New Year, New Momentum: Here are three Copilot updates to get you started into 2026

on
It's a new year, so I thought I'd start the year by mentioning three features already released, or soon going to be released. One of the features improves the workflow of sharing files with comments, the other improves the application specific Copilot, and the last feature makes it easer to find the nest available timeslot for a 1:1 meeting. As with all of my other posts, timelines can shift, and the timelines in this post is as written in the Message Center at the time of posting. AI-Summary experience when sharing files. With this new feature, copilot intent to help users share files with clearer context in just a few steps. Users will get the capability to generate a concise summary of a file and include it when sharing from the File Explorer share dialog or the OneDrive activity center. This will make it easier to share the context of a file and giving the receiver a faster understanding of what a document or file contains before they open it. General Availability announced...

New Microsoft Teams Experience: Chats and Channels are being consolidated into a single app

on
Already available in targeted release, Microsoft Teams has been "streamlined" into putting chats, teams, and channels into a single app. Here’s what you need to know about the new features and how they can benefit you.

Previously, users had to navigate separate Chat and Teams views, which could be cumbersome and time-consuming. With the new update, all conversations whether they’re individual chats, group chats, or team channels are now unified in a single Chat view. This means you can easily switch between different types of conversations without losing context.


The application also has a couple of new features like: 
  • Custom Sections: Organize your projects and topics with custom sections that can include individual, group, and meeting chats, as well as channels.
  • New Filters: Focus on what’s important with filters for Unread, Chat, Channels, Meetings, and more.
  • @Mention View: Quickly access all your personal @mentions in one interactive list.
You can tailor the new chat and channels experience to suit your preferences. By default, the combined Chat view is enabled, but you can choose to keep chat, teams, and channels separate if that works better for you. Simply go to Teams Settings to make these adjustments (there are no admin controls for this). Additionally, you can turn on message previews in Settings if you prefer to see a snippet of each message in your list.

As mentioned, this is already available for users in the targeted release, but it looks like it might take some time for the feature to reach all tenants. The latest Message Center message is indicating GA in January. This is related to the following Roadmap Item.