Microsoft started rolling out Windows 11, version 24H2 with much fanfare last week. It's easy to get caught up in the strong performance and new features of the latest version of Windows, and fail to pay enough heed to changes Microsoft introduced to its roadmap in the same timeframe.

If you're a Microsoft 365 user, last week was particularly eventful, as lots of new OneDrive features were introduced alongside a teaser of what's coming next. Now that a new week has begun, we're at it again, bringing to you all the latest additions to the roadmap page, as well as explaining how you can benefit from them.

4 Microsoft Teams: Event chat, enhanced privacy and security, and more

Support for links unfurling

Microsoft adds upcoming Teams features to its roadmap almost every week. Last week, it announced a major enhancement to Microsoft Lists links in Teams Messages in the form of support for link unfurling. According to Feature ID: 419812, list item links and form links shared within Teams messages and inside a shared tab in chats will unfurl, displaying a preview of useful details like titles, descriptions, and images without needing to click on the links. Not only does it help you quickly understand whether those links are important to look into, but it also prevents you from clicking malicious links. This is expected to come in December.

Collaborative call delegation on Teams phone devices

Outlook users can already allow someone else to manage their Outlook emails. Microsoft is planning something along similar lines for Teams users. If you're a Teams phone user, you'll be able to "share access to your phone line with a specific group of users, without a structured delegation system." As per Feature ID: 416288, this is also coming in December.

Event chat for town halls

In November this year, Microsoft will get rid of the limitation where only presenters and organizers can chat with each other in a town hall. Instead, Microsoft will allow attendees alongside presenters and organizers to chat using the new Event Chat capability. The upcoming Event Chat won't take privacy away from the presenters and organizers, as they'll still be able to message privately during the town hall (Feature ID: 418117).

Private moderator replies to individual attendees

There is another privacy-centric Teams feature in the works to be released in December. When available, it will "allow moderators to answer questions from specific attendees without displaying the reply to other participants," allowing for enhanced privacy and more personalized support (Feature ID: 417158).

3 Microsoft Outlook: New themes, and more

New modern themes and people module improvements

Microsoft will bring four new themes to Outlook for Windows and Outlook for the web next month to introduce more "personalization and expressiveness" to your email clients (Feature ID: 417004). In addition, Microsoft has also started working towards improving the people module by introducing a "streamlined contacts interface," which will merge duplicate entries, thus giving you a single view of each person (Feature ID: 413114) This will likely be available in February next year.

2 Copilot for Microsoft 365: More tailored responses

In January next year, Microsoft will include scope for Copilot queries in emails for shared or delegated mailboxes in Business Chat, allowing the chat to generate responses based on the mailboxes (Feature ID: 416062).

1 Microsoft Edge: Improvements to Settings

Microsoft doesn't often announce upcoming features for its Edge browser through the roadmap website, but last week was one of those rare occasions when it did. According to Feature ID: 419809, the company is planning a major overhaul for the Edge Settings page, which will include "concise wording of individual settings," "simplifying the number of pages and reorganizing content," and "cohesive user interface." Under the hood, these improvements will be possible because of WebUI2, which will also boost page responsiveness. These enhancements are expected to come in December.

More Microsoft 365 features are in the pipeline to surprise you

While Microsoft informing us about upcoming changes beforehand is worth appreciating, whatever features we see on the roadmap website aren't the only ones that are in the works. The software giant also loves to surprise us by announcing Microsoft 365 features that nobody anticipated. We'd take that any day!