Microsoft introduces new features in Teams to connect users with friends and family � now available in mobile preview

New features designed for personal life begin to roll out in preview to the Microsoft Teams mobile app today

 

SINGAPORE
– Media OutReach – 23 June 2020 – Microsoft today announced new Teams features
that extends beyond work life to personal life. The new features are designed to alleviate the need for disparate
tools and instead, offer one central hub for individuals, groups, and families
to collaborate, stay connected and organized.

 

Users can expect to connect, collaborate,
and jointly organize their lives across work groups, friends, and family. The
new features start to roll out in preview to the Teams mobile app today and
will be fully rolled out in the coming weeks.

 

“We are using multiple apps and tools–both online
and offline–such as calendars, email, messaging, photo apps, to-do lists, and
documents to manage it all. Every day more people love what Teams does for
them because it is the hub for teamwork that lets you chat, meet, call, and
collaborate all in one place. And while Teams is great for work, we believe it
can help everyone better manage their responsibilities across work and personal
life. With these new features, we
hope to extend the power of Teams to your personal life whether you’re managing
daily family life or just trying to stay connected and in sync with those who
matter most,” said Rami
El Bayadi, Regional Director, Microsoft Office Asia.

 

With
the new features, Microsoft hopes to
provide users one app that seamlessly manages work and personal life as well as
staying connected with those who matter most. Microsoft Teams will now provide
the tools for users to manage daily life; share grocery lists, organize across
family calendars, safely store important information like Wi-Fi passwords and
account info, and even see location updates when loved ones arrive home or at
other locations like work or school.

 

• Stay connected with text chat and
  video calling: Microsoft Teams will become the messaging hub
  for all personal chats and video and voice calls, with fun features like
  sharing GIFs, photos, videos, documents, and even location already integrated.
  Users can create groups to chat and call, to stay connected with family and
  friends.
• Keep everyone on the same page and
  pick up where they left off: Users will
  be able to stay organized by sharing lists, documents, and calendars all within
  the group dashboard.
  Microsoft Teams will allow users to easily go
  back and see the chats, tasks, pictures, videos, and group calendars shared
  within the dashboard,
  providing a great way to pick up
  conversations or projects where they left off.
• Collaborate and share important
  documents efficiently and securely:
  Microsoft Teams integrates with other Microsoft
  365 apps so users can easily share from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint right from
  within the Teams app. All documents are also stored on OneDrive and users can
  now access these documents across other devices – whether it is for planning a
  family budget or preparing kids’ schedules.
• Easily share location and information: Location sharing* is now available as part of these new
  personal features as well, making it easier for users to share their location
  and find their friends.

 

Microsoft Teams will also come with a Safe, which lets users securely
store and share important information, like passwords, rewards numbers, or
login information. Users can easily share this information directly from the
Teams app with families and friends, all backed by the security of two-factor
authentication and end-to-end encryption.

 

To get started on the preview, users can simply use
their Microsoft Teams mobile app at work and add in their personal account. Users
will then be able to toggle between their personal and work accounts. New users
can also visit the app store on iOS or Android to download the mobile app and
sign up with a personal Microsoft account, or create a new one with their phone
number. General availability of the new features, as well as
expanding features to the desktop and web versions of Teams, is expected later
this year.

 

For more information, visit the website to get the preview or find out more about these new features on our blog.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft)
enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an
intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization
on the planet to achieve more.