What are "Connected Experiences?"
Connected experiences are a category of cloud-based services designed to enhance productivity and collaboration on various platforms, such as Microsoft 365, Adobe, Blackboard, and Google Workspace. These services provide functions like content analysis, design suggestions, data insights, and online content downloads. Applications such as PowerPoint Designer, Adobe Connect, Blackboard Collaborate, and Google Docs enhance productivity by offering real-time recommendations and insights, making it easier to create, edit, and collaborate on documents. By leveraging these connected experiences, users can improve their efficiency and achieve better results in their tasks.
Additional terms for these connected experiences may include omnichannel experiences, interconnected experiences, multi-platform experiences, and more.
What Microsoft 365 applications include these tools?
The various connected experiences in Microsoft 365 include:
- PowerPoint Designer: Provides design recommendations to enhance your presentations
- Dictate: Allows you to dictate text in Office applications
- Translator: Translates text into different languages
- Excel's rich data types: Provides data insights and suggestions
- Outlook's weather info: Retrieves weather data to display in your calendar
- Real-time automatic captions or subtitles: When giving a PowerPoint presentation
- Suggested words or phrases: As you compose an email in Outlook
- Online content download: Allows you to search and download templates, images, 3D models, videos, and reference materials to enhance your documents
What are the benefits?
Some of the benefits include:
- Enhanced Productivity: Connected experiences like PowerPoint Designer, Dictate, and Translator provide real-time recommendations and insights, making it easier to create, edit, and collaborate on documents. This helps users work more efficiently and achieve better results.
- Improved Collaboration: Features such as Excel's rich data types and Outlook's weather info enable seamless sharing of information and insights, fostering better teamwork and communication.
- Access to Online Content: Connected experiences allow users to search and download templates, images, 3D models, videos, and reference materials, enhancing the quality and creativity of their work.
- Eliminating Friction: Connected experiences streamline the user journey by providing consistent and seamless interactions across multiple platforms. This reduces hurdles and makes it easier for users to complete tasks.
- Data Integration: By integrating data across different areas, connected experiences provide a comprehensive view of customer interactions, enabling better decision-making and personalized experiences.
How can I disable Microsoft Connected Experiences?
If you wish to disable Connected Experiences:
- Open any Microsoft 365 application, such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
- Go to the File menu in the top left-hand corner.
- Select Account (In Outlook, it's under Office Account).
- Click on Manage Settings.
- In the Privacy Settings window, scroll down to the Connected Experiences section.
- To disable all connected experiences, uncheck the box marked Enable connected experiences.
- Click OK to save your changes.
What are the potential drawbacks of disabling it?
Overall, while disabling connected experiences can address privacy concerns, it also means losing valuable functionalities that enhance productivity, collaboration, and access to online content.
- Loss of Real-Time Recommendations: Features like PowerPoint Designer, Dictate, and Translator provide real-time suggestions and insights that enhance productivity and creativity. Disabling these experiences means you won't receive these recommendations.
- Reduced Collaboration Efficiency: Connected experiences facilitate seamless sharing of information and insights across applications, fostering better teamwork and communication. Turning off these features can hinder collaboration and make it harder to work together effectively.
- Limited Access to Online Content: Connected experiences allow users to search and download templates, images, 3D models, videos, and reference materials to enrich their documents. Disabling these features will limit your access to this online content.
- Privacy Concerns: While disabling connected experiences can address privacy concerns, it also means losing functions that analyze your content to deliver insights and recommendations, such as grammar corrections and design tips.
- Increased Manual Effort: Without connected experiences, users may need to manually perform tasks that were previously automated, such as translating text or retrieving weather data for Outlook's calendar.
- Reduced Integration: Connected experiences integrate data across various services, providing a comprehensive view of customer interactions and enabling better decision-making. Disabling these features can reduce the effectiveness of data integration.
Similar Systems from Other Providers
- Adobe: Adobe Experience Platform and Adobe Connect offer personalized customer engagement and virtual meeting capabilities.
- Blackboard: The Blackboard App and Blackboard Collaborate provide access to course materials, virtual class sessions, and real-time interactions.
- Google: Google Workspace and Apigee offer integrated tools for productivity and collaboration, as well as API management for connected user experiences.