Remote work, or “work from home,” has become a significant part of the technologically advanced world that we are living in today. While most people continue to visit their offices, some people are bound to do remote work as they find it more flexible and it also provides them with the perfect work-life balance.
Working remotely usually involves a full team attempting to complete tasks by dividing their duties. There are some digital tools that can assist us while doing remote work. One of them is Microsoft 365, which allows you to create, share, and collaborate with other team members on Microsoft apps, including Copilot.
In this blog, you will discover 10 Microsoft 365 features for remote team collaboration in 2025.
TOP 10 Microsoft 365 Features for Remote Team Collaboration
Over the years, Microsoft has produced multiple apps. These apps have certain features that have made it easy for people to work under various circumstances.
This blog will discuss the top 10 Microsoft 365 features that maximizes remote team collaboration.
Let’s dig in!
1. Enables Co-authoring
The first feature that makes Microsoft 365 remote work friendly is co-authoring. Co-authoring is used to describe multiple people working on the same document at a time. Be it an Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint, or a Word document, users will be able to edit one document at the same time.
Sometimes, all members of a team are unable to remain active at a specific time. Through co-authoring, each member can complete their assigned tasks individually on one document. This saves time and increases productivity as one member does not have to wait for another member.
In order to co-author, you will need a shared storage area such as OneDrive or SharePoint. Additionally, you need to ensure that the app supports co-authoring. For example Word, Powerpoint and Excel support the co-authoring feature.
2. Together Mode
Doing remote work can make people feel a bit lonely sometimes. In fact, one might also question if they are the only one working.
Thus, to free remote workers from this paranoia, Microsoft 365 came up with Together Mode. Together Mode uses AI-powered features to make virtual meetings feel real. The person who is conducting the meeting can assign seats to attendees. This can help to clarify the roles of each team and people across teams can also be unified to ensure proper communication and enhance productivity.
To make meetings more fun, you can also add a virtual background of your own choice! Furthermore, you can also customize team views. You can choose a virtual background in which you want to view your team members.
Virtual meetings tend to get a bit boring and lack of virtual meetings may also reduce the productivity and efficiency of an organization. Therefore, Together Mode in Microsoft 365 makes team collaboration fun and easy.
3. Loop Components
Loop components are pieces of content that can be shared across Microsoft 365 apps. In loop components, a team is able to create and take decisions together. You can send a component such as a task list or paragraph and other members in your chat, email or document can see the changes that have been made and can also edit it.
Through loop components, teams can finish their work at a fast pace by working together. This helps to meet deadlines quickly. Additionally, any changes that are made within the content by one member gets updated instantly and it helps the next member catch up with the work that is being done.
Any component that has been created from Teams chat or Outlook email is saved to OneDrive. For example, you may start collaborating on Chat and you can later take it to Loop to further edit it to add more content.
4. Viva Insights
In remote work, it is not possible for one person to see if all workers are doing their best work by maintaining work-life balance. There are people who tend to take extra pressure and can get sick which will affect the entire team.
Microsoft 365 has a feature called Viva Insights to help each team member do their best work. It provides personalized recommendations, helps to build better work habits by reminding workers to follow through on commitments and also protects focus time so that one can work without interruptions.
Through the Viva Insights app, you can remain connected with your colleagues with the help of features such as AI-based task suggestions and meeting assistance. The Protect Time feature allows users to focus on one task at a time and helps eliminate any form of distractions.
In addition to that, you can also send praise to your employees or coworkers to appreciate their efforts and it will ultimately motivate them to work harder. Features such as Reflect, Headspace and Take A Break can help you to manage a healthy lifestyle while working.
5. Whiteboard App
Remember how you would always notice sticky notes, notice boards or white boards in offices? Whiteboard App is the digitized version of that.
Visualization of ideas allows you to make team work more impactful. When you first explain an idea or a concept to one person, they may remain perplexed. But, when you proceed to draw a diagram and explain it furthermore, it becomes easier for them to comprehend the information.
In virtual circumstances, it gets harder to explain something to someone as they are not sitting right in front of you. Therefore, the Whiteboard App can help an individual to understand an idea better through visualization.
6. Cloud-Based File Sharing With OneDrive
The cloud-based file sharing system allows users to store, access and discover their shared work files easily in Microsoft 365 apps. Offline edits that have been made to files automatically syncs after coming online.
Additionally, you can also work faster by collaborating with anyone inside or outside your business organization. Files can be shared securely and you can work together in real time using Word, Excel, Powerpoint.
Not only can you create, edit and view files on the go but you can also backup and secure your files. In case your files get deleted accidentally or face any form of malicious attacks, they can be recovered.
7. Microsoft Planner
Working remotely involves a lot of planning. In order to ensure that you are able to complete a certain number of tasks every single day, you must plan first.
Microsoft Planner will assist you in managing your tasks, to-do lists, plans and projects within Microsoft 365 apps.
There are 3 main views within the app that includes My Day, My Tasks and My Plans. You can use various templates to list out your tasks and choose views such as lists, boards, timelines and sprints.
8. Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered tool that helps remote teams to function more efficiently by automating tasks.
Copilot is capable of setting meetings, sending calendar updates and task reminders which will ensure that the team is completing their work and conducting meetings on time.
Additionally, it can also generate text content such as email or craft ideas. It can also summarize key discussion points of meetings and answer questions.
9. SharePoint For Collaboration
SharePoint offers a platform to remote team workers to manage resources, share information and collaborate on various projects.
It is a cloud-based service that is hosted by Microsoft for businesses of all sizes. Microsoft SharePoint is used to create websites. It provides the user with a secure place to store, organize, share and access information from any device.
In remote team collaboration, employees can create sites to share documents with colleagues, partners and customers.
10. Advanced Security
Microsoft 365 has multiple security features to protect your organization’s data from cyber threats.
It has multi-factor authentication which is also known as two-step verification where users need to enter a code on their phone after typing in the password. This ultimately prevents hackers from accessing your data in case they know the password.
Microsoft 365 also prevents sensitive data from being leaked outside of the organization. Furthermore, it prevents emails from phishing, spam and malware.
Wrapping Up
Microsoft 365 has indeed proved to be the best digital tool for users who are working remotely. It not only provides a flexible work environment for businesses but also provides consistent support to its users working in teams through features including co-authoring, Copilot, and Loop Components.
Remote teamwork is made easy and employees can become more productive with the help of Microsoft 365!
