Welcome back to our regular weekly look back at the Microsoft 365 roadmap site, highlighting new entries added in the last seven days.

A few weeks ago, Tom Warren of The Verge reported that Microsoft was working on some UI changes for Microsoft Teams that would combine both text chat and channels with a new UI design. This week, a new entry was added to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap site suggesting that something similar to what Warren reported would be added to the desktop version in October:

A new “Your Teams and Channels” view gives you a central hub where you can see all your teams and navigate to their channels from one page. This interface streamlines your workflows and gives you quick access to and management of your teams and channels.

The roadmap website also states that there will be a number of improvements to the Mesh virtual meeting feature for Teams users in October. One of them, for the desktop and Mac platforms, will add Teams chat in Mesh events:

Participants in Mesh events on PC and Mac can use Teams chat to communicate with all participants in all rooms within a Mesh event. Users can do this in the Microsoft Mesh PC app, the Mesh app in Teams, and in the Teams app chat message list.

Another Mesh feature coming to the desktop and Mac versions of Teams in October will improve interaction in multi-room Mesh meetings:

Mesh event attendees can now see the raised hands and reactions of attendees in other rooms during large, multi-room mesh events. This provides a better sense of audience feedback across all rooms in a mesh event and increases overall audience engagement.

Some new audio features are also coming to Mesh for Teams in October.

Spatial audio in Mesh provides a realistic recreation of the movement of sound in the real world, with the volume of people speaking or media playing getting quieter the further you are from the sound source. The introduction of audio zones allows developers to create custom audio experiences for the intended use of a space, with features like extended audio drop-off distances for conversations taking place in a large area, or restricting what audio can enter a specific area to allow smaller groups to have lively conversations without disturbing their neighbors.

In November, Mesh users in Teams for desktop, Mac, and Android platforms will receive support for Microsoft Whiteboard:

Mesh event attendees can now use Microsoft Whiteboard in Mesh 3D environments. This feature allows users to collaborate spatially as avatars on a 2D whiteboard in virtual space, available on PCs and Meta Quest devices. Mesh event attendees can use inking, annotations, and other integrated tools to ideate, plan, and share ideas in real time on a digital canvas. Copilot integration with Whiteboard helps propose and organize ideas right on your canvas while in Mesh.

Aside from the Teams and Mesh entries, the Microsoft 365 roadmap site also revealed that Copilot in Microsoft 365 will add quick suggestions in Copilot chat as well as image generation in September.

Finally, the new Outlook for Windows and the web will be enhanced in October with a feature that provides an “always-on” experience, allowing users to see who is in the office based on work hours and location.

That was our weekly look at the Microsoft 365 roadmap. We’ll be back next Sunday to check out the new entries on the site.