Microsoft is working on a series of updates for online collaboration platform Teams that will extend some of the most important and useful features to a larger pool of users.

A pair of new entries in the company’s product roadmap show that Microsoft Teams users dialling in from the office will soon benefit from both end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for one-on-one calls and the ability to join meetings via passcode.

The former will afford Teams Rooms users access to the gold standard level of security, making it impossible for third-parties to eavesdrop on discussions. Meanwhile, the ability to use a meeting ID and passcode to join a session will eliminate unnecessary hassle associated with the need to formally book a conference room in order to use it for a video meeting.

Microsoft Teams for hybrid working

Since the transition to hybrid working, whereby employees split their time between the home and office, Microsoft has been vocal about the need to create a consistent meeting experience that spans all working locations.

For example, the company has leant heavily into the integration of PowerPoint and Teams, with the goal of ensuring presentations are as engaging and interactive for remote participants as for those in the room.

Separately, the company has rolled out new features – such as Loop components – designed to support asynchronous collaboration, helping to reduce the volume of meetings required to collaborate with remote colleagues.

The philosophy extends to different types of user, as well as different working locations. In April 2022, for instance, Microsoft took steps to address common problems facing workers using Teams to field customer service calls.

With the latest round of updates, Microsoft is closing off the features gap between users running Teams from home or their desk via their business laptop and those making use of conference room hardware.

The new features are currently under development, but should roll out to users over the next few months. End-to-end encryption for Teams Rooms calls is currently scheduled to go live at some point in August, with the new joining option set to follow by the end of October.