Teams updates to watch: malicious link warnings, blocked risky files, and a new private backroom chat

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Microsoft has announced three Teams updates the past months. Two that strengthen security and one that will improve how organizers coordinate events: Malicious URL Protection, Weaponizable file type protection and Private chat for organizers, co‑organizers, and presenters. Please note that timelines can shift, so treat the dates as guidance rather than guarantees. Malicious URL Protection (Roadmap ID 499893 ) Microsoft has announced link‑scanning in Teams chats and channels that warns senders and recipients about unsafe URLs. The feature reached general availability rollout by the end of November 2025, while the separate change to make it ON by default, originally planned as part of that release, has been postponed to early 2026.  If you don't want to wait for it to be on by default, or feel the need to configure it, you can do so in the Teams admins center: "Teams admin center → Messaging settings → Scan messages for unsafe URLs”. Or you can mange the configuration with Power...

Mute chat and hide your own video in Teams meetings coming

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 Two new great tweaks are supposed to start rolling out in February.

Mute chat in meetings:
This is actually two settings described in one roadmap item. Some time ago, Teams introduced chat bubbles for users who closed their chat panel. Now, users get the options to mute these bubbles through a menu in the meeting. To enable this, just check the "Don't show chat bubbles" item. This is a per meeting setting.


The other option is to globally (per user) mute all notifications whenever you are in a meeting. This will also mute the chat bubbles. It will also mute all chat and other Teams related notifications from outside the meeting.

Hide your own video:
Another nice tweak coming soon, is the capability to hide your own video feed in meetings. This doesn't stop your video, but simply removes yourself from what you see on the screen.

None of these features will need any admin actions, but user manuals and training should be updated to make users aware of the new features.