Meta is shutting down its Workplace platform next year, but Microsoft is planning to keep the dream of Facebook at work very much alive. Multiple sources at Microsoft tell me the company has started testing a fully integrated Facebook-like feed inside Microsoft Teams recently.
Teams users will be able to post to the feed, known as a Storyline, or reply to colleagues’ posts much like you would on Facebook. Microsoft is pitching this as a way for colleagues to share announcements, news, or progress on a project. It could also be used to congratulate colleagues on work goals or key milestones. I’d expect, in many cases, this will also be used to share the type of content you’d typically find on LinkedIn.
Microsoft isn’t using LinkedIn to power this new feature, though. Storyline in Teams is built on top of Viva Engage, the Yammer replacement that Microsoft launched a few years ago. Viva Engage was already available inside Teams, but it was hidden away in a separate tab. Microsoft is now taking the Storyline feature of Viva Engage and integrating it deeply into the main interface of Teams.
The main button in Microsoft Teams that you use to send a new DM or create a new channel will soon include an option to create a new Storyline post. These posts will also appear in a Storyline tab on people’s profiles, alongside the normal chat and files sections.
You’ll even be able to follow colleagues like you’d follow a public figure on Facebook or Instagram, and any reactions or comments on posts will show up in the Teams activity feed. Sources tell me Microsoft is also working on paid features for Storyline, including the ability to see profile analytics if you’re willing to pay extra for Microsoft Teams Premium.
IT admins will be able to control who can create new posts or announcements, but the moderation of posts will come down to individual employees and workplace policies. You wouldn’t expect colleagues to post holiday snaps on a Facebook-like feed at work, but given some of the heated posts in Microsoft’s internal Viva Engage communities, I wouldn’t be surprised if some businesses have to carefully manage who can and can’t post on Storyline.
Microsoft first teased this Storyline integration into Teams at Ignite in November, but it flew under the radar given the sheer amount of news that comes out of the IT-focused conference. Storyline in Teams is due to be available in preview form early this year, and in recent weeks, Microsoft has started rolling it out internally to some versions of its Teams clients. That’s a good sign that it’s nearly ready for a public preview before broader availability later this year.
Storyline is just one of many new features that Microsoft is planning for Teams this year. Copilot will soon be able to produce file summaries, pulling out the key parts of a Word document or PowerPoint presentation. Microsoft is also rolling out the ability to record the correct pronunciation of your name to share on your profile.
Teams is getting live transcription support for multiple languages soon, and a new Super Resolution feature is being built to enhance video quality on Qualcomm-based Copilot Plus PCs. The new Super Resolution feature entered public preview earlier this week, alongside the rollout of a new calendar experience that finally integrates the Outlook calendar into Teams and includes month and split views.
With Microsoft’s Build developer conference coming up in May, I’m sure there will be plenty more AI-powered features coming to Microsoft Teams this year, too.
More Xbox games arrive on PS5
Microsoft’s Project Latitude, the Xbox strategy to bring more first-party games to more platforms, has been full steam ahead recently. Microsoft announced last week that Forza Horizon 5 is making its way to the PS5 soon, giving PlayStation owners one of the best Forza titles to date.
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will join Forza this spring, after Age of Mythology: Retold launches for PS5 on March 4th. All three games were announced for PlayStation in blog posts, rather than being part of a Microsoft event or even a PlayStation one.
While Forza appearing on PS5 might surprise some Xbox fans, it has been heavily rumored for months now. I also reported in Notepad in June of last year that Age of Empires and Age of Mythology were heading to PS5 in early 2025 and that Microsoft was also “working on some form of a Halo: Combat Evolved remaster that [was] also being considered for rival consoles.”
Microsoft has been weighing whether to launch Gears of War and Microsoft Flight Simulator on PS5, too, as I first reported nearly a year ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft goes ahead with porting Halo and Gears of War soon, as Xbox chief Phil Spencer recently made it clearer than ever before that more Xbox games are coming to PlayStation.
“It does mean more of our games shipping on more platforms, not just PlayStation. We love the work we do with Nintendo, we love what we do with Valve on Steam. Our games will show up in more and more places,” said Spencer in a podcast in January.
While Xbox games on PlayStation are making the headlines right now, there will be announcements for Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2 console, too. The more powerful hardware means Microsoft can port a lot more Xbox games to Nintendo’s platform and fulfill its promise of bringing Call of Duty to the Switch.
- Microsoft’s Build developer conference starts on May 19th. Microsoft has confirmed that its Build developer conference is being held again in Seattle this year. It will run from May 19th through May 22nd at the Seattle Convention Center. Microsoft hasn’t hinted at what to expect this year, but here’s a clue: AI.
- Microsoft 365 is losing its free VPN feature. A lot of people didn’t even realize Microsoft 365 had a VPN feature, but you only have a few weeks left to use it. Designed as a privacy feature, the VPN uses the Microsoft Defender app to encrypt internet traffic and hide IP addresses. Microsoft is removing this feature on February 28th, after raising Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscription prices for the first time in 12 years.
- Microsoft’s performance-based cuts have started. Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard from several employees who have been affected by performance-based cuts at Microsoft or who know of colleagues that were let go. Business Insider reports that some ousted workers got no severance. Given the nature of these cuts, it’s difficult to get a clear picture of how many Microsoft employees have lost their jobs recently, so if you’ve heard anything, please get in touch confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01.
- Microsoft Paint is getting a Copilot button, too. The generative AI features in Paint are now being rounded up into a Copilot button. A drop-down menu will include the Cocreator feature that lets you turn doodles into AI-generated images as well as features like generative erase, background removal, and a text-to-image creator. Windows Insiders are the first to test this new Copilot button, and it’s interesting to see Microsoft finally start branding these Windows AI features as Copilot ones.
- Nvidia hires a Microsoft graphics veteran. When I first started covering Microsoft as a teenager in the late ’90s, Kam VedBrat was in charge of the Windows user experience. He went on to lead many of the key advances in the Windows graphics platform and was part of a team that overhauled the Windows UI, giving Windows Vista its Aero design language full of glass-like window borders and 3D animations. VedBrat is now joining Nvidia as a senior director in the GPU software group. He says he’ll be “focused on the next wave of challenges in an area that has been close to my heart throughout my career.”
- Microsoft AI CEO headhunts former Google colleagues. Google DeepMind founder Mustafa Suleyman has hired three former colleagues to create a new Microsoft AI office in Zurich. Marco Tagliasacchi, Zalán Borsos, and Matthias Minderer all announced this week that they’re joining the Microsoft AI team, just weeks after Suleyman hired other ex-DeepMind staff for an AI health unit at Microsoft.
- Microsoft PowerToys is getting a media transcoding feature. Converting video or audio files inside Windows has never been easy, but PowerToys is about to make it a lot more accessible. A new addition to the Advanced Paste feature will soon let you transcode audio files to MP3 or transcode video files to MP4. It looks like it’ll be a useful feature for anyone who wants to extract audio from a video file or easily convert videos into a more compatible format.
- Outlook for Mac is getting the recall emails feature. Microsoft has started testing the ability to recall emails in Outlook for Mac. It’s a feature that has long been available in Outlook for Windows or Outlook on the web, and it’s finally coming to the macOS client. Microsoft 365 Insiders in the Beta Channel can test it right now, before it rolls out to a broader preview later this month.
- Microsoft is bringing major MIDI improvements to Windows 11. Microsoft has started testing the biggest update to MIDI since the musical communication protocol was first released. A new Canary build of Windows 11 includes MIDI 2.0 support and the ability for MIDI 1.0 to run on Windows on Arm. MIDI 2.0 includes improvements to speed, fidelity, and instrument control to help improve modern music production.
Thanks for subscribing and reading to the very end. If you’ve heard about any of Microsoft’s other secret projects, you can reach me via email at notepad@theverge.com or speak to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01. I’m also tomwarren on Telegram, if you’d prefer to chat there.
