Microsoft Build blunder leads to what may be the best Teams feature of the year

In an upcoming update, Microsoft Teams will allow you to see specific messages as you share your screen, without those messages actually appearing on the shared screen. This new functionality is currently being tested for Teams on Windows and Mac operating systems.

As a researcher, I’m thrilled to share that Microsoft Senior Project Manager Elisa Meazza announced in a recent blog post an enhancement to Microsoft Teams: presenters can now effortlessly engage with the meeting chat while simultaneously sharing a window or screen on both Windows and Mac versions of the platform. This means no more switching windows to participate in the conversation during presentations!

This functionality enables you to view conversations and reply to messages without interrupting your ongoing presentation. It appears that the focus of this feature lies in seamlessly managing presentations rather than ensuring privacy, as it’s only applicable to specific chats.

However, as time goes by, Microsoft might broaden the capabilities of Teams to encompass not only chats but also channels, along with other aspects of the platform.

As a tech enthusiast, I found it curious that Microsoft didn’t casually drop the news about accidentally leaking Walmart’s AI strategies during their announcement of the latest Teams feature. However, the timing certainly raises some eyebrows.

During the Build 2025 conference, Microsoft’s AI security chief, Neta Haiby, inadvertently displayed private messages on-screen during her presentation. Among these messages was information about Walmart broadening their AI collaboration with Microsoft.

The event served as a reminder of how effortlessly messages can be sent unintentionally. There’s been a call for Teams to temporarily obscure messages, and I wholeheartedly agree with this request.

The recently introduced Teams feature differs slightly from what was previously mentioned, but it does move us closer to that goal. Microsoft has the potential to expand this feature to accommodate various types of communication within Teams, thereby ensuring that certain content remains visible exclusively to you, even during screen-sharing sessions.

For those who are part of the Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted Release, you now have access to a freshly introduced functionality within Teams on Windows and macOS systems. Additionally, administrators have the ability to activate this feature via targeted release as well.

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2025-05-28 15:39