct path within the user's FSLogix profile, the image does not become available in the Teams client — even after restarting Teams multiple times or even the VDI session itself. After each restart, the files are confirmed to be persistent and located at the correct profile path.[ %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams\Backgrounds\Uploads folder contents] When a background image is added manually through the Teams UI, a folder is created in OneDrive called "Microsoft Teams User Custom Video Backgrounds". If additional images are manually added to that OneDrive folder, they do not appear as available in Teams. This leads us to believe that the upload process performs additional operations in the registry or other configuration locations beyond simply copying the file. A ProcMon capture was performed, but after an initial superficial inspection, it was not possible to determine exactly what is happening under the hood.NEW Teams Feature: Test Your Mic & Speaker BEFORE Joining a Meeting!
🎙️ No more "Can you hear me?" moments in Microsoft Teams! Microsoft just rolled out a small but genuinely useful feature: you can now test your microphone and speaker directly from the Teams pre-join screen — before you even enter the meeting. ✅ Test your speaker with a quick tone ✅ Record and play back your mic ✅ Get a green checkmark confirming you're ready to join No more digging through Settings > Devices > Make a test call every time. Have you tried it yet? Let me know in the comments if this feature has saved you from an awkward audio moment in a meeting 👇 #MicrosoftTeams #Microsoft365 #TeamsUpdate #Productivity #RemoteWork #M365Insider
