What’s new to Microsoft 365 – Summer 2021

Efficiency and connectivity have been at the forefront of Microsoft’s efforts to update products lately. Teams in particular has been at center stage, so it saw the majority of updates made, but other exciting features and functionalities were added across the other Microsoft 365 products as well.

We’re also just a few short weeks away from the 2021 Release Wave 2 rollout for Dynamics 365 applications, so there are many exciting new features to look forward to across the entire Microsoft suite. Here is a recap of some of the best new features that were added to Microsoft 365 products this summer:

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams has skyrocketed in popularity as organizations shifted to remote and hybrid work, and app functionality has adjusted accordingly. Even as businesses and organizations have transitioned back to in-person work, Teams has remained a heavyweight in terms of its ability to keep workplaces connected and collaborative no matter where employees are working. And as of July 31, 2021, Skype for Business Online has officially been retired, so its users were encouraged to make the switch to Teams.

Emojis with new skin tone selector.

With so many new users with vastly differing business needs, Microsoft rolled out a variety of features and functionalities to reinvent the ways day-to-day work gets done, including the ability to look up meeting recordings based on the contents of recorded transcripts, Safe Links protections for links sent in chats, call transferring between the desktop and mobile apps, and the ability to translate text on PowerPoint Live slides into 19 different languages when presented in a Teams meeting. Emojis have also grown from 85 to over 800 options, with an enhanced skin tone selector.

The Viva Insights app add-in can encourage users to incorporate moments of mindfulness and breathing breaks throughout their day, featuring guided meditation videos courtesy of meditation app Headspace. Quiet times can also be scheduled to mute mobile notifications at certain times. Insights can also carve out focus time, keep track of calendar events, and set a “virtual commute” to remind users to wrap up their day at a certain time. Users can now add a blast from the past to their backgrounds in video calls with newly-released nostalgic backgrounds—featuring stand-out elements of Microsoft history like Solitaire, Paint, Clippy, and an enhanced version of the original Bliss screensaver.

The newly-enhanced version of Bliss, the default computer wallpaper of the Microsoft's Windows XP operating system.

Outlook

Outlooks keeps you organized and well connected, regardless of where you’re working or which device you’re using—so whether you’re working from home, in the office, or just checking emails on the go, Outlook has you covered.

Mac users saw a refreshed view of Microsoft 365 products across the board. A new look was implemented that uses Microsoft’s Fluent design language toolkit to design an interface that aligns with Apple’s Big Sur design language. Mac users can also share messages from Outlook directly to a chat or channel in Teams.

Otherwise, few updates were made, and all of them were rather subtle. Web and Windows desktop users can now utilize suggested replies to emails, including the suggestion to add an attachment in the reply. This feature is available in ten different languages—English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Czech, Swedish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

Users with the Outlook iOS app can send similar quick replies to messages about events—like scheduling meetings or sending availability for certain times. Outlook iOS can now add .ICS (internet calendar scheduling) file attachments to the Outlook calendar to keep all events and invitations in the same calendar interface. The Outlook Android app can now better identify senders from outside your organization for better protection against phishing and spam emails.

SharePoint

Microsoft has encouraged the use of SharePoint for internal communications and wide, rapid distribution of information across organizations. The web-based collaboration platform acts generally as a file sharing intranet portal, but organizations can customize SharePoint for a wide variety of needs and uses with the help of integrations with other apps and systems. A new Power Automate integration has enabled Flows within SharePoint, including approval workflows that can simplify and automate approvals for documents, projects, and other process across a multitude of platforms.

A new feature also allows users to control the email notifications sent from SharePoint, so inboxes aren’t inundated with notifications for things like missed news items and likes and comments on pages or posts. Making SharePoint sites is now easier thanks to new site templates. The look book tool lets users choose from prebuilt templates with features like customizable home pages, destination pages, pre-populated content, and modules. For organizations that are already using SharePoint sites, whether they are out-of-the-box or customized, Microsoft provides additional guidance for applying new site templates in their SharePoint Site Template Q&A.

SharePoint site look book. Courtesy of Microsoft.

Word

Microsoft Word has made improvements to collaboration tools like adding comments with the ability to @mention co-authors, as well as tracking changes to see who made edits in a shared document. AI-enhanced capabilities now allow users to export and convert documents into PowerPoint presentations with intelligent suggestions to create slides based on headers, keywords, and images found within the document. In addition to the refreshed interface on Mac devices, iOS app users have new message composer abilities with spelling, grammar, and refinement suggestions when typing in a document. Predictive text features are now available for Android mobile users as well.

Excel

Minimal updates were made to Excel, but an exciting new feature is the ability to use real-life data with new linked data features in Windows and Mac. Microsoft has partnered with Wolfram to bring up-to-date data on subjects like cities, food, animals, stocks, and more. Data can be inserted into cells directly from the linked data function, and smart templates can help users get started easily. And similar to collaboration tools in Word, Excel users can track changes on shared workbooks to easily see who edited a cell, when and what changes were made, and the ability to revert to old cell contents if necessary. Mac users have a refreshed look and an easy to access ribbon of accessibility tools as well.

PowerPoint

PowerPoint also saw minimal updates, but iOS app users can utilize a new message composer with spelling, grammar, and refinement suggestions, while Android app users can start slide decks from presentation outlines while on mobile. PowerPoint for Mac lets users present directly in a Teams meeting, and Windows users now have a contextual minibar with suggestions for quick actions based on the most recent actions taken in the app.