Posts by Joaoferreira

Marginal Gains for Productivity: Flagged Emails in the Planner App for Microsoft Teams

My inbox has always been my worst nightmare. Not because of volume, but because of what it represents: a place where everything arrives mixed together, stripped of hierarchy. Messages that matter sit beside messages that don’t, and both demand the same attention.

I never learned to manage that well. I tried rules, folders, flags. None of them changed the underlying problem. Email remained the place where work entered my day, and too often the place where it stalled.

The small change that stuck was this: flagged emails appearing as tasks inside the Planner app in Microsoft Teams, alongside the rest of my work. One surface, one click away from email, but no longer inside it.

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By João Ferreira Feb 21, 2026 Uncategorized 0 Comments

Microsoft Teams Audio‑Only Meeting Recording: How it Works and Why it Keeps Meetings Human

This is something I’ve experienced repeatedly, across very different types of meetings. The moment someone starts a recording in Microsoft Teams, cameras begin to turn off. It rarely happens all at once, but within seconds the meeting changes. Faces disappear, reactions become harder to read, and what was a conversation starts to feel transactional. You still hear voices, but the human layer is thinner. Facial expressions, pauses, empathy, all the small cues that help people connect are suddenly missing.

That reaction is usually not about disengagement. It’s about comfort. People join meetings from their homes, personal offices, or shared spaces they don’t want permanently captured. Being recorded on video in those environments doesn’t feel right for everyone, and that hesitation is entirely reasonable. Until recently, recording a meeting in Teams meant recording everything. If you needed a record of the discussion, you also asked people to accept being visually captured.

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By João Ferreira Feb 18, 2026 Meetings 0 Comments

Allowing Users to Change Their Display Name in Microsoft Teams Meetings

Names in Microsoft Teams meetings are not always accurate. In many organizations, the display name comes from an identity system that was configured years ago and never revisited. In other cases, users are known by a preferred name, a shortened version, or a name that better reflects how they are addressed in daily work. This becomes more visible in meetings, especially when working with external participants or across teams that do not interact regularly.

Microsoft Teams now allows participants to change their display name during a meeting. The change is temporary and applies only to that specific meeting. This gives users a way to correct mistakes, adjust how they are identified, or align their name with how they are recognized by others, without changing their global profile.

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By João Ferreira Feb 16, 2026 Meetings 0 Comments

Microsoft Forms + Microsoft Teams: The Simplest Integrations Are Often the Best Ones

I’ve always had a clear bias when it comes to product integrations. I’m far less interested in the ones that promise to transform the way we work and much more drawn to the quiet connections that remove friction from everyday tasks. The simplest integrations are often the most effective, precisely because they don’t ask people to change their behavior or learn something new. They just make the thing you were already trying to do slightly easier.

The direct integration between Microsoft Forms and Microsoft Teams falls into that category. It doesn’t introduce a new workflow, a new surface, or a new concept to explain. It simply allows you to share a form directly into a Teams channel, putting it in front of the people who need to respond, exactly where they are already working. No copying links. No sending emails. No hoping someone will come back to it later. The form becomes part of the conversation instead of an interruption to it.

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By João Ferreira Feb 14, 2026 Channels 0 Comments

Add a SharePoint agent to a Microsoft Teams channel: bring answers to where your team already works

A SharePoint agent becomes far more powerful when you bring it into Microsoft Teams, where your team already collaborates every day. Instead of switching between browser tabs, libraries, and chat threads, adding a SharePoint agent directly to a Teams channel lets users ask questions in natural language and get grounded, permission‑aware answers right in the conversation. It’s one of the easiest ways to surface intranet knowledge where work actually happens and is a feature every Microsoft 365 admin or power user should consider enabling in their tenant.

To show how impactful this can be, let’s look at a real scenario from my demo environment. Explorer is an outdoor‑adventure company used in my articles and presentations. Their intranet stores everything from route documentation to safety procedures, permits, content drafts, and seasonal plans. As the team prepares a new Grand Canyon activity for the upcoming season, most discussions naturally happen in Microsoft Teams, but the authoritative information still lives in SharePoint. By adding the Explorer Activities Agent to the planning channel, the team can instantly ask for summaries, safety notes, past trip insights, and related documents without leaving the discussion.

This guide walks you through exactly how to add a SharePoint agent to a Microsoft Teams channel, the benefits for end users, and the limitations you need to be aware of so you can confidently roll it out in your own tenant.

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By João Ferreira Feb 3, 2026 Copilot, SharePoint 0 Comments

What’s new for Microsoft Viva – January 2026

I’ve been saying for a while that the hype around the Employee Experience suite has been fading a bit, mostly because Copilot announcements have completely taken over the spotlight. But even with all the noise around AI, some of the Viva apps are still getting important updates, and in many cases, they’re actually tied to Copilot or new AI capabilities.

My highlights this month go straight to Viva Engage. The first one is theme moderation, which will automatically block posts, comments, and replies based on monitored themes. AI handles the detection, and there’s nothing you need to enable ahead of rollout, though admins should definitely review the monitored themes and make sure everything aligns with their governance standards.

The second big change is the unification of Microsoft communication platforms. Viva Engage communities are being integrated directly into Microsoft Teams, bringing asynchronous conversations and leadership engagement into the same space where people already work.

There were more updates across the rest of the Employee Experience apps, and you can find all of those in the details of this post.

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By João Ferreira Feb 1, 2026 What's New 0 Comments

What’s new for Microsoft Teams – January 2026

I’ve been highlighting the importance of user personalization in these monthly Teams roundups for a long time, not just because it improves the experience for each of us, but because it genuinely helps with adoption. And this month, I want to bring your attention to two new features that fit perfectly into that category.

The first one is branded reactions in meetings. Admins can now replace the default five reactions with custom ones that match the organization’s brand. It’s a small change, but these details help companies create a more consistent and recognizable experience across Teams. The second one is something many of us have been waiting for: choosing what the Enter key does. Who hasn’t sent an incomplete message by mistake? Now you can finally decide if Enter sends or simply adds a new line. And while we’re on this topic, the new quick draft area is also a great addition, it keeps your unsent content easy to find, edit, and send later, making those half-written ideas much more manageable.

My final highlight of the month is one I’m personally excited about: digital signage support on Microsoft Teams Rooms devices running Android. This one is special to me because Appspace is one of the partners available on day one, making the experience fully integrated from the start.

You’ll find all the details and everything else that landed in January in the full post.

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By João Ferreira Feb 1, 2026 What's New 0 Comments

What’s new for Microsoft Viva – December 2025

On the last day of December, we said farewell to Viva Goals, the OKR tool that was once part of the Viva Suite. It is now officially retired, marking the end of an era for organizations that relied on it for goal-setting and alignment. But December was not only about goodbyes. It also brought updates that improve engagement and expand AI-driven experiences across Viva.

First, Viva Engage received enhancements to its mobile experience, making it easier for employees to stay connected and participate in conversations wherever they are. In addition, Microsoft introduced features that complement the growing role of AI and Copilot in Microsoft 365. The Copilot Dashboard now provides broader access to M365 Copilot Chat insights, with adoption metrics rolling out by January 2026. These analytics offer visibility into usage trends, group adoption, retention, and app-level breakdowns, giving admins powerful tools to monitor and optimize Copilot usage.

Finally, Viva Connections adds more accessibility with AI audio overview support for pages and additional languages. This feature delivers multilingual audio summaries for the top ten news items in the Viva Connections news reader experience. If the SharePoint Knowledge Agent is available, site pages and news posts will also include AI-generated audio summaries, making content easier to consume and more inclusive for everyone.

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By João Ferreira Jan 2, 2026 Microsoft Viva 0 Comments

What’s new for Microsoft Teams – December 2025

Every now and then, Microsoft introduces a set of small updates to Teams that end up making a big difference in how we work. December 2025 is no exception. This time, I’m highlighting three features that aren’t related to Copilot but still have the potential to improve productivity and create a stronger sense of connection within organizations.

The first update is a game-changer for Private Channels. For a long time, these channels were limited to chat-only interactions, but that’s about to change. Starting mid-January 2026, apps will be supported in Private Channels, enabling bots, tabs, and message extensions. This upgrade transforms Private Channels into true collaboration spaces, backed by new governance controls. Admins and developers should review policies and update apps to ensure compatibility with channel-level permissions and data compliance.

The second improvement addresses a long-standing pain point: forwarding messages. Until now, forwarding multiple messages meant doing it one by one. With the latest update, you can forward messages in batch, making conversations easier to share. And finally, customization gets a boost with branded reactions. Organizations can now upload custom reaction icons that reflect their brand or event themes, creating more cohesive and on-brand meeting experiences. A simple but powerful way to make meetings feel more connected.

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By João Ferreira Jan 2, 2026 What's New 0 Comments

What’s new for Microsoft Viva – November 2025

As we come to the end of the year, I’m seriously considering whether it’s worth continuing a separate roundup for Microsoft Viva. Updates have become fewer each month, and most of them are already covered in the other roundups I publish. Nonetheless, from the few announcements this month, here are my highlights.

First, Viva Amplify introduces a new publishing stack with improved error handling. This enhancement aims to make content publishing more reliable and efficient, reducing friction for communication teams and ensuring messages reach the right audience without unnecessary delays.

On the engagement side, Viva Engage received improvements to community feeds. These updates focus on making interactions smoother and more intuitive, helping communities stay active and connected with less effort. While small, these refinements contribute to a better overall experience for users who rely on Viva for collaboration and engagement.

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By João Ferreira Dec 8, 2025 Microsoft Viva, What's New 0 Comments