This summer, Microsoft Teams is rolling out a collection of enhancements designed to make collaboration smoother, meetings more productive, and account management less cumbersome. Among the nine updates introduced in July 2026, one of the most notable for Cornell's IT community is the new cross-tenant activity panel.

For anyone who collaborates in Teams with colleagues at Weill Cornell Medicine, peer institutions, or external organizations, keeping track of conversations and notifications across multiple tenants can be frustrating. The new activity panel consolidates notifications from multiple tenants into a single view, making it easier to stay informed without constantly switching between accounts.

Several updates focus on reducing common meeting frustrations. Teams users can now test their microphone and speakers before joining a meeting, helping identify audio issues before they disrupt a discussion. This capability may be especially useful for individuals who move between Teams and other conferencing platforms throughout the day and want a quick way to verify their audio settings before connecting.

Teams is also introducing a less disruptive incoming-call experience. An optional setting allows incoming calls to appear in a smaller window, enabling users to continue viewing documents, presentations, or other work while deciding whether to answer. Meeting collaboration is receiving an upgrade as well, with participants now able to request annotation sessions during screen sharing. Presenters retain control by approving or declining requests, while participants gain a simpler way to collaborate on shared content.

Security, developer productivity, and usability are also areas of focus in this release. Teams will automatically remove hidden EXIF metadata from shared images, helping protect sensitive location and device information from unintended disclosure. Developers and technical teams will benefit from improvements to code blocks, including automatic line numbering, enhanced keyboard accessibility, and support for collaborative editing. Other updates include shorter meeting URLs, customizable Enter-key behavior when composing messages, and smarter Quick Views that reduce clutter by displaying items only when they contain relevant activity.

Together, these enhancements reflect Microsoft's continued efforts to make Teams more secure, efficient, and flexible for both end users and the organizations that support them.