If your organization invested in the Microsoft 365 productivity suite, then you’ve likely already empowered your hybrid workforce with the Microsoft Teams collaboration app. Thanks to the cloud-powered integration of Teams with Microsoft Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, collaboration and sharing of work documents has never been easier—no matter where your employees are working. But one criticism Amaxra consultants have heard from Microsoft Teams users is how the voluminous amount of data and information can be overwhelming.
Amaxra consultants have always pointed to Teams’ very effective search bar in the desktop version of the app. By simply typing a word or name in the text box at the top of Teams will show all messages, people, files, and other shared information—and it finds all of the related information whether it’s stored in your local folder or somewhere in the cloud. You’ll see a search page to the left side of the Teams app with a list on the left side of Teams. By clicking on one of the results would then show a full view of the item in the center of the screen. For example, if you were looking for documents created by your company’s marketing department, you could type “marketing” in the Teams app search box and get contextual search results that would look like this:
An improved Microsoft Teams search experience is coming soon
Some people have pointed out that the search results squished over into a relatively small pane on the left side of the app makes it difficult to get much context out of those results. Your search keywords are highlighted in the truncated result, but you then have to click that result on the left to have it fill up the entire right side of the screen. As you’ve already figured out, some searches can feel like trial and error, amassing quite a few clicks when trying to find the information.
Microsoft is simplifying and improving the Microsoft Teams search experience with a new (and 100% free) update coming in the next month. Leveraging the Microsoft Cloud and the company’s ongoing investment in artificial intelligence (AI), the new Teams search experience will make finding messages, people, answers, and files faster and more intuitive for all users.
Amaxra consultants have seen an early version of the new Teams search experience to prepare our clients for the global rollout planned for November 2021. Compared to the previous search experience with results on the left, the new redesigned search results are placed at the center of the app. It may seem minor, but that one little adjustment greatly improves readability of the results.
On top of that, the results now provide you with better context and faster results. These speed and relevance improvements come from an AI-powered search that scours local and cloud-based folders (especially OneDrive and SharePoint) with greater efficiency and precision. This means the results from the new Teams search are much more likely to include the people and content you engage with most in Teams and other Microsoft 365 services.
Get ready for the new Teams search experience with Amaxra
Prepare your employees for the improved Microsoft Teams search interface with help from Amaxra. We built our business to provide secure, cloud-powered Microsoft IT solutions. Amaxra was founded almost fifteen years ago by former Microsoft employees and as a Microsoft Gold Partner, our consultants know exactly which Microsoft solutions best fit your business needs.