Cross-Platform Meeting Connect: Great in-room meeting experiences across Teams and Zoom
Your team is gathered in a Teams Room for a project review, but the customer’s invitation is for a Zoom meeting. You want to use the room’s audio, video, and displays, share the presentation, and stay connected to the conversation. You shouldn’t have to give up your room’s setup just because the meeting is on another platform. Whether your organization uses Teams or Zoom Meetings today, people need the flexibility to meet with customers, partners, and colleagues on a range of platforms. Direct Guest Join will allow Teams Rooms to join Zoom Meetings and Zoom Rooms to join Teams meetings. Microsoft and Zoom are building on that foundation with Cross-Platform Meeting Connect, to address some of the most requested needs of people joining meetings from a conference room, regardless of the platform they use. The goal is a more complete room experience for the everyday cross-platform meetings that bring organizations together. Planned improvements to sharing, meeting visibility, room controls, and HD video are designed to help people contribute confidently using the room’s capabilities. Share ideas from the room A more seamless room experience also means making it easy to share and view content. With planned HDMI sharing, people will be able to connect a laptop to the room and share content directly into the meeting. The room will also be able to display content shared by other participants, helping everyone follow the same presentation or document. Stay connected to people and the conversation Knowing who is in the meeting helps people collaborate with confidence. A participant roster is designed to show the meeting participant list on room display and update as people join and leave. It will give in-room participants a clearer view of who is in the meeting especially when some attendees are not visible in the current video layout. Enhanced chat visibility will help everyone in the room follow both parts of the meeting conversation by bringing read-only chat into the room layout alongside the meeting video. People will be able to show or hide the chat panel as needed, without having chat appear unexpectedly over video. This experience is read-only: participants will be able to view chat supplied by the meeting platform but not compose or send messages from the room itself. Use familiar room controls People should be able to rely on the controls in front of them. With Cross-Platform Meeting Connect, planned improvements will keep room hardware and touch console controls synced with the hosted meeting, prioritizing mute, unmute, and end-call for the initial delivery. That synchronization is intended to preserve the room's behavior people expect and reduce uncertainty about whether the room is muted or has left the call. Keep people and content in view For rooms with two displays, we are introducing a layout that uses each screen for a different purpose: shared content on one screen and the participant gallery on the other. This would let in-room attendees follow a presentation while keeping remote participants in view. Video improvements support sending and receiving video at up to 1080p for Teams meeting on Zoom Rooms. Actual resolution will depend on the meeting platform’s policies, the room device, and network conditions. The experience is designed to adapt when bandwidth is constrained, or hardware cannot sustain the higher resolution, with meeting reliability remaining a priority. More flexibility, with clear expectations Microsoft and Zoom share a goal of helping people collaborate across platforms while making better use of their meeting rooms. These improvements are designed for both directions, with a focus on the capabilities people need most in everyday room meetings. A guest meeting will still differ from a native meeting, and this work does not extend every enhancement to every platform. As the integration evolves, cross-platform meeting experiences will move forward together. Individual capabilities will depend on support from both the room system and the meeting platform, helping ensure people see controls that work for their meeting experience. What’s next With Cross-Platform Meeting Connect, Teams Rooms will make it easier for people to join, participate, and collaborate in meetings hosted on other platforms, helping organizations get more from their meeting room experience. Stay tuned as we continue working toward more ways to make cross-platform meetings easier and more connected.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 smarter bot protection in Microsoft Teams meetings
Organizations need confidence that the right people and tools are participating in their discussions. That's why we're introducing a new Teams admin policy designed to give organizations more visibility and control over external bots in their meetings. This new experience helps organizers identify bots, and adds safeguards before they're admitted, giving organizations greater confidence that only the intended participants and tools will be present.Help your customers get answers and support with Teams Phone Agent
Now generally available, Teams Phone Agent is an AI-powered calling receptionist that helps organizations serve their customers. It answers incoming calls to help customers with common requests, such as answering questions and booking appointments. It also intelligently transfers callers to an employee or department with context notes when additional assistance is needed.Serve customers with Queues app's collaborative calling for Microsoft Teams
Queues app for Microsoft Teams turns an existing call queue into a collaborative workspace where calling representatives and supervisors work the same set of customer conversations together in Teams. Eligible organizations can try it with a 90-day Teams Premium trial and discount opportunity. Terms and conditions apply.Focus on the Teams Phone calls that matter most with intelligent call delegation
We're excited to announce that intelligent call delegation can now help answer your incoming Teams calls and schedule follow-up appointments on your behalf. This experience helps users focus on engaging with the calls that matter most and is available through the Frontier program.Adaptive by Design: How Microsoft Discovery Explores Science
In Microsoft’s ALE evaluation, Discovery Engine with CLIO enabled leads publicly benchmarked agentic harnesses across three scientific domains. Microsoft Discovery is incorporating CLIO into Discovery Engine. Discovery Engine can effectively test competing hypotheses, learn from unsuccessful approaches, and revise reasoning toward the strongest path for success. Microsoft Discovery is incorporating CLIO (Cognitive Loop via In-Situ Optimization) into the latest releases of Discovery Engine, now available in the Discovery app and coming soon to the enterprise platform. Discovery Engine using CLIO mode achieved higher scores than all other publicly benchmarked agentic harnesses across the three scientific domains evaluated to date. With CLIO mode enabled, Discovery Engine can effectively explore competing hypotheses using tools and models, evaluate evidence, learn from unsuccessful approaches, and adjust its reasoning as new information emerges. To test the value of this update to the Discovery Engine, we ran the Agent’s Last Exam (ALE) benchmark with GPT-5.6 Sol as the default model while providing dynamic access to a broader mixture of models. Discovery Engine scored 61.6% in health and medicine versus 57.2% (+4.4%) for Codex with GPT-5.6 Sol, 75.2% in physical sciences versus 66.6% (+8.6%) Claude Code with Opus 5, and 64.6% in life sciences versus 60.8% (+3.8%) Codex with GPT-5.6 Sol. Built for the Scientific Mindset It is well established that agentic harnesses are important for accomplishing useful work. GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Codex, and many others have made significant contributions on top of LLMs. However, these harnesses have largely been focused on workflows as they relate to software development, rather than scientific research. Discovery provides a harness for the rest of science and engineering, bringing both the scientific mindset of ideation and evidence collection, and the engineering rigor of problem decomposition and structured work to a collaborative environment. Importantly, CLIO reflects on regrets, treating unsuccessful paths as valuable information that informs its next course of action: it identifies why an approach failed, updates downstream reasoning, and redirects exploration without discarding what was learned. With Discovery Engine’s CLIO mode, we are rapidly increasing the ability to explore ideas that do not have a clear or well-researched solution. Figure 1 – Discovery Engine with CLIO enabled increased performance across all three scientific domains and provides consistency compared to individual models. Ultimately, this test of Discovery Engine's reasoning process and ability to use multiple models shows the benefit of how to increase the outcomes above any of the available models. The benefits increase further as you move from bounded direct workflow execution through exploration of new ideas and designs, but these results show that the increase even holds across a broad swath of scientific questions. Adaptive by Design Discovery Engine’s CLIO mode expands ideation and reflection to identify better options in addition to using multiple fallback models when the base model underperforms. Built using GitHub Copilot as the base harness, CLIO adds additional depth and exploration that is fit for purpose for the technical problems encountered in science and engineering. As the model ecosystem becomes increasingly diverse across performance and efficiency, having the flexibility to change is crucial to always adopting model strengths. One example of this benefit is in pursuit of Agent’s Last Exam questions where Discovery Engine switches models dynamically when facing false rejections or is otherwise unable to answer questions sufficiently using the base model. If we compare Discovery Engine to using a single specific model and harness combination, as you would experience when using a model-provider specific solution, the performance gaps expand dramatically (e.g., to +18.3% in physical sciences versus Codex with GPT-5.6 Sol, and +8.6% from Claude Code with Opus 5). The progress of ALE science tasks represented as performance average across life sciences, physical sciences, and health & medicine questions. Discovery Engine's harness and use of multi-models is crucial to improving performance and consistency. About Agent's Last Exam ALE is a large-scale, multi-disciplinary rolling benchmark released in June 2026, with 152 publicly available tasks spanning 13 professional domains and 55 subfields. Unlike benchmarks centered on question answering, ALE focuses on measuring agentic performance on tasks ranging from minutes to hours, completing deliverables using real data and tools. The questions in ALE are sufficiently difficult to stress the benefits of this update to Discovery Engine and importantly test the ability to react to scientific tools which are gathering new information in a long running agentic process. Consistent with Microsoft Discovery’s scientific focus, our evaluation focuses on three of ALE’s thirteen top-level domains: Physical Sciences, Health & Medicine, and Life Sciences. Example tasks include clinical variant annotation, molecular simulation, epidemiological forecasting, and medical-image analysis. For consistency with public benchmarking, we mirror ALE’s Strengths by Domain analysis, which reports domain level scores only for domains containing at least 10 tasks. We therefore exclude domains below that threshold as the published analysis does not provide corresponding comparison scores. Furthermore, as specified in the analysis, we benchmark comparably by following the five-hour time limit evaluation protocol rather than the two-hour limit. All attempts were immediately terminated after five hours and graded on the work produced, allowing partial credit for completed portions of the task. With CLIO mode, Discovery Engine can explore each ALE task through multiple independent approaches, within the same five-hour limit. By comparing these approaches, Discovery Engine identifies gaps, shares learnings across belief states, and successfully resolves the strongest path for each task into a single, evidence-backed answer. Accordingly, all reported domain scores are presented as Pass@1, demonstrating not only the performance gain but also the increase in reliability. Get Started Today While benchmarks like Agent’s Last Exam are useful in demonstrating Discovery’s utility for execution of scientific workflows, it has also generated real-world outcomes for high impact scenarios. Discovery Engine with CLIO mode was recently used to discover a novel organic redox flow battery negolyte. In the coming weeks, we will continue to demonstrate additional scientific use cases from chip design to radio frequency (RF) engineering to wastewater epidemiology, showing the depth and breadth of scientific applications which Discovery can enable. We are excited to see how Microsoft Discovery and CLIO can enable your hardest scientific or engineering problems. The Microsoft Discovery app is available in preview as a localized experience that gives researchers, students, academic labs, and scientific teams a simpler way to begin using Microsoft Discovery capabilities without starting with a full enterprise deployment. It is available for download on the Microsoft Discovery GitHub and users can get started with a GitHub Copilot account. Co-authored by Christine Caggiano, Joshua Bradley, Steven Truitt, and William ChappellWhat’s New in Microsoft Teams | July 2026
I hope everyone is having a great summer - July has flown by. As we head into the second half of the year, we're continuing to innovate in Teams to help people collaborate with people and AI to get work done more efficiently. This month's updates bring together new ways to stay informed, simplify everyday tasks, and put AI to work across more scenarios and roles. One highlight is the new Meeting Recaps app, which makes it easier to find, revisit, and catch up on important conversations across your meetings. We're also expanding how organizations manage apps and agents in Teams with improved request experiences that provide greater transparency for users and more control for admins. You'll also find updates that make collaboration more seamless, from accessing Viva Engage communities directly in Teams to improving calling experiences on mobile. Read on to see everything that's new in Microsoft Teams this month. Feature categories: (All features listed are generally available unless otherwise noted) Chat and Collaboration Meetings Teams Phone Workplace - Places and Teams Rooms Fundamentals and Security Platform Frontline Workers Certified for Teams Devices Chat and Collaboration Access Viva Engage communities in Teams Staying connected to your communities meant leaving Teams to check Viva Engage. Now you can open and interact with your organization's communities straight from the Teams left rail and get notified in Activity when something relevant happens. Keyboard Shortcut Dialog has search functionality. Long shortcut lists are hard to scan when you just need one. The keyboard shortcut dialog now lets you search by shortcut name or by the key combination itself. LinkedIn Hiring Assistant integration for Microsoft Teams Recruiting teams can now bring LinkedIn Hiring Assistant directly into Microsoft Teams to streamline candidate review and hiring manager collaboration. Recruiters can share candidates in Teams, collect structured feedback, and keep hiring decisions moving without requiring hiring managers to switch tools. The integration helps teams reduce feedback delays, improve alignment earlier in the hiring process, and collaborate where work is already happening. Available for LinkedIn Hiring Assistant customers. Learn more: Hiring Assistant for LinkedIn Recruiter & Jobs Meetings Meeting Recaps app Stop hunting through chats and calendars for the meeting notes you need. The Meeting Recaps app brings your intelligent recaps together in one convenient, pinned app in the Teams sidebar, making it easier to find and catch up across your meetings. Browse meetings with Recap from the past 30 days and use quick filters to instantly surface the meetings that matter most, like when you were mentioned in the discussion. You can also generate a podcast-style Audio Recap summary across multiple meetings so that you can conveniently catch up on the go. Teams Phone Queues app for Microsoft Teams in GCC High Government organizations need advanced collaborative call handling without leaving their compliance boundary. Now available in the GCC High environment, the Queues app brings advanced queue management, reporting, and supervisor tools directly into Teams, helping agencies deliver faster, more efficient service to constituents calling government offices and to internal customers, such as employees contacting an IT Help Desk. Queues app is available through Teams Premium. View the interactive Queues App demo for more details. Teams Phone user multi-line on Teams Mobile (iOS) Juggling separate devices or accounts for different roles is a hassle. Teams Phone multi-line now works on Teams mobile iOS: admins can assign up to 10 numbers to one user, each appearing as its own tab, so you can stay organized across roles or regions from a single Teams account. If the player doesn't load, open the video in a new window: Open video Speed dial on Teams mobile Finding the right person to call should not slow you down. A dedicated speed dial tab in Teams mobile now lets users more easily add, edit, and label key contacts by role or priority, with updates synced across devices for a consistent calling experience. For frontline workers such as nurses, that means reaching the right contact faster to help accelerate patient care. Workplace - Places and Teams Rooms AI-powered notes for in-person meetings with Facilitator in Teams Rooms on Android and Windows Avoid ending in-person meetings with no record of what was decided. In Teams Rooms on Android, the Facilitator agent captures notes, decisions, and actions for in-person meetings alongside scheduled and hybrid ones. Invite it with one tap of the room console; notes appear on the front of room display or touch board and are available in meeting recap when shared, then deleted if no one keeps them. Nothing stays in the room. Available with Teams Rooms Pro. Bulk application of app settings to Teams Rooms on Android devices in the Pro Management portal Configuring rooms one at a time eats up an IT Admins day. Admins can now apply Teams Rooms on Android app settings to multiple devices in bulk from the Pro Management portal. Available in Teams Rooms Pro. Digital signage support for Teams panels Screens sitting dark outside meetings are a missed opportunity. Idle Teams panels can now display digital signage, just like Teams Rooms front of room displays, with source and settings managed in the Pro Management portal. Available with Teams Rooms Pro or Shared space licenses. Human interpreter listening mode supported in Teams Rooms on Windows Multilingual meetings lose nuance when there's no live interpretation. Professional interpreters can now listen in and translate in real time in Teams Rooms on Windows, without disrupting the speaker. Organizers preset the languages, and participants choose and switch among them. Available with Teams Rooms Pro. Teams Phone devices support for Interpreter (VoIP calls) Don’t let language barriers impact calls. With AI Interpreter, Teams Phone devices provide real‑time language interpretation directly within the call experience. Users can participate naturally in multilingual conversations while the device interprets spoken audio, reducing language barriers and supporting clearer communication in everyday calling scenarios. Entra passwordless resource account support for Teams Rooms on Windows devices Shared room accounts with passwords are a security weak spot. Teams Rooms on Windows now support Entra resource accounts for secure, passwordless sign-in that separates device and user identities. A migration wizard and Pro Management portal dashboard make moving over and tracking progress straightforward. Individual settings page with 2-way settings sync between device and the Pro management portal for Teams rooms on Android and panels Not knowing how a device is configured makes troubleshooting slow. A new individual settings page in the Pro Management portal shows how each Android-based device is set up, with two-way sync so changes flow between the device and the portal, for Teams Rooms on Android and panels. Call quality feedback surveys for Teams Rooms on Android Organizations can't fix call quality problems they never hear about. Users can now rate calls and meetings and give feedback on audio, video, and screen-sharing in Teams Rooms on Android, helping your organization keep experiences consistent. Join Google Meet meetings in Teams Rooms on Windows for GCC and GCC-H Cross-platform meetings shouldn't be off-limits for government organizations. GCC and GCC-High now get two-way Direct Guest Join between Google Meet and Teams: Teams Rooms on Windows can join Google Meet, and Google Meet devices can join Teams, with one-click join from the calendar or by meeting ID. Fundamentals and Security Choose how Teams on the web handles sign-in Teams on the web now honors a user's sign-in preference, giving them the choice to stay signed in across browser sessions or be prompted to sign in again when the browser is reopened. This helps balance convenience on personal devices with security on shared computers. Platform Improved request flows for apps and agents blocked by admins We're making it easier for users to request access to apps and agents that aren't currently available to them in Teams. A simplified and more transparent request experience helps users understand what action is needed, track the status of their requests, and receive updates when decisions are made. For admins, enhanced request management capabilities in Teams Admin Center and new request notifications make it easier to review and act on requests, helping organizations accelerate access to approved apps and agents. Frontline Workers Get Started Faster with Improved Onboarding First impressions matter, and the new onboarding experience makes day one in Shifts a breeze. The app adapts to who you are — frontline manager or worker — and surfaces the right next step exactly when you need it. Managers can now spin up a brand-new team and its first schedule in a single action. One-click access to help articles and clear guidance on permissions means no one hits a dead end. Whether it's your team's first day in Shifts or your hundredth, you'll be productive in moments. Easily Restore Deleted Schedules Accidental deletions happen, but getting back on track should not slow your team down. With schedule restore, managers can quickly recover a previously deleted schedule right from the schedule creation flow. Simply choose the version you want to bring back, restore it in a few clicks, and pick up where you left off — no rebuilding from scratch, no lost momentum, and no extra support needed. It is a simple safety net that helps teams move confidently, even when plans change or mistakes happen. Reach the right people and close the loop with Follow Up Frontline managers often spend too much time chasing updates across chats, messages, and meetings. With Follow Up in Frontline Agent, a manager can send a single Teams request, automatically collect responses by a set deadline, and review a consolidated summary in one place. This helps teams quickly confirm task completion, shift coverage, handoffs, compliance requirements, and operational readiness. Managers can also track responses, follow up with non-responders, edit requests, and add recipients, with support for up to 20 people per request. Run hands-free inspections with voice-driven Site Walkthrough Site Walkthrough transforms inspections, audits, and compliance checks into a hands-free, voice-driven experience. Workers can start a walkthrough with or without a checklist, speak observations naturally, and let Frontline Agent capture and organize everything automatically. When complete, Frontline Agent generates a structured report, checks off completed tasks, flags follow-up items, and records timestamps for audits and compliance. This helps teams complete checklists faster, stay focused on their environment, and capture critical insights without manual data entry. Experience Teams for Frontline with a new interactive demo Curious what Microsoft Teams looks like for frontline workers? The new Teams for Frontline demo experience lets you step into the shoes of a retail associate, nurse, or warehouse worker and explore a fully functional frontline environment in just one click. No purchase, trial, or sign-up required. Immerse yourself in the day-to-day experience of frontline work and see how Teams helps employees stay connected, manage schedules, and get work done with AI-powered assistance. Check it out at aka.ms/FLWdemo! Certified for Teams Devices Q-SYS Scheduling Panel The Q-SYS Scheduling Panel is built on the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP), as a Microsoft Teams Panel. Displaying meeting details, availability, and allowing users to reserve meeting spaces on the spot. MAXHUB XT20-VB Kit The MAXHUB XT20-VB Kit integrates the XCore Kit Pro and XBar U50 to deliver a complete Microsoft Teams Rooms solution for small to medium meeting spaces. XCore Kit Pro includes an 11.6-inch touch console and a 12th gen Intel Core i5 mini-PC running Microsoft Teams Rooms for seamless collaboration, with 4K wired content sharing and dual-screen display capabilities. XBar U50 is a 100MP dual-lens USB videobar with 12 beamforming microphones, dual 15W speakers, AI video features including Auto Framing and Speaker Tracking, and FlexMount for easy installation. MAXHUB's Pivot Plus enables remote device management. The kit includes a 3-year warranty and local support. ThinkPad Dual-mode Wireless ANC Foldable Headset 8550 (USB-A & USB-C, Teams) Certified by Microsoft Teams for open office, ThinkPad Dual-Mode Wireless ANC Foldable Headset 8550 (Aura Edition) redefines best-in-class portable headset for hybrid work, featuring a foldable, lightweight design that’s effortless to carry anywhere. Adaptive hybrid ANC and AI-powered ENC keep distractions at bay, letting you enjoy crystal-clear calls and immersive sound for next-level focus. Sound by Bose technology delivers expertly tuned audio for both calls and music. Connect with tap or via Bluetooth® Receiver- and experience how seamless productivity can be. Lenovo Wireless Speakerphone 6000 Equipped with eight beam forming microphones and advanced AI noise cancellation, it ensures crystal-clear communication-ideal for today’s hybrid work environments. Its high-fidelity speaker provides rich, immersive sound, while Microsoft Teams certification guarantees reliable audio quality and exceptional voice pickup performance for seamless collaboration. Extron Medium and Extra-large conference rooms This system accommodates up to ten people for the medium conference room, and 18+ people in the Extra-large conference room, and includes Microsoft Teams Rooms conferencing capabilities, enabling participants in remote locations to join meetings. Extron AEC – acoustic echo cancellation, ceiling speakers, control processors, and power amplifiers deliver enterprise level security, intelligible speech, and consistent sound levels across the entire meeting area in conjunction with a Audio‑Technica Engineered Sound Wireless systems. This Design Solution has been designed and meticulously tested for best-in-class performance and ease of use. Logitech Express Install: Logitech Rally Bar & Ashton Bentley AB One65 for Teams Rooms on Windows & Android Logitech, in partnership with Ashton Bentley and Samsung, is simplifying room installations with Express Install solutions for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows and Android, making high-quality meeting spaces more accessible and easier to deploy. Logitech's Express Install kit for Medium rooms can be installed in under an hour, with minimal labor and no specialist help needed. MAXHUB Panel SP10 The MAXHUB Panel SP10 is a room scheduling solution with native Microsoft Teams integration, empowered by the MDEP. This 11-inch panel delivers a crystal-clear, real-time view of room availability, enabling seamless calendar synchronization and effortless on-the-spot reservations for efficient workspace management. High-visibility LED bars indicate room occupancy at a glance, while one-tap booking enables ad hoc reservations with real-time schedule sync. The mounting bracket is included as standard—no extra purchase needed—along with an industry-leading 3-year warranty that reduces lifecycle costs for bulk deployments. Adapt to any architecture with 4-way installation options: standard wall mount, glass partition, slim door frame, or a flush embedded aesthetic. AudioCodes C456HD Touch Expansion Unit Gen2 The AudioCodes C456HD is a native Microsoft Teams desk phone built on MDEP and Android OS for robust security and simplified, enterprise-grade management. Featuring a vibrant 5” color touch screen (1280 x 720) and a dedicated programmable emergency call button, it can deliver a seamless and intuitive user calling experience. For enhanced productivity, an optional multi-purpose expansion module with a 5” color touch screen is also available. The C456HD also features support for an optional hardware-based Mic Off for secure locations. AudioCodes C456HD Microsoft Native Teams Touchscreen Desk Phone The AudioCodes C456HD is a native Microsoft Teams desk phone built on MDEP and Android OS for robust security and simplified, enterprise-grade management. Featuring a vibrant 5” color touch screen (1280 x 720) and a dedicated programmable emergency call button, it delivers a seamless and intuitive user calling experience. For enhanced productivity, an optional multi-purpose expansion module with a 5” color touch screen is also available. The C456HD also features support for an optional hardware-based Mic Off for secure locations.Turn conversations into code with GitHub Copilot in Microsoft Teams
Coding where context lives and collaboration happens The best prompt may be the conversation your team has already had or is currently having. Until now, using a coding agent often meant paying context and coordination taxes. Developers had to leave the discussion, open another tool, and reconstruct the problem in a lengthy prompt: what happened, what the team decided, which constraints matter, and what needs to be built. With GitHub Copilot in Teams, teams can move directly from conversation to action. @mention GitHub Copilot when the team is ready to act, and it can use the conversation alongside repository context to understand the request, implement the change, and create a pull request for review. This makes working with a coding agent more collaborative and visible. Instead of one developer privately reconstructing the request, teammates can contribute context, correct assumptions, refine the approach in real time, and review the resulting work together. Let’s explore the new GitHub Copilot in Teams experience to see how it can streamline development tasks: If the player doesn’t load, open the video in a new window: Open video GitHub Copilot in Teams is available in Teams channels, group chats, meeting chats, and 1:1 chats. Once the GitHub app is installed and added to the conversation, @-mention GitHub Copilot to bring it into the discussion and start a task. During public preview, users can complete the following scenarios with GitHub Copilot in Teams: Build a feature based on requirements discussed in Teams Implement a fix for a bug Expand test coverage or improve documentation Create and update a pull request No copying the discussion into a CLI. No rewriting it in a desktop app. No asking one developer to translate a team decision into the perfect prompt. GitHub Copilot works where the context already lives, and because that context is shared, working with GitHub Copilot becomes a team activity. Built around the controls teams already use GitHub Copilot in Teams works within existing GitHub permissions and repository policies. Branch protections and required reviews continue to apply, and people remain responsible for deciding what gets merged, ensuring that humans stay in the loop at every step. Availability GitHub Copilot in Teams is now available in Public Preview. To try it, install the GitHub app for Microsoft Teams and check out our documentation to get started! Less context reconstruction. More progress from the conversations already happening.
