Many thanks to Pure IP Enterprise Voice, this month's Empowering.Cloud Benefactor. I recently spoke with Alistair Pidd about the five Microsoft Teams Phone User personas.
Microsoft Teams Monthly Update Video July
Check out my monthly Microsoft Teams update for July, all the news you need to know in less than 15 minutes on LinkedIn or Empowering.Cloud (PowerPoint deck here).
You can also catch the audio version on the Teams Insider Podcast feed.
A favour to ask: if you like the podcast, we're up for a podcast award. If you have 2 mins to vote for us here (search 'Teams Insider' and click to vote, they verify with an email link), thanks!
Microsoft's New Financial Year
Microsoft's FY26 kicked off this month (July to June cycle), bringing significant changes across the organisation. The company has cut 9,000 roles globally (approximately 4% of its headcount), resulting in considerable flux, changing roles and priorities.
July 22nd is the online Microsoft Partner GTM Kickoff, where partners get direction for the coming year, priorities, and focus. It was nice to see that Teams Phone, Teams Rooms, and Teams Premium were mentioned in a summary of topics for the Modern Work System Integrator track.
I'll be following along and will report back.
Skype for Business Server Subscription Edition
Skype for Business Server is moving to a subscription edition, now generally available. To get to the Subscription Edition, it's a simple Cumulative Update for Skype for Business Server 2019 that doesn't change functionality; it just updates the version.
To deploy and use Subscription Edition server products, customers must have active Software Assurance (SA) or cloud subscription licenses for all users and devices that access them.
Exchange and Skype Server prices are also both going up 10% this month, along with CALs (client access license) increases.
Microsoft Teams News
The Teams Client Health Dashboard is now available in Teams Admin Center, providing version information for Teams clients and identifying issues like crashes or launch failures. This gives excellent visibility into client estate health and can help identify issues.
Silent Call Testing is coming in August. This uses Teams clients to silently run 60-second test calls when users are idle, targeting specific subnets on Windows and Mac clients. No UI changes for users, and testing stops when they need the Teams client. Requires Teams Premium.
AI-Powered Call Transfer Notes are coming to Teams Phone with M365 Copilot - automatically generating transfer summaries when transferring calls. Available on desktop clients and physical IP desk phones.
Microsoft Mesh is being retired in December after failing to gain mainstream traction. The Mesh PC and Quest apps are going, along with the Mesh site. For 3D meeting experiences, immersive events in Teams remain available.
Teams Rooms and Devices News
If you haven't configured for AOSP Rooms and device firmware updates, you need to act now. Microsoft have communicated it over Message Center, Teams Admin Center, blogs and social, yet a number of customers still haven't done the configuration work needed.
AOSP Updates for Neat and Poly devices start on 21st July. Double-check your configuration and test updating some devices to the new AOSP firmware.
AI assistant in the Teams Rooms Pro Portal is rolling out now. The initial implementation is read-only: It can answer questions about your rooms and devices, extract inventory and health data for your environment and answer “how to” queries on Teams meetings and room management. This is the first version, expect updates with more functionality. Video demo here.
Coming in July, a new ability to assign license keys to contacts, speed dials, or shared lines from Teams Admin Center. Configure remotely with generic settings or device-specific templates across multiple devices. Perfect for common area phone scenarios.
New on the roadmap for September: Microsoft Edge in private browsing mode for Windows Teams Rooms boards. They will have an Edge icon for temporary browser sessions, allowing access to Microsoft apps and third-party websites and web applications.
M365 Copilot Updates
Voice Chat is coming to both M365 Copilot Chat (web) and M365 Copilot on mobile and desktop in August. Much like what you may have seen in Chat GPT or Perplexity, but with the M365 Copilot license, you will also be able to engage with your work data with voice.
Microsoft is going to integrate Copilot Chat (web) into Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as well as Outlook and Teams (previously announced). Rolling out by default. This one will require clear communication for users. There are also some admin controls. More in MC1096218.