What’s New in Microsoft Teams – May 2025 Update (With How-To Guide)
Microsoft Teams is evolving rapidly, and the May 2025 updates bring productivity-boosting tools, improved accessibility, and better user control. Whether you’re a daily Teams power user or just getting started, this guide will help you understand the new features—and how to use them.
🆕 Top New Features & How to Use Them
1. 🗨️ Pop-Out Live Captions & Real-Time Text (RTT)
What it does: Lets you move captions or RTT into a separate window.
How to use:
- Join a meeting.
- Turn on Live Captions (from the meeting toolbar → “More” (…) → Turn on live captions).
- Click the Pop-out icon on the captions bar to move it to a separate window.
- Resize and reposition as needed.
2. 🔔 Compact Call Notifications
What it does: Incoming calls now appear in a smaller, less intrusive pop-up.
How to use:
- No action needed.
- This is automatically enabled. When someone calls you, a small notification will appear in the bottom-right of your screen (like a toast). You can answer, reject, or message back.
3. 📅 Schedule Channel Posts
What it does: Plan your channel announcements like scheduled emails.
How to use:
- Go to the desired channel.
- Click New conversation → Click the clock icon next to the send button.
- Choose date and time, and click Schedule.
- Your post will be sent automatically at the selected time.
4. ✏️ Rename the Default ‘General’ Channel
What it does: Customize the “General” channel name for clarity.
How to use:
- Go to the Teams list.
- Click the three dots next to your team > Manage team.
- Under the Channels tab, find “General,” click Edit (✏️ icon), and rename it.
⚠️ Admins must enable this feature in the Teams policies before it’s usable.
5. 📆 Enhanced Calendar Integration
What it does: More views, time zones, and shared calendars inside Teams.
How to use:
- Go to Calendar in Teams.
- Switch between Day/Week/Month views from the top right.
- Use “Add calendar” to import or share.
- Use Settings to enable multiple time zones and toggle weather widgets.
- Click the Print icon for printable versions of your calendar.
6. ⌨️ Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts (Coming June 2025)
What it does: Personalize shortcuts to improve navigation speed.
How to use (once available):
- Click your profile icon > Settings.
- Go to Keyboard shortcuts.
- Click Customize, assign new keys for commands like Mute, Screen share, or Raise hand.
7. 📂 Improved OneDrive Integration
What it does: Teams remembers your last OneDrive location when switching between apps.
How to use:
- Simply open a OneDrive file from within Teams.
- Navigate as usual. When you switch back to OneDrive later, Teams will return you to where you left off—no more restarting navigation.
🔐 Security & Compliance
8. 🛡️ Enhanced External Chat Protection
What it does: Safer interactions with people outside your organization.
How to use:
- When chatting with an external contact, you’ll see a banner if Teams identifies the conversation as external.
- Be cautious with links or files. Admins can configure more granular controls under Microsoft 365 Compliance Center > Communication compliance.
9. 🧾 Retirement of Code Snippets Feature
What it does: The “Insert code snippet” option in chat is being retired.
Action to take:
- Use Loop components or Paste as plain text for code sharing.
- Alternatively, paste your code into a Markdown editor or a shared file in OneDrive.
🌐 Strategic Shifts
10. 🔚 Skype Retirement
What it means: Skype is no longer supported for video calls.
How to migrate:
- Download Microsoft Teams (free).
- Sign in with your Microsoft account.
- Use the Chat tab to connect with Skype contacts who have migrated.
11. 🇪🇺 EU Antitrust Settlement Changes
What’s changing: Teams is being decoupled from Office 365 and Microsoft 365 in the EU.
How to act:
- Organizations in the EU can choose packages with or without Teams.
- Admins should work with Microsoft account managers to select the right plan and ensure interoperability with alternative tools.
🤖 Copilot & AI Features
12. 🎧 Copilot Audio Overviews
What it does: Summarizes documents as audio you can listen to.
How to use:
- In OneDrive, right-click on a Word or PDF file.
- Select Summarize with Copilot.
- Choose Audio overview to get a spoken summary (great for on-the-go updates).
13. 🖼️ Image Querying in OneDrive
What it does: Ask questions about image content stored in OneDrive.
How to use:
- Open Copilot in Teams or OneDrive.
- Say something like: “Show me the image with the red car from last week.”
- Copilot will search image metadata and content to find relevant files.
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