Office 365 Updates for the Week of June 24

This week Microsoft announced that Teams will be gaining another popular chat feature, Real Time Presence. Teams Presence is now happening in real time meaning that when users'presence is changing, other users can see this change right away.

Another highly anticipated new Teams feature is native external access. Teams users will now be able to message Teams users from a different organization with full fideility. Images, stickers, @mentions, etc will all be available. Look for these to updates beginning at the end of July.

Microsoft will be updating their Site Usage Pages to give even more insights to the users who visit the site. First of all, the Unique Visitors and Site Visits charts will be updated and now there will be a new chart titled Popular Platforms. This is where you can check what type of clients ( Desktop, Mobile web, Tablet, etc) are visiting your site. Very nice.

A big feature was recently announced at SharePoint Summit 2019. Microsoft Home Sites. Microsoft’s goal with SharePoint Home Sites is to enable users to build a new intranet that is designed from the outset to be facilitate collaboration, employee engagement and communications by connecting people and content. Below I have listed some of the new functionality that this new feature will bring.

Connect the workplace with Microsoft Search and megamenu navigation
SharePoint home sites will share relevant news and content to each user based on their role and place in the organization
Increase employee engagement with conversations and compelling video provided by Yammer and Microsoft Stream
Boost individual productivity with personalized content, information, and navigation
Intelligent file experiences, sharing and controls with OneDrive

SharePoint home sites will be connected to the SharePoint start page and will feature improved navigation, insights to activity in your sites and views of your documents. SharePoint home sites is designed to be deployed quickly, minutes instead of months.