For a lot of businesses, tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) makes one of the best ways around to keep in contact with team members: Microsoft Teams. And Microsoft recently augmented this system with fully 26 new features. The move meant little to investors, though, as shares slipped fractionally in Friday afternoon’s trading.
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The new features extend not only to the users, but also to admins and to meeting attendees. One new feature opens up the number of emojis that can be used in a response, allowing multiple emojis to come into play, reports note. Further, custom dictionaries can be added to Copilot by IT admins, and those who need to show up for meetings will have new options as well.
Contextual search options, searches involving SQL-style commands, keyboard shortcuts and a means to view saved message are also all on the table, along with the ability to show messages with attachments. Some are referring to this point as the most useful new addition, though of course, individual users may find more useful additions elsewhere.
Getting Carded on Xbox Leaves Some Users Upset
Meanwhile, new reports are coming out noting that the upcoming age verification checks on Xbox are getting particularly annoying to some users. Recently, the United Kingdom government has been calling for age verification checks on adult websites. Alphabet’s (GOOG) YouTube has also had some of this going on. But now, sometime in 2026, Xbox will start in with similar age verification as well.
Some believe the new policy is largely unnecessary; after all, those who have had Xbox Live accounts for years, even decades, should be perfectly clear on this point. Meanwhile, others are concerned about the misuse of data. And still others are wondering if this isn’t the “perfect time to dump Xbox”. That could be bad news for Microsoft going forward, though of a limited nature as most of this seems to be in the United Kingdom.
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 33 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 22.17% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $624.08 per share implies 22.82% upside potential.
