Windows 11 tests third-party widgets, and the new Teams calling feature

Microsoft has added support for third party widget development and video calling functions to Chat from Microsoft Teams in the latest Windows 11 developer build. The new features can be found here Preview Build 25217These are available to Windows Insiders who have been enrolled.

Developers can now create and test widgets which can be added to Windows 11’s widgets panel. The new widgets by third parties cannot be tested locally using the Insider Preview build. But, once the build has been officially released to public, they can be added to the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states that Widgets cannot be created for packaged Win32 applications at the moment. However, support for Progressive Web App (PWA), Widgets, is being planned. Microsoft Edge 108.

Insider preview includes a peek at the new video calling experience for Chat using Microsoft Teams on Windows 11 (for a select group of Insiders). When you open Chat from the taskbar, you’ll soon be able to see a preview of your own video feed, allowing you to fix your appearance or spot any background issues before starting a call. Microsoft hopes to make this experience more broadly available in the coming months, but a ‘small subset of users’ will already have access to the feature as part of a sneak preview release. You can launch Chat from your Windows 11 taskbar yourself to check if you’re one of the lucky few selected.

The Insider Preview Build 25217 also includes some other features updates such as improved cloud suggestions and integrated searches for simplified Chinese and design changes to Microsoft Store. To avoid you accidentally buying a game you may not have access to, the store will now indicate if it is included in Game Pass. Game Pass is getting an upgrade in performance and simplified options.

It’ll be a while until these updates make it onto the public Windows 11 build, but if you’re especially keen to try them out then you can sign up for the Windows Insider ProgramDownload the most recent developer builds as soon as they are released.