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M365 Perspective

Build apps in Cowork, Astra and Fable costs, Teams call queues get AI recaps

Microsoft is bringing app building to Copilot Cowork and Copilot Studio, with consumption billing on both the building and the running. Plus GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable 5.1 costs compared, Cowork credit controls, and AI recaps for Teams call queues.

Build apps in Cowork, Astra and Fable costs, Teams call queues get AI recaps

Many thanks to Ribbon, our September community Benefactor, for supporting Empowering.Cloud.

I had a great time speaking about Voice Agents at Ribbon INSIGHTS in London this week. If you can make it, I recommend Ribbon INSIGHTS Americas, in Florida on 10–12 November.

There's plenty to catch up on this month: building apps from Copilot, more model choices in Cowork (isn't that every month), and Teams getting more ways to put agents to work.

Microsoft Teams Enterprise Update Video — September 2026

Everything you need to know in 15 minutes or less. Watch on YouTube, read it on Empowering.Cloud, or listen on the Podcast.

📞 Teams Phone — call queue recording, AI recaps and voice agents.

🤖 Agents in Teams — starting work from conversations, with GitHub Copilot joining the mix.

🏢 Rooms and devices — Microsoft's Windows and Android commitment, MDEP and the Android management migration.

🎙️ Meetings — new recording options, monitoring and what's coming next.

Microsoft 365 and Copilot News

Build apps in Cowork and Copilot Studio

Microsoft is bringing app building to Copilot Cowork and Copilot Studio. Describe what you need and have Copilot build an app, with access to work data through connectors and Work IQ.

Cowork's /app skill is rolling out through Frontier on 8–14 September and requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence and Cowork access. Microsoft's 10 September announcement puts the Studio public preview in the following week. Building and running the apps use consumption billing (MC1469329).

Admins get an app inventory under Apps > All apps, and controls for enabling and scoping access. The Studio preview is on by default for eligible makers, with app creation routed into personal developer environments.

Building an app is getting easier, but someone still needs to own it, maintain it and pay for it once other people start depending on it.

The unified Copilot desktop app is coming

We covered the Copilot app merger last month. The next step is broader Windows and Mac rollout beginning in mid-September, following August's selected-device opt-in (MC1457084).

Microsoft's deployment guidance covers testing, policies and network prerequisites. The application ID and existing policies stay the same; check the Edge Update endpoints in your allow lists.

Meanwhile, unified work and web chat replace the separate modes with a Work IQ switch.

GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable 5.1 — compare the cost of the result

GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable 5.1 are rolling out to Cowork and Copilot Studio. Availability depends on region and organisation settings. Both really impressive models that are getting great feedback.

For Fable, existing Anthropic subprocessor permissions and user/group assignments apply, with no new model-specific opt-in (MC1465748).

An interesting M365 Copilot Connection comparison ran the same substantial task at High effort: about US$37–38 in credits with Fable versus US$77–78 with Astra. The presenter judged the outputs similar, with Astra following some instructions better. This is one test, and remember that price per token is only part of the equation. How many tokens the model uses, and at what reasoning level, matters too.

Cowork cost controls — who approves the next credits?

Cowork now lets users choose reasoning effort, trading speed, depth and consumption. The choice persists into future tasks, and the default varies by model, usually Medium. High is not a fixed credit price (MC1461699). The /cost skill shows approximate consumption and budget information, but not a prediction of what the next task will cost.

On the admin side, September's cost-management changes add custom routing for credit requests (MC1470425). Kevin Ly's community-call demonstration walks through shared group budgets, individual limits and alerts.

Once people depend on Cowork to get their work done, who approves more credits when the team hits its limit? I don’t think it’s IT; it’s got to be a business manager.

Interesting Microsoft 365 Changes

  • Organisation-managed PowerPoint skills are in Frontier, with publishing through the admin centre (MC1463509).
  • Copilot Memory’s updated rollout window is mid-September to late October. Existing settings are respected — if you've left Memory off, it stays off (MC1158329).
  • Create, update and query Planner tasks and plans from Copilot, rolling out from early September. Text responses for now; interactive cards are a future update (MC1443523).

Microsoft Teams and AI-Powered Workplace

Call queues — recording, intelligent recap and Copilot

  • Automatic recording and transcription, enabled per queue by an admin, with recordings stored in SharePoint. Admins control agent access and caller announcements; the published rollout window was mid-to-late August (MC1401299).
  • Intelligent recap adds AI notes, key points and follow-up tasks. Microsoft's roadmap 569017 lists it as rolling out in September.
  • Copilot in call recap lets users ask questions about the call, with worldwide GA scheduled for mid-to-late September. This needs Microsoft 365 Copilot in addition to the Teams Premium licence for Queues app access (MC1461160).

Teams web moves to teams.cloud.microsoft

Remaining enterprise tenants are due to be redirected by 30 September. Existing links and bookmarks continue working — this is not a broken-links deadline (MC1465764).

GitHub Copilot in Teams — hand the agent an action

GitHub Copilot's Teams integration is in public preview. Mention @GitHub to start a shared cloud-agent session, investigate a problem or work on repository changes. Others in the conversation can add context and steer it; triggering code changes requires repository write access.

It needs a paid GitHub Copilot plan, the GitHub Teams app and the relevant agent permissions. Sessions consume AI credits, with sandbox usage billed separately.

Key Teams Changes

  • External QR-code images will be obscured by default, with worldwide rollout scheduled for mid-October. Users can reveal them; obscuring a code doesn't mean Microsoft has detected it as malicious (MC1470410).
  • More recording choices, including record-only and policy-aligned automatic recording, are on the roadmap for November (roadmap 570468).
  • A combined Meetings & Calls monitoring view in TAC is scheduled for late September to mid-October. It covers live meetings and completed calls, not live calls. Live meeting monitoring requires at least one Teams Premium or Rooms Pro participant (MC1462463).
  • Facilitator is coming to channel meetings, with worldwide GA scheduled for late September to mid-October, subject to your organisation's enablement and licensing (MC1461165).

Teams Rooms and Devices News

Windows and Android Rooms — both are staying (of course); MDEP for Android going forward

Microsoft has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to both Windows and Android Teams Rooms. All newly certified Android devices will be based on Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP).

Rooms and Intelligent Spaces Updates

  • A panel release note includes two-way settings sync. As Graham demonstrates, this covers supported device settings, such as time zone and high contrast, not every Teams panel application setting.
  • Local PTZ controls for compatible Windows Rooms cameras are scheduled for worldwide rollout from late September to mid-October. Controls depend on camera support and whether it is independently framing (MC1459138).
  • Additional Android health signals, covering storage, apps, calendar, secondary display and network, are targeted for October (roadmap 566856).
  • Microsoft has also expanded its Places administration portal documentation, a useful reference for the administration options.

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As always, if you have any questions, corrections, thoughts, or feedback, please reply. I read all the replies.

Thanks

Tom

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