Microsoft Teams Is Getting An Update You Should Know About – Sharing Your Location With Your Boss

Microsoft Teams is adding a feature that could automatically share your work location with your organization when you connect to the office Wi-Fi. If an administrator enables the new feature, connecting to work's Wi-Fi will trigger Teams to automatically update your location to "In the Office" (or, if your workplace has a large campus, in a specific building). That goes for plugging into any of the company's desk hardware, as well. The update is currently only in preview, with a wide release expected in December 2025.

Ostensibly, the feature could help colleagues know who's working where so they can meet up with each other without having to ping. That said, the feature definitely raises some questions about employee privacy and workplace monitoring. This is especially true when you consider that the new feature could be automatic if your organization decides. Otherwise, employees will be opted out of automatic location detection by default. It's a privacy concern that goes beyond the usual ones that come with connecting to a Wi-Fi network outside your home.

Administrators can activate location auto-detection across an entire company, or they can just limit it to certain departments. Either way, the location data lasts only through working hours, and any users who connect after those hours won't appear as in-office. Similar location tools already exist in Teams, but they're completely voluntary and have to be set manually. This new update makes it a passive, always-on thing instead. (If only the same could be said for keeping your Teams status green.)

The timing is interesting: Microsoft has continued to push its workforce toward more in-person collaboration in recent months, with the company going as far as to say that all employees that live within 50 miles of a Microsoft office have to work onsite at least three days per week starting in 2026. Earlier this year, Microsoft also introduced Copilot Dashboard Benchmarks: a way to monitor how widely employees use AI tools and other Copilot features. 

The new Teams feature will certainly complement these shifts, giving managers a way to do attendance without needing to do any manual check-ins. Or, you know, simply trusting that the people you chose to employ will follow the rules. So, is it convenience, or is it control? Alas, that's for Teams users to decide every time they log on at work from December on.