Public Sector Blog

108 MIN READ

January 2025 - Microsoft 365 US Public Sector Roadmap Newsletter

Jesse_Tedoff

Microsoft

Jan 31, 2025

Teams: New recording and transcription policies for town halls and webinars, Purview: new cleanup policies to mitigate data spills with retention, New Outlook: PST support

Purview

Quick Summarizations in eDiscovery

Microsoft 365 Copilot

Manage web searches in Copilot separately from optional connected experiences with new policy - GCC

Action required: Azure AD Graph API retirement

Apps can’t make requests to Azure AD Graph APIs after February 1, 2025 – unless you take action to postpone the impact.

Microsoft 365 Copilot GCC generally available starting December 13th

We’re excited to announce that Microsoft 365 Copilot GCC generally availability (GA) is Dec 13, 2024, for qualifying GCC environment customers. Also at GA, the Microsoft 365 Copilot Service Description will be updated for GCC feature availability.

Where to Start with Microsoft Teams Apps in Gov Clouds

Customers in our Office 365 government clouds, GCC, GCCH, and DoD, are continuing to evolve how they do business in the hybrid workplace. As Microsoft Teams is the primary tool for communication and collaboration, customers are looking to improve productivity by integrating their business processes directly into Microsoft Teams via third-party party (3P) applications or line-of-business (LOB)/homegrown application integrations.

Microsoft 365 Government Adoption Resources

Empowering US public sector organizations to transition to Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Public Roadmap
This link is filtered to show GCC, GCC High and DOD specific items. For more general information uncheck these boxes under “Cloud Instance”.

Stay on top of Microsoft 365 changes
Here are a few ways that you can stay on top of the Office 365 updates in your organization.

Microsoft Tech Community for Public Sector
Your community for discussion surrounding the public sector, local and state governments.

Microsoft 365 for US Government Service Descriptions

Get started with Microsoft 365 Copilot
Public Sector Center of Expertise We bring together thought leadership and research relating to digital transformation and innovation in the public sector. We highlight the stories of public servants around the globe, while fostering a community of decision makers. Join us as we discover and share the learnings and achievements of public sector communities.
Microsoft Teams for US Government Adoption Guide

Please note: This section is for informational purposes only. It is presented as is and as available with no warranty and no supportability given expressly or implied. Questions, comments, concerns and all other feedback must be presented in the comment section below the post, thank you!

SharePoint Online

MC915485 — (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint: Updates to font management capabilities

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 420933

Updated November 27, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We are introducing updates that provide capabilities for managing custom fonts for Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Viva Connections. This includes the ability to hide the From Microsoft font packages from Change the look, the ability to apply a font package in your site templates, and updated availability for the From Microsoft font packages.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by early November 2024

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early November 2024 and expect to complete late January 2025 (previously early December).

How this will affect your organization:

This rollout will include new Microsoft PowerShell commands that will allow you to get information about the From Microsoft font packages and the ability to hide these font packages if desired. More details for these commands will be available in our PowerShell documentation. We will also provide an update to add an additional site script action that will allow developers and administrators to include and apply font packages as a part of a site template.

Sample action details:

{

"verb": "applyFontPackage",

"fontPackageTitle": "Amasis MT",

"fontPackageId": "1e7a7803-045d-44df-9c7a-d2f2f8562e51",

"fontPackageStore": "OutOfBox"

}

This rollout will also include a change to allow tenants that meet the requirements for custom fonts to discover the feature without needing to activate the SharePoint brand center. For tenants that are currently using the Organization Assets Library functionality with Public content delivery network (CDN), these organizations will see Fonts and the From Microsoft font packages in Change the look without any additional actions.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Get started with the SharePoint Online Management Shell | Microsoft Learn (will be updated)

MC912181 — (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint: Add approvals to any document library

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 420336

Updated December 18, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

As an extension to the previous communication MC757613 (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint: Add approvals to any SharePoint list (originally sent March 2024, updated August 2024), we will soon add approvals to document libraries in Microsoft SharePoint Online.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously late January).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 (early January) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (late January).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Users are not able to add approvals to document libraries in SharePoint Online.

After this rollout, users will be able to configure approvals by going to the Automate dropdown menu from the command bar in SharePoint Online document libraries and then selecting the Configure Approvals option to enable and disable approvals on the library. Note: When editing files, any in-flight approvals will be cancelled if changes are saved. To discourage edits of in-progress approvals, files will open in view-only mode in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for the web, and the same Windows desktop applications will show that the document is Marked as final.

After approvals are enabled, a user can create a file and submit it for approval. By creating an approval request and specifying the approver, the request will appear in the Approvals app in Microsoft Teams or can be approved directly in the library in SharePoint. Once approved, the file metadata is updated.

Note: Disabling approvals will only hide the relevant columns. In-progress approvals will still be actionable in Teams. At any time, you can manually add approvals columns back into your views.

This feature is on by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout.

Inform your users of the new Approvals functionality for libraries and lists. Share the support documentation Approvals in lists, which will be updated before this rollout begins to include library support.

MC810419 — New enhancements for Restricted Access Control for sites using Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Entra security groups

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 406554

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your patience.

Restricted Access Control is a premium security policy that lets admins restrict access to a specific set of users specified via Microsoft 365 groups or Microsoft Entra Security groups.

As part of this change, the following new capabilities will be available:

Microsoft SharePoint administrators will be able to gain new insights about the sites protected by the Restricted Access Control (RAC) policy and about users denied access due to the RAC policy using a RAC insights report.
SharePoint administrators will be able to set customizable "learn more" links when a user gets an access denied message due to the RAC policy.
Site owners will be able to view RAC settings applied on the site.

When this will happen:

Public Preview: We began rolling out late June 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early August 2024 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

SharePoint administrators can leverage these feature updates to reduce the risk of oversharing and provide additional information to their site owners and end users within their organizations.

To learn more, visit Restrict SharePoint site access with Microsoft 365 groups and Entra security groups.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Microsoft Viva

MC956696 — Microsoft Viva Connections: Power Apps card

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 464999

The Power Apps card for Viva Connections allows you to bring your power cards and applications onto the Viva Connections dashboard for quick access.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, DoD): We began rolling out in early December 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

The Tenant admins can use this feature as needed. This feature will allow them to bring their power cards and applications onto the Viva Connections dashboard by using the link of the entity.

Learn more here: Add the Power Apps card

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC947830 — (Updated) Microsoft Viva: Updates to the admin experience

Updated December 18, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We’re excited to announce updates to the Microsoft Viva admin landing page and the Feature Access Management experience in the Microsoft 365 admin center (MAC).

When this will happen:

Viva admin landing page | General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late December 2024 (previously early December) and expect to complete by early January 2025 (previously late December).

New user interface for Feature Access Management in the MAC | General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

The Viva admin landing pagewill feature tabs, making it easier for admins to navigate and access important admin settings like organizational data uploads and feature access controls. Admins will benefit from a more intuitive layout, making it easier to navigate various settings directly from the MAC. Learn more: Set up Microsoft Viva | Microsoft Learn(documentation will be updated before rollout)

Through the new Feature Access management user interface, admins will be able to manage feature access settings directly in the MAC. Feature access management allows admins to use access policies to manage which users can access specific features in Viva apps, so you can tailor your deployments to meet your local regulatory or business requirements. Previously, these policies could only be managed with Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets. After this rollout, admins can choose to use either the MAC or PowerShell to manage feature access. Existing policies set for an organization will persist and can be managed in both places. Learn more: Microsoft Viva - Feature access management | Microsoft Learn(documentation will be updated before rollout)

These changes will be available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

MC867656 — (Updated) Microsoft Viva Connections news notifications in GCC, GCC High, and DoD

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 410198

Updated December 5, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

With this feature update, existing news notifications in Microsoft Viva Connections will now be available in GCC, GCC High, and DoD.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late September 2024 (late August) and expect to complete by early October 2024 (previously early September).

General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early October 2024 (early September) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

News notifications are delivered via Microsoft Teams in the desktop, mobile, and web environments in the following scenarios:

News is published to a SharePoint team or communication site that a user follows or by someone that a user works closely with.
News is boosted.
Someone comments on a new News post.
Someone "Likes" a News post.
Someone is @mentioned in a comment on a news post.

End users can control which notifications they want to see in the following ways:

On Teams desktop and web, specific notification types can be selectively enabled or disabled under Settings > Notifications and activity > Viva Connections. These settings are respected on Teams mobile as well.
On Teams mobile, notifications can't be selectively enabled or disabled, but users can toggle all push notifications (including Viva Connections) in the Teams mobile app under Settings > Notifications > General Activity > Apps on Teams. Notifications will still be visible under the Microsoft Teams activity feed.
There is no tenant level setting to turn off Viva Connections News notifications.

For more information, see Viva Connections News notifications.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC708077 — (Updated) Microsoft Viva: Modern All Company for non-native mode networks

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Most Microsoft Viva All Company communities in tenants and networks that are not yet in native mode networks will be automatically migrated to the modern All Company experience. This means that All Company will have all the new community experiences and features. This change will only affect a few Engage networks. Most networks already have the modern All Company experience.

The All Company for non-native mode networks will be automatically migrated to the modern experience. This adds new features to All Company such as community customizations, cover photos, and custom naming. Find out more about the benefits here.

When this will happen:

Standard Release: We will begin rolling out in late January 2024 and expect migrations to complete in June 2025 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

All Company will be migrated to the modern experience with additional features that have been available to newer tenants and networks.

When All Company is migrated, it will have a Microsoft 365 group and identifier assigned. It may appear that the analytics for All Company have been deleted. If you need access to previous insights for All Company, follow the directions in this documentation.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is no action needed to initiate the migration. Admins should review the modern All Company feature set and determine whether they wish to enable new features that are available after migration. Communicate the impact on analytics and new URLs to any individual that relies on the All Company analytics.

Microsoft Teams

MC971032 — Microsoft Teams: New recording policies for town halls and webinars

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 473887

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: New admin policies in the Teams admin center and Microsoft PowerShell that govern the recording behavior for town halls and webinars. Before this rollout, the same policies control the recording behavior for town halls, webinars, and meetings. After this rollout, separate recording policies for town halls and webinars will be available to more finely control event behavior. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Teams for the web, and Teams for iOS/Android.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

This change will be available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

Before the rollout, we encourage you to use PowerShell commands to update the default values of the recording policies for webinars and town halls. After the rollout, you can use Teams admin center or PowerShell commands to update the values.

Examples of PowerShell commands to set the town hall or webinar recording policy:

Set-CsTeamsEventsPolicy -Identity Global -RecordingForTownhall Enabled

Set-CsTeamsEventsPolicy -Identity Global -RecordingForWebinar Enabled

Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more: New-CsTeamsEventsPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn

MC971031 — Microsoft Teams: New transcription policies for town halls and webinars

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 473886

Before this rollout, for a Microsoft Teams town hall or webinar, the transcription behavior respects the current Teams meeting transcription policies. After this rollout, new transcription policies will be available for town halls and webinars to allow finer control over transcriptions. The policies may be changed in the Teams admin center or with Microsoft PowerShell commands. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Teams for the web, and Teams for iOS/Android.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

These new transcription policies for webinars and town halls will determine whether transcription is allowed for a town hall or webinar. Town halls and webinars will no longer respect the Teams Meeting transcription policies.

The new policies will be available by default for admins to configure.

What you need to do to prepare:

Before the rollout, we encourage you to use PowerShell commands to update the default values of the transcription policies for webinars and town halls. After the rollout, you can use Teams admin center or PowerShell commands to update the values.

Examples of PowerShell commands to set the town hall or webinar policy:

Set-CsTeamsEventsPolicy -Identity Global -TranscriptionForTownhall Enabled

Set-CsTeamsEventsPolicy -Identity Global -TranscriptionForWebinar Enabled

Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more: New-CsTeamsEventsPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn

MC966633 — Microsoft Teams: Meeting recap can be shared as a link

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 471430

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Meeting participants will be able to share a link to the Meeting recap from the meeting thumbnail in chat and the Recap tab, making it easier to reference and share Meeting recap insights with others. Meeting participants can share the meeting recap link with anyone in their organization. Users who don't have access to the recording or transcript must request access before they can access the Meeting recap.

This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop and Teams for Mac desktop.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete late March 2025.

Sharing a Meeting recap link from the meeting thumbnail:

Sharing a Meeting recap link from the Recap tab:

Shared Meeting recap link in chat:

How this will affect your organization:

This change will be available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before or after the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more: Meeting recap in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)

MC960811 — Microsoft Teams: Enhanced captions for Teams Rooms on Windows

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 423089

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: We are excited to announce that captions will soon support additional languages and translation capabilities. This enhancement aims to improve meeting accessibility and inclusivity for non-English speaking users using Teams Rooms on Windows.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out early April 2025 and expect to complete by mid-April 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Before the rollout: Captions in Teams Rooms on Windows only support the English language, which limits usability for non-English speaking users as the captions will result in gibberish if the actual spoken language in the meeting is non-English. There is also no way for admins to set default caption settings.

After the rollout

Additional languages: Users can select from a list of supported languages for captions, ensuring that captions are accurate and meaningful for non-English speakers. Users can change the meeting spoken language directly from Teams Rooms devices by selecting More > Captions > Meeting spoken language.

Real-time translation: Users can translate the meeting's spoken language if the room account has a Teams Rooms Pro license or if the meeting organizer has a Teams Premium license, allowing for real-time translation of captions. Users can translate captions by selecting More > Captions > Translation language.

Admin controls: For room accounts with Teams Rooms Pro license, admins can change system defaults, turn on captions by default for calls and meetings, and turn off filtering of profanity in captions and transcripts as necessary with these XML settings:

<CaptionsDefault>true</CaptionsDefault>
<FilterProfaneWords>false</FilterProfaneWords>

As an admin, you can allow or prevent users (including room accounts) from having access to this feature by configuring calling and meeting policies in the Teams admin center. Learn more: Enable call captions - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn and Manage live captions - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn.

This feature is available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

After your Teams Rooms on Windows devices are updated to the latest version, configure the desired policy and settings, notify your users about this change, and update your training and documentation as appropriate. This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout.

MC960809 — Microsoft Teams: Live transcription for Teams Rooms on Windows

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 423088

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: We are excited to announce that users can soon start and stop transcription as well as view the meeting transcript directly from Teams Rooms on Windows devices. This feature requires a Teams Rooms Pro license.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out early April 2025 and expect to complete by mid-April 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Before the rollout: When joining a meeting on Teams Rooms on Windows, users must also join the meeting on a companion device to start transcription. Also, even when transcription has been started, users can't view the transcript from the front of room display.

After the rollout: Users can select More > Record and transcribe > Start transcription or Stop transcription directly from the Teams Rooms on Windows device. Start/stop transcription is supported in any meeting where a participant belongs to the same tenant as the organizer.

When users transcribe a Meet now or Whiteboard session initiated from a Teams Rooms on Windows device, users must ensure that they invite themselves to the meeting so that they can access the transcript after the meeting through the meeting chat on their Teams desktop or mobile app.

After transcription is started, users can show/hide the transcript panel on the front of room display in any meeting layout:

Select More> Record and transcribe > toggle On/Off Show transcript.
Select View> Front row > open the left/right panel dropdown > select/unselect Transcript.

Users can also set the meeting spoken language, translate the transcript, and choose to show the original language and translated language side by side, ensuring accurate and meaningful transcription.

Live transcription settings in Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows:

This feature will be on by default and available for admins to configure. As an admin, you can allow or prevent users (including room accounts) from transcribing meetings with a policy in the Teams admin center. Learn more: Manage transcription for Teams meetings | Microsoft Learn.

NOTE: Both the meeting organizer and the transcription initiator (room account) need to have permissions to transcribe the meeting. If the meeting organizer uses Meeting options to remove the room account's permissions, the start/stop transcription button will not be available.

For room accounts with a Teams Rooms Pro license, you have the option to turn off the filtering of profanity in transcripts using this XML setting: <FilterProfaneWords>false</FilterProfaneWords>

Start/stop transcription is not supported in these scenarios:

Teams calls including P2P, group, and PSTN calls
External and cross-tenant Teams meetings and calls
Third-party meetings and calls including Direct Guest Join and SIP

What you need to do to prepare:

After your Teams Rooms on Windows devices are updated to the latest version, configure the desired policy and setting, notify your users about this change, and update your training and documentation as appropriate. This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout.

MC956699 — Microsoft Teams: Forward messages with app cards

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469506

We are introducing the ability to forward app cards. With the addition of app card forwarding, users now have a new way to share app cards across chats. To forward a message containing an app card, simply navigate to the More Actions menu of any message containing an app card and select forward. From here, the forward message dialog will populate, which provides users with a preview of the message being forwarded, including the app card.

Please note: Forwarding of bot cards is excluded from this release.

When this will happen:

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out early January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Users will now have less restrictions when forwarding content. Previously, users were unable to forward messages that contained app cards. With this improvement, this restriction does not exist.

What you need to do to prepare:

Users must have the latest Microsoft Teams build to receive these updates. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC953752 — Microsoft Teams: Scheduling channel messages

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 467447

A new feature allows you to schedule messages in Microsoft Teams channels. This feature will help you plan and manage your communications more effectively.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025.

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025.

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out early April 2025 and expect to complete by mid-April 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Users will be able to schedule channels messages in Teams.

Key Features:

Message Scheduling: Schedule messages to be posted at a specific date and time in any channel.
Easy Access: Use the scheduling option directly from the message compose box.
Flexibility: Edit or cancel scheduled messages before they are posted.

Note that this feature already exists for Teams chat and is new for Teams channels.

This update is available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC952891 — New VDI optimization solution for Microsoft Teams on Citrix virtual desktops - General Availability

As announced in MC798681, a new optimization solution for Microsoft Teams on Citrix virtual desktops was released into public preview.

The new Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution for Microsoft Teams is a redesigned version of the existing VDI optimization (WebRTC based) that provides enhanced performance, reliability, security, and streamlined support. (Informational Blog here).

By leveraging the same media engine used in the native Microsoft Teams desktop clients (SlimCore), it offers the following new features:

Advanced meeting capabilities:

Gallery View 3x3 and 7x7
Background images from My Organization (requires Teams Premium license)
1080p
Include Computer sound while screensharing
Hardware acceleration on the endpoint

Telephony and voice capabilities:

Location Based Routing (including Operator Connect) and Media Bypass
Quality of Service
Human Interface Device (HID)
Noise suppression

Better supportability:

Teams Admin Center (both real time and past calls analytics)
Call Quality Dashboard
Custom PowerBI reports for VDI

It also provides a simpler media engine update experience for users, without requiring frequent upgrades of the VDA infrastructure or CWA clients.

This release applies to Windows endpoints connecting to Citrix DaaS or Virtual apps and desktops environments.

The Citrix Workspace app 2402 (or higher) can install new small component (a 220KB DLL, known as Microsoft Teams Plugin) capable of establishing a virtual channel with Microsoft Teams running on the virtual desktop, subsequently silently downloading the new media engine on the user's device and keeping it up to date without user or admin intervention.

Customers can still deploy the Plugin 'out of band' on top of existing Workspace apps that meet the minimum version by using the Plugin MSI installer.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): We will begin rolling out on early December 2024 and expect to be complete by mid December 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

The new VDI solution for Microsoft Teams is enabled by default on the new Teams app and becomes the default optimization mode if the endpoint meets the minimum requirements. It can be disabled via TAC policy (PowerShell only).

Users will notice an additional set of features and better performance, including faster call set up times, improved reliability when joining meetings or during screensharing, and the most modern codecs Microsoft offers.

Microsoft recommends you create proactive notifications within your organization and tech support groups.

If your environment does not meet the minimum requirements, users will continue to be optimized using the now legacy stack (WebRTC), which can be seen under '...'/Settings/About as "Citrix HDX Media Optimized".

What you need to do to prepare:

Make sure your VDI environment meets all the minimum requirements:

New Microsoft Teams app 24295.605.3225.8804, and client version is 49/ 24110115722 (you can check this by going to '...'/Settings/About in Teams UI
Citrix Workspace app: 2203 LTSR (any CU), 2402 LTSR, 2302 CR
Microsoft Teams Plugin ("MsTeamsPluginCitrix.dll") 2024.41.1.1 (evergreen download link here) installed on the endpoint/thin client
VDA: 2203 CU3 LTSR, 2402 LTSR, 2305 CR
Citrix Studio policy "Virtual Channel Allow List" is configured to whitelist three new custom virtual channels

Learn more here: New VDI solution for Teams

Blogs: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/the-future-of-microsoft-teams-in-vdi/ba-p/4175859

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoftteamsblog/new-vdi-solution-for-teams-on-avdwindows-365-environments-now-generally-availabl/4238620/

MC952889 — Microsoft Teams admin center: Non-disruptive device operations for Microsoft Teams devices

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 418120

We are excited to announce a new capability in the Microsoft Teams admin center designed to ensure that device operations are non-disruptive for Android-based Teams devices.

This new feature allows software updates, restarts, and configuration updates to occur only when the device is idle (not busy), preventing any disruptions during meetings or calls. Device admins will now have the ability to manage these operations without affecting end-user experience, ensuring smoother and uninterrupted device usage.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

This change will significantly enhance the user experience by ensuring that device operations such as software updates, restarts, and configuration updates are carried out only when the device is idle. This means meetings or calls will no longer be interrupted by these operations. This change will be applicable for Teams Rooms on Android, Panels, Phones, and Displays.

This change will require an update for Teams app and the Teams admin agent app to take effect. We will update this message closer to the release date with details about the required versions.

With this change, the following device operations will automatically function in a non-disruptive way:

Software update
Device restart
Configuration update

This change will be applicable for operations created by administrators manually from Teams admin center or the Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal, as well as those being carried out automatically.

How this will work:

At the time of execution, the device status is checked. The execution goes forward only if the device is free (no ongoing meeting or call) and has no upcoming scheduled event on the calendar.

A few minutes before the execution starts, the device shows a notification for the end-users, informing them that the operation is about to start. The device users get an option to Postpone the execution if they want to use the device.

The execution of the operation does not start if the device is busy, or has upcoming scheduled events on the calendar, or the end-user has opted to postpone the execution. The device status is checked at regular intervals for a safe window for execution.

The status of the operation is available in Teams admin center. Admins can view the details on the device page under the History tab.

This ensures that the end-users do not face any disturbance while they are using Teams devices.

Additional aspects

There could be scenarios where the devices are extremely busy thus delaying the execution of the operation. Administrators will have an option to decide the execution approach if the execution is unable to start even after 24 hrs. There are two options:

The operation is cancelled after having tried for 24 hrs.There will be no impact on the device. If the administrator created this operation, they can come back can create it again. This is the default behavior.
The operation is force-executed after having tried for 24 hrs. This option will execute the operation, but the status of the device will not be checked at this point. This may cause some disruption if the device is in use.

The option to cancel or force the execution of the operations after the 24-hr search of a safe-execution window can be configured from Teams admin center through the Configuration profiles.

What you need to do to prepare:

The changes will take effect automatically after updating the devices to the required Teams app and Teams admin agent versions. The updates will happen automatically, but admins can choose to update manually also. The details about the required versions will be announced closer to the release date. Refer to Update Microsoft Teams devices remotely - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn for more details about updating devices.

Admins should familiarize themselves with the new controls available in the Teams admin center. They should ensure that they configure the settings appropriately to suit their organization's needs. Additionally, it's recommended to communicate these changes to end-users, so they are aware of the improved experience and new notifications they might receive regarding device operations.

We believe this feature will greatly improve the reliability and user experience of Teams devices in your organization.

For any clarification, feel free to reach out to Microsoft Support.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

MC952888 — Microsoft Teams: Pop out Chat, Copilot, and Notes panes in meetings

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421607

Coming soon: Users will be able to pop out the side panes for Notes, Chat, and Microsoft Copilot panes in Microsoft Teams meetings

Note: The Copilot pane is only available in Worldwide environments with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

After the rollout, users will see a pop-out icon at the top of their Notes, Chat, and Copilot side panes in Teams meetings. This change will be on by default.

When users select the icon, the pane will pop out into a separate window that the user can resize and drag to their desired position, based on their screen setup and their productivity goals for the meeting. Users can view multiple meeting features at the same time, so they don’t miss the chat while they are monitoring meeting notes.

Chat window in the default position in a meeting:

Chat windows popped out into a separate window:

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Please notify your users about this change and update any relevant training documentation.

MC950898 — Microsoft Teams: Forwarding loop components

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469507

There is now the ability to forward loop components in Microsoft Teams. With the addition of loop component forwarding, users have a new way to share loop components across chats and channels. To forward a message containing a loop component, simply navigate to the more actions menu of any message containing a loop component and select forward. From there, the forward this message dialog will populate, which provides users with a preview of the message being forwarded, including the loop component. In this view, users will be able to give permissions to recipients of the loop component to ensure all recipients have access to the content.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out in early January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out in late January 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Users will now have less restrictions when forwarding content. Previously, users were unable to forward messages that contained a loop component. With this improvement, no such restriction exists.

This update is available by default.

For additional information, see Forward a message in a Teams chat - Microsoft Support.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC950897 — Microsoft Teams: Forward messages to and from channels

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469508

Coming soon in Microsoft Teams: Users will be able to forward posts and reply messages to and from channels. We designed this feature to reduce limitations on the type of content that can be forwarded in Teams, to enhance collaboration. This message applies to Teams on Windows and Mac desktops.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout, users are unable to forward messages to and from channels.

After this rollout, users can select the three-dot More actions menu on any channel post or reply message and then choose Forward.

In the Forward this message dialog box, users can select any destination chat or channel. Including channels in the people picker is a new addition to the forward message dialog on desktop.

Impact to admin: This new feature will be on by default. You can control message forwarding for individual teams or at the tenant level with sensitivity labels, using the label setting to prevent copying chat to the clipboard. Learn more: Use sensitivity labels to protect calendar items, Teams meetings, and chat | Microsoft Learn. Message forwarding will be disabled in a team with this sensitivity label applied, and users will be blocked from sharing this content outside the channel.

What you need to do to prepare:

Users must be on the latest Microsoft Teams build to receive this update.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

User documentation: Forward a message in a Teams chat - Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)

MC949966 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: Join and present in Microsoft events

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 381425

Updated December 13, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows devices will be able to join Microsoft events (webinars, town halls, structured meetings) when invited as presenters. You can present directly from the Teams Room, with features like green room access and stage control for organizers and presenters supported on both single and dual screens. Available for tenants with Teams Rooms Pro licenses.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-February (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January).

How this will affect your organization:

This feature will be available by default.

Presenters in the green room and on stage right before starting the meeting in the room's console:

Learn more: Overview of meetings, webinars, and town halls - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

What you need to do to prepare:

MC949959 — Microsoft Teams: Customize the location of notifications

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469491

Microsoft Teams will soon allow users to personalize the placement of notifications on their screens. Users will be able to choose from four options: bottom right, top right, bottom left, or top left—to make notifications more convenient and less disruptive, enhancing both focus and productivity. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 and expect to be complete by mid-February 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout, Teams notifications were limited to the bottom right corner.

After this rollout, users can customize notification placement in Teams settings under Settings > Notifications and activity > Display.

This feature will be on by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

MC948994 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Collaborative Notes support for GCC High and DoD environments

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 418119

Updated December 9, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Teams Collaborative Notes, powered by Loop, is now available for Microsoft 365 GCC High and DoD environments across desktop and web experiences. Notes are Loop components in Teams meetings and chats that allow end users to co-create and collaborate on their meeting agenda, notes, and action items. Since Notes are Loop components, they stay in sync across all the places they have been shared. Assigned tasks automatically sync with To Do and Planner.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out in late March 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously mid-February).

How this will affect your organization:

Users within your tenant will see a Notes button during meetings that invokes these new capabilities. The meeting notes will be shown on the right pane of the meeting window with the ability to open them in the browser for more room or on a second monitor. Participants can collaborate in real time, create an agenda, take notes, and add tasks. When participants are assigned a task in the meeting, they will also receive an email notification, and it will be synced with the Planner and To Do apps.

Meeting organizers and participants will also see an option to add Collaborative Notes before meetings to prepare by adding agendas or other materials in one place. The meeting organizer can also choose to hide the meeting notes prior to the meeting through the Teams scheduling form. If Collaborative Notes are not created ahead of the meeting in the scheduling form, users can create the file by opening the Notes pane in the meeting.

After the meeting, Collaborative Notes will remain accessible for all participants on the Teams calendar meeting details page and through the meeting recap. The experience is a Loop component, so they can be copied easily out of the meeting and into chats, group chats, emails, and other documents. This makes prepping and follow-up even more seamless.

Clicking on the meeting note title or the icon in the upper left corner of the note launches the Loop app in browser. If the meeting is part of a series, meeting notes from previous instances can be conveniently found in the Loop app as well.

This feature is available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate. Public documentation is available here: Take meeting notes in Microsoft Teams.

Note: The new Collaborative Notes file will generate a Company Shareable Link (CSL), unless you have set People Specific Link (PSL) as the default. If PSL is the default, only users who were sent the original meeting invite will be able to access the notes. Users who were forwarded the meeting or nudged into a meeting will need to request access to the notes.

You can manage this feature via SharePoint PowerShell with: Set-SPOTenant -IsCollabMeetingNotesFluidEnabled (boolean)

You can read more about admin controls here: Manage Loop experiences (Loop app and Loop components) in SharePoint.

Known limitations: Collaborative Notes are currently supported for scheduled meetings and channel meetings and are not available for instant meetings or Teams calls.

MC947831 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Extensibility for PSTN calls

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468280

Updated December 12, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: Third-party application developers will be able to extend the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) calling experience with contextual information, making it possible for Teams users to have access to relevant data without leaving the call experience. This feature will make it possible for developers to bring additional context and workflow integration into calling experiences and make customer-facing professionals more efficient by having data from line of business applications readily available. This functionality is available for developers to integrate their applications and add new functionality to calls.

This message applies to Teams on Windows and Mac desktops.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously late January)

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously late February).

How this will affect your organization:

This feature only applies if you or your developers create a new personal scope Tab app and pin it for your users.

This change will be available by default for admins to configure. Learn more about app setup policies: Manage app setup policies in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

What you need to do to prepare:

No need to prepare if you are not planning to build apps to extend PSTN calling experience in Teams. If you want to build a personal scope Tab app for Teams PSTN calling, we will update this message with the documentation when rollout begins. Learn more: Microsoft Teams tabs - Teams | Microsoft Learn

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your developers and users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

MC947049 — (Updated) Introducing Approvals in Microsoft Teams for GCC High

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468867

Updated December 11, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience

Approvals in Microsoft Teams is a way to streamline requests and processes with a team or partners. Users will be able to create new approvals, view pending approvals, and see previous ones in one place.

Users with an F3 license or above are able to take advantage of the Approvals app within Teams (license list below). If you do not have users that meet that requirement, you may safely ignore this message.

Approvals is a native Teams application that lets users easily create, manage, and share approvals from a hub for teamwork. These approvals are triggered directly with the Power Automate infrastructure and do not require a flow with an approvals action.

Users see all of their approvals in the hub, including the approvals that have been completed. Approvals show up across all of of a user's systems, including Power Automate, SharePoint, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January).

What you need to do to prepare

The Approvals app is on by default if your tenant has enabled Power Automate.

Manage the Approvals app in the Teams Admin Center within the app page, including customizing which users are able to access the app via permission policies. Currently, all the approvals are created in your organization's default environment.

MC939927 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Premium: Decorate your background

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 419811

Updated December 10, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Teams Premium users will be able to use the "Decorate your background" generative background effect in the GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments, leveraging gen-AI to augment real-life surroundings. It creates a personalized atmosphere for video calls.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out in early February 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete rollout by late February 2025 (previously late January).

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out in mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete rollout by late February 2025 (previously mid-February).

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out in late February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete rollout by early March 2025 (previously late February).

How this will affect your organization:

“Decorate your background” transforms meeting backgrounds by blending with a user’s real-life surrounding, creating a personalized atmosphere for video calls. It is available to Teams Premium users, and it is supported on Microsoft Windows and MacOS client now. There is not admin policy to disable it.

Users can access this feature in the following ways:

Before a meeting starts on the pre-join screen, select Effects and Avatars> Video effects > Decorate button. This will allow you to start generating new backgrounds.
During a meeting, select an animated background by clicking video flyout > More Video Effects and Setting > Decorate.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC937925 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Additional report fields in the time clock export for improved reporting in the Shifts app

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422812

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

If your organization does not have frontline workers, you can ignore this message.

Coming soon for the Shifts app in Microsoft Teams, we will expand the functionality of the time clock export report by adding additional fields from Shifts. This enhancement provides you with a more comprehensive and detailed view of your scheduling data, making it easier to analyze and manage workforce activities. This message applies to Teams for web, Windows, and Mac desktops.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously late January).

How this will affect your organization:

To take advantage of the expanded functionality of the time clock export report, familiarize yourself with the new fields added from Shifts. Review your current reporting processes and update any relevant documentation or training materials to incorporate these changes.

This change will be on by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change.

MC934727 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: File Interactive Previews

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421188

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Now users can quickly review files in Microsoft Teams chat and channel conversations using the file preview option. Using preview, users will be able to consume the file within the flow of work, minimizing the context switch and potentially enhancing the efficiency for the users.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by mid-February (previously late January).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late February).

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by early April 2025 (previously mid-April).

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out early April 2025 (previously late March) and expect to complete by mid-April 2025 (previously late April).

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out late April (previously early April) and expect to complete by early May 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

The stage 1 release of this feature will enable previews for single file attachments in Teams messages, starting with PDF files and gradually extending the support for other popular formats such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, and later Microsoft Excel. The preview option for files in messages with multiple files will be supported in subsequent releases.

This new feature is available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC932488 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New DVR capabilities for town halls (desktop and web)

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422804

Updated December 10, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: New DVR (digital video recording) functionality for all town halls. This new feature will allow town hall attendees on Windows desktop or the web to interact with a live streaming town hall in the same way they would interact with recorded content. DVR functionality in the town hall enables event attendees to pause and move forward or back in a town hall, navigate to any previous timestamp, and other abilities, making it more convenient to interact with a town hall more and easier to digest the content being presented. This feature is available for Teams town halls from all organizers, regardless of the license assigned to the organizer.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February (previously late January).

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously early February)

How this will affect your organization:

After this rollout, the DVR controls will appear when attendees hover their mouse over the content being presented in the town hall. Attendees can:

Pause, play, and skip 10 seconds forward or backward
Control the volume of the content with the volume control
Jump to any point in time, starting from the beginning of the event
Catch up with the content and join the live event by selecting the Watch Livebutton next to the volume control

The DVR controls are at the bottom of the Teams window when the Q&A page is open on the right side.

We are committed to continuously improving the Microsoft Teams experience and are excited to bring this new capability to our customers.

This feature will be available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

Learn more: Plan for Teams town halls - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

MC931401 — (Updated) Ensuring Security and Compliance: Keep your Microsoft Teams desktop clients up to date

Updated December 18, 2024: We've delayed further rollouts of warning banners and blocking pages in December and intend to resume in mid-January per the schedule below. Please review for updated information and timing.

In today’s security climate, our work across the company and greater industry to keep this critical ecosystem secure is more important than ever. And while we also ship bug fixes and other new features via continuous innovation, in the end security is job one.

Keeping Microsoft Teams up to date is critical to ensure your devices are secure and compliant. By default, and as designed, Teams updates automatically which successfully updates most clients in the world without additional overhead for customers.

Microsoft Teams is governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy which requires that the Teams desktop client be kept up to date. This is not a new policy, for instance in MC298823 (November 2021), a version that is far out of date will become incompatible with the service until it’s updated. As documented, when a client falls out of date, the user will see:

Recurring in-app alerts, if the app is between 30d-90d out of date. Except in VDI environments, where this will occur between 60-90 days out of date.
A blocking page in Teams, if the app is greater than 90 days out of date. At this point, the app will show options to update, to contact their IT administrator, or continue to Teams on the web.

As an example, if the Teams app is hypothetically on a version released on January 1 and the next update is fully available on January 15, an in-app alert would be shown on February 14th (30 days after the January 15th update).

For reference, link to the Teams app's version's release dates. Also, The Microsoft Teams desktop client usage report gives you an overview of the Teams desktop clients in use within your organization.

Classic Teams is not in scope for this post; see MC783985 for Classic Teams Timelines regarding end of support and end of availability.

When this will happen:

The existing policy enforcement will be visible beginning January 14th, 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

New Teams - Windows & Mac Versions desktop clients (not running in a VDI environment)

Beginning January 14th, 2025, Teams desktop clients more than 30 days out of date, will present a banner or notification to users that they are on an outdated version of Teams.
Beginning February 18th, 2025, Teams desktop clients older than 90 days out of date, will present a blocking page. They will be shown an option to update to the latest version of Teams from this pageor use Teams on the web.

New Teams app running in a VDI environment – Windows desktop clients will follow the same policies as non-VDI environments, with enforcement starting on dates below

Beginning March 11th, 2025, for clients more than 60 days out of date will get a banner or notification to users that they are on an outdated version of Teams.
Beginning May 6th, 2025, for clients older than 90 days out of date, the Teams desktop client will present a blocking page.

Note on Deployment of Changes:

Users in preview rings will experience the changes approximately 4 weeks before the specified dates (for app versions released to that ring).
The experiences above will not be visible to all users right away. It will take 4-8 weeks for the deployment to reach all users.

What you can do to prepare:

To avoid disruption to end-users, the admins with users on Teams versions older than the currently released versions, should update their users to the most recent version.

Admins should make sure Teams is automatically updating to stay current and within the compatibility window. Common configurations to validate include:

Teams clients on macOS have Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) configured properly. Learn More
Customer network settings, and any device management software e.g. antivirus, are configured properly to allow automatic updates.
Windows Policiesmust not block new Teams or the Webview2 updater.

Please visit this page to learn more.

MC929034 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Best practices configuration dashboard in Teams admin center

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421185

Updated November 18, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: With the Best practice configurations monitoring dashboard in the Teams admin center, Teams admins will be able to monitor the conformance of your tenant to the Microsoft recommended best practices for an optimal collaboration experience on Teams.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-January).

How this will affect your organization:

Ensuring the quality and reliability of user's collaboration experience using Teams is crucial (specially the meeting-related experiences). Microsoft recommends best practices to ensure that organizations have an optimal environment setup for collaboration.

The Best Practice Configurations monitoring dashboard will assist admins in understanding their tenant’s non-conformance with these best practices, the overall impact, and how to comply with these recommendations.

You'll find the Best practice configurations dashboard in the Meetings section of the Teams admin center. In this release, we’ll monitor and highlight non-conformance in three key areas:

Update out-of-date client versions
Enable the right ports and protocols
Implement split tunnelling for VPNs

If a location does not adhere to these best practices, it will be highlighted on the dashboard. A widget on the main dashboard will also spotlight non-conforming practices. Also, a list of subnets/IP addresses will be displayed by city, showing the extent of non-conformance for each location. This list can be exported to share with relevant teams, and recommendations for addressing these issues will be available on the same page.

As these issues are resolved, the trend of non-conforming locations will be tracked to help monitor progress.

This new dashboard will be available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

Administrators do not need to do anything to prepare for these changes. They will take effect automatically.

You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

MC925999 — (Updated) Microsoft 365 app: Auto release and check-in for Microsoft Places

Updated December 12, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Places: New ways for users to check in to meeting rooms and prevent rooms from automatically releasing. After this rollout, customers will be able to check in through Teams Chat and email for all enabled rooms. The pre-rollout options to check in through Teams panels or Teams Rooms will continue.

This message is related to MC922620 Microsoft Places app ON by default (October 2024)

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout, users are able to check in and auto-release rooms through these options:

An attendee can check in through a Teams panel.
An attendee can check in by joining a meeting through Microsoft Teams Rooms.

After this rollout, check in and auto-release will need Teams panels on Teams app version 1449/1.0.97.2024061108 or higher. Users can choose from these three options to check in to a room:

An attendee can check in through a Teams panel. (Same as before the rollout)
An attendee can check in by joining a meeting through Microsoft Teams Rooms. (Same as before the rollout)
The organizer or an attendee can check in through Teams Chat. (New)

Any rooms that currently have auto-release and check-in enabled through Teams panels will automatically receive these additional check-in options without any extra setup required.

Please note: Check-in and auto-release is off by default. Once it is enabled, the following entry points are on by default:

Note: Auto-release and check in does not currently support or automatically release the room for in-person meetings and non-Teams online meetings such as Zoom or Webex. These features will come soon.

What you need to do to prepare:

Lean more: Enabling Auto Release for your rooms - Microsoft 365 Places | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

MC923415 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure status indicator

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 423472

Updated December 10, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

This new feature is designed to be a visual indicator of the optimization status in Microsoft Teams for Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) users.

Users in VDI used to rely on the ellipsis (...) > Settings > About menu to display the optimization status for their session (AVD Media Optimized, Citrix HDX Media Optimized, VMware Media Optimized).

The new status indicator will provide the user with an easy-to-understand status message, like "Optimized" or "Not Optimized", some contextual information about the optimization mode (optimized with the WebRTC-based solution or the new SlimCore-based solution), and in the not optimized case it will provide a brief description of the problem and an error code, for better supportability.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously late January).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously early February).

How this will affect your organization:

Once this feature is rolled out, users will be able to quickly understand whether their audio/video is optimized for virtual desktop environments (offloading to the endpoint/user's device) before joining a meeting and take actions to fix problems or report back to their IT support with an error code.

This feature is available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

As this feature introduces new UI components, admins should update their internal documentation and communications so that end-users understand the new status indicator feature.

MC920298 — Microsoft Teams admin center: Admins can disable the ability to send messages in meeting chat before and after a meeting

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422808

Updated December 10, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams admin center: For the existing Meeting chat control, we will add two new options that allow admins to disable meeting chat before and after a meeting, In-meeting only for everyone and In-meeting only except anonymous users.

This message applies to Teams for Windows desktops and Mac desktops, Teams on the web, and Teams for iOS/Android.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early March 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by mid-March 2025 (previously mid-January).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late January).

General Availability (GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously mid-February).

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by early April 2025 (previously mid-February).

How this will affect your organization:

After this rollout, admins will find the two new options in the Teams admin center > Meetings > Meeting policies > Meeting engagement > Meeting chat.

Admins can select from five Meeting chat options:

On for everyone
On for everyone but anonymous users
Off
In-meeting only for everyone (new)
In-meeting only except anonymous users (new)

Admins can select the In-meeting only options to disable the ability of meeting participants to send messages in the meeting chat before or after the meeting, for meetings organized by specific users in their tenant. When one of the In-meeting only options is selected, participants can read past chat history, but they can only send messages in the meeting chat while the meeting is active.

The new options will be available for admins to configure. This rollout will respect the options selected by admins before the rollout. To use the new options, admins must select one of them.

What you need to do to prepare:

Learn more: Manage chat in Teams meetings - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

MC916866 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Shifts Graph APIs in beta moved to production (v1.0)

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422813

Updated December 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

The Shifts Graph APIs will transition from beta to production. This change brings enhanced stability and reliability to the APIs, ensuring a seamless experience for developers and users.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January).

How this will affect your organization:

You may continue using the API endpoints in beta. However, we recommend migrating to the production endpoints.

To refer to a list of all production (v1.0) APIs, go to the following page and navigate to Teamwork and communications > Shift management: Microsoft Graph REST API v1.0 endpoint reference - Microsoft Graph v1.0 | Microsoft Learn

This update is available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

To update Microsoft Graph APIs from beta to production, change your API calls from the beta endpoint to the v1.0 endpoint and thoroughly test your application to ensure compatibility. Check for any differences between the versions, and update any documentation accordingly.

MC916294 — (Updated) New Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business Call Hold Synchronization

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Improving interop between the new Microsoft Teams client and Skype for business

Currently when making or receiving a call in the new Microsoft Teams client while an existing Skype for Business (SfB) call is ongoing, the call in Skype for Business does not automatically go on hold. The reverse scenario has the same problem.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by late October 2024.

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by late October 2024.

General Availability (GCC High): early November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-November 2024.

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by early December 2024 (previously late November).

How this affects your organization:

We have addressed this issue so that when the user is on a call in SfB and answers a call in Microsoft Teams the SfB call will go on hold. Similarly, if they are on a call in Teams and answer a call in SfB the Teams call will go on hold. The user must be using the new Microsoft Teams client version 24261.1100.3128.2662 or greater.

What you can do to prepare:

Once this feature is available it must be enabled following the steps below.

The group policy registry key "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Lync\Enable21Interop", DWORDis set to "0x01"
The group policy registry key "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Lync\EnableIPCForHoldResume", DWORDis set to "0x01"

MC912707 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New policy for voice and face enrollment will default to "On" (configure now)

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 413708

Updated December 20, 2024: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

A new csTeamsAIPolicy policy for Microsoft Teams (available now via Microsoft PowerShell and taking effect in mid-February 2025) will give IT admins more control over voice and face enrollment settings, allowing organizations to manage these features based on their needs. After rollout, voice and face profile enrollment will be enabled by default, and users can benefit from voice isolation, speaker recognition, and attribution in meeting rooms, resulting in smarter meeting recaps and enhanced functionality for Microsoft 365 Copilot in meetings. To access Copilot features, a Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop and Mac desktop.

NOTE: Microsoft doesn't use the voice and face profiles of users to train any models or for any other purposes other than providing the voice and face enrollment feature in Microsoft Teams.

When this will happen:

The new Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets are available now for admins to configure, to ensure a smooth transition.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): The new Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets are available now for preparation and to ensure a smooth transition. The policy takes effect starting in mid-February 2025 (previously early February) and is expected to be fully in effect by late February 2025 (previously mid-February).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout, the current policy csTeamsMeetingPolicy has a single setting, EnrollUserOverride, that allows the administrator to enable or disable the enrollment of both face and voice profile of users.

After this rollout, the new csTeamsAIPolicy will replace the existing enrollment setting in csTeamsMeetingPolicy. The new csTeamsAIPolicy has two settings, EnrollFace and EnrollVoice, that will be set to Enabled by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

If your organization prefers to disable voice and face enrollments, review and update your settings before mid-January 2025. To help you get started, review:

Learn more: Overview of voice and face enrollment - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

If your organization prefers to disable voice and face enrollments, review and update your settings before mid-February 2025.

Important: The EnrollUserOverride setting can be assigned globally, directly to users, or to groups in PowerShell.

Admins must ensure that changes are applied consistently across all these locations to avoid unintended configurations.

MC912178 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Download Transcription and View RTMP-In 708 Captions for Town hall and Webinar

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 417156

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Before this rollout, in a Microsoft Teams town hall or webinar, the organizer does not have the option to download the transcript after the event has ended. Also, if an organizer has indicated through the meeting options before the event that an RTMP-In feed will be used, the 708 captions does not display in the attendee captions or transcript.

After this rollout, in a town hall or webinar, the organizer can download the transcript after the event has ended. Also, if an organizer has indicated through the meeting options before the event that an RTMP-In feed will be used, the 708 captions will be displayed in both the attendee captions and transcripts.

The transcript can be downloaded in Teams for Windows and Mac desktops and Teams for the web. The 708 captions during the meeting will be displayed in Teams for Windows and Mac desktops, Teams for the web, and Teams for Android and iOS.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-November 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by late December (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

To indicate before the event has started if an encoder or RTMP-In feed will be used, go to the event in the Teams calendar > Select Manage event > Select Meeting options > Enable RTMP-In

To download transcripts after the town hall or webinar, go to the event in the Teams calendar > Select Manage event > Select Recordings > Select Download transcripts

This change will be on by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

Learn more

Manage town hall recordings in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support(will be updated before rollout)
Use RTMP-In in Microsoft Teams(will be updated before rollout)

MC908115 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Meeting organizers can turn off copying of captions, transcript and recap

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 416072

Updated December 19, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: Meeting organizers with eligible licenses will have a Meeting option control called Turn off copying and forwarding of meeting chat, live captions, and transcript. When this control is enabled, meeting participants won’t be able to copy the meeting chat, live captions, live transcript, or any insights generated from intelligent meeting recap. This message applies to tenants with Teams Premium licenses on Teams for Windows desktop, Mac desktop, Teams on the web, and Teams for Android/iOS.

Please note that the updated meeting option doesn’t apply to sales insights in Recap and the scenarios outside Teams (e.g., transcript on Stream) with this release.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by early mid-February 2025 (previously early January).

General Availability (GCC High, DOD): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously late February). Note: Only applicable for live captions and transcript.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Meeting organizers have a control in Meeting options for Turn off copying or forwarding of meeting chat.

After this rollout: The Turn off copying or forwarding of meeting chat control in Meeting options will become the Turn off copying and forwarding of meeting chat, live captions, and transcripts control, which allows meeting organizers to prevent meeting participants from copying meeting chat, live captions, transcripts, and AI-generated insights in the meeting recap. Forwarding and sharing messages to Outlook will also be disabled.

This updated control is available by default for meeting organizers to enable.

What you need to do to prepare:

No admin action is needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

MC903632 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android: 3x3 video gallery on dual displays

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415239

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Teams Rooms on Android: We will increase video participants displayed in Gallery view for dual displays from 10 to 18 video participants total, 9 (3x3) on each screen, that will be displayed when no content is being shared during meetings. This rollout aligns the Gallery experience with Teams Rooms on Windows.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early November 2024 and expect to complete by early November 2024.

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out late November 2024 and expect to complete by late December (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

Due to device capability requirements and performance implications, 3x3 video gallery support for dual displays will only be available on the following Teams Rooms on Android devices: Yealink MeetingBar A40, Poly Studio X52, and Poly Studio G62. We will include more details in the Microsoft Learn documentation that will be included in the release notes. Before rollout, we will update this message with a link to the release notes.

This change will be on by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is needed to prepare for this change. Please notify your users about this new experience and update your training and documentation as appropriate.

MC892055 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Participant roster grouping in Teams BYOD meeting rooms

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 413711

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below.

We will not be rolling this out to organizations in GCC High or DoD during the timeline outlined below. We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed. Organizations in GCC High and DoD can safely disregard this message. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: When users join a Teams meeting with their laptop in bring your own device (BYOD) meeting rooms, they will appear in the In-room participant section of the roster, which enables individual identification and meeting intelligence capabilities. As communicated in MC814577 (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Roster grouping for in-room participants through Proximity Join for Teams Rooms on Windows (July 2024), we will launch this same experience in September 2024 for joining a nearby meeting with a Microsoft Teams Room and a companion device.

Unique to BYOD meeting rooms, the roster group will be displayed as Meeting space if the connected device is NOT identified in the Teams Pro Management Portal (PMP). If the device is identified in the PMP, the roster group will display the configured meeting room name.

This message applies to Teams for Windows and Mac desktops.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously mid-October).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by late October 2024.

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by late December (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Users joining a Teams meeting from a BYOD meeting room will be displayed as an individual participant in the Participants roster. Room node treatments will only be applicable to users joining from a Microsoft Teams Room.

After this rollout, this update will be available by default for all users joining a Teams meeting from a BYOD meeting room. After joining, in-room participants will automatically be grouped under the room node on the Participant roster. The two scenarios in which in-room participants can be ungrouped from the room node are:

Raised hand: We will continue to follow the sequential order of raised hands on the roster. In-room participants who use their companion device to raise their hand will appear on the roster in the order in which they raised their hand.
Role assignment: For changes in roles (presenters and attendees), in-room participants can be broken up and placed in the appropriate category on the roster. (This is an existing feature before this rollout.)

In both scenarios, room information will be listed below participant name.

What you need to do to prepare:

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

MC884018 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Set sensitivity labels for town halls and webinar

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 409226

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Team Premium customers: Event organizers will be able to set sensitivity labels for town halls and webinars. Sensitivity labels allow organizations to protect and regulate access to sensitive content created through collaboration in Teams. Sensitivity labels are available only for Teams Premium users on Mac and Windows desktops.

When this will happen:

Targeted release: We will begin rolling out in mid-October October 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously mid-October).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out in mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by late December (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this release: Sensitivity labels were not available for town halls and webinars.

After this rollout, events created or updated by an organizer with a Teams Premium license can apply a sensitivity label to their event. Organizers will be notified if their configured settings are not valid for the selected sensitivity. Specific options under Event access may be enabled or disabled based on the sensitivity label set for the event:

For upcoming events that have already been scheduled prior to rollout, the sensitivity of the event will be set to None. If an event organizer chooses to modify the sensitivity for a scheduled event after the rollout, this action may affect event settings that were previously configured.

What you need to do to prepare:

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

MC809602 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New skin tone settings and reactions

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 323766

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

With skin tone settings and reactions in Microsoft Teams, users will be able to set a preferred skin tone for relevant emojis and reactions. Each user can change their own skin tone setting in the Teams app Settings > Appearance and accessibility menu or in the emoji/reaction menu on Desktop or web. The skin tone rollout will apply to emojis and reactions in chats, channels, and meetings on all Teams platforms (Teams for Desktop, Teams for web, Teams for Mac, and Teams Mobile).

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late October 2024 (previously mid-October) and expect to complete by early November 2024 (previously late October).

General availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early November 2024 (previously late October) and expect to complete by mid-November 2024 (previously early November).

General availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 (previously mid-November) and expect to complete by late December (previously late November).

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

We will update this post before rollout with revised documentation.

MC808828 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom background and daily restart windows for Teams panels

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 402183

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We are pleased to share that you will soon have the ability to upload and apply custom backgrounds to your Microsoft Teams Panel devices to showcase your brand identity. This feature requires either a Teams Rooms Pro license or a Teams Shared Device license and will be available with the next Teams Panels app update.

The next app update will also allow you to configure a daily device restart window for every Teams panel device, regardless of license. The restart window will be set from 2:00am to 3:00am in the device's local time zone by default to keep the device healthy.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): We will begin rolling out early September 2024 (previously early August) and expect to complete by late December 2024 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

Custom backgrounds:

To set custom backgrounds for your Teams Panel devices, go to Teams admin center > Teams devices > Panels > Configuration profiles > Add or Edit > Device settings > Background > Use a custom background. You can upload one image at a time.

The image must meet these requirements:

Minimum resolution: 1280x720
Format: JPG, JPEG, or PNG
Minimum size: 100KB
Maximum size: 2MB

Note: The image may be scaled to fill the frame or center cropped to fit the display if the ratio and resolution do not match.

After the images are saved in the configuration profile and the configuration profile is assigned to one or multiple Teams panel devices, the custom background will be applied to the devices that are logged in with a properly licensed resource account.

You can also switch the background from the custom image to one of the default images or vice versa on your Teams panel (Settings > Teams admin settings > Backgrounds). To replace the custom background saved on the device, you must go to the Teams admin center and upload and save a new image in the configuration profile.

Daily device restart window:

By default, the daily device restart window will be between 2:00am to 3:00am in the device’s local time zone. You will be able to adjust this window or turn it off on the device or in Teams admin center.

To change it on the device, go to your Teams panel device settings (Settings > Teams admin settings > Device restart).
To change it remotely, go to Teams admin center > Teams devices> Panels > Configuration profiles > Add or Edit > General > Daily device restart window > save and assign the changes in configuration profiles to one or multiple devices.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to update any relevant documentation as appropriate and plan to design custom background images for your devices. We will update this post with a link to our learn docs with design guidelines when it is available.

MC808822 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom background and daily restart windows for Teams panels (GCC High)

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 402183

Updated November 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out early September 2024 and expect to complete by late December (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

Custom backgrounds:

The image must meet these requirements:

Minimum resolution: 1280x720
Format: JPG, JPEG, or PNG
Minimum size: 100KB
Maximum size: 2MB

Note: The image may be scaled to fill the frame or center cropped to fit the display if the ratio and resolution do not match.

Daily device restart window:

To change it on the device, go to your Teams panel device settings (Settings > Teams admin settings > Device restart).
To change it remotely, go to Teams admin center > Teams devices> Panels > Configuration profiles > Add or Edit > General > Daily device restart window > save and assign the changes in configuration profiles to one or multiple devices.

What you need to do to prepare:

MC808160 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Office 365 Connectors feature retires starting August 15, 2024

December 11, 2024 - Reminder: Users need to update their Webhook URLs by January 31, 2025, to ensure their notifications continue posting to Microsoft Teams. For more information on how to do this, please refer to the October 16th update below.

Updated October 16, 2024: Updated information related to Office 365 Connectors Retirement in Teams - Webhook URL Migration. Thank you for your patience.

As shared in the last communication, we are publishing guidance for owners of webhook-based connectors to update their URLs with a new structure. To allow ample time for replacing URLs, connector owners will have until January 31, 2025, which is an extension from our previous deadline of December 31, 2024. See below for complete guidance.

Webhook-based connectors within the O365 Connectors service in Teams are transitioning to a new URL structure due to the implementation of further service hardening updates. During this transition, you may receive notifications to update your configured connector to use the new URL. We strongly recommend that you update your connector immediately to prevent any disruption to connector services. URLs for all webhook-based connectors must be updated by January 31, 2025 for the connectors to continue posting messages into Teams. Keep in mind the entire O365 Connectors service in Teams will be retired at the end of 2025, so consider moving your webhooks to the Workflows app within Teams to avoid conducting another migration. Documentation: Create incoming webhooks with Workflows for Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support

How this will affect your organization:

This change is needed only for webhook-based Connectors such as Incoming Webhook and third-party connectors where a URL is provided for posting messages. The change is not required for polling-based connectors such as RSS.

To update webhook URLs for existing O365 Connectors, follow these steps: Manage Microsoft 365 connectors and custom connectors - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

Go toManage Channelin a Teams channel, select Edit under the Connectors option, and select Configured section. Review the existing connections listed on this page.

2.Do one of the following to generate a new URL:

For connectors that contain a webhook URL, select Manageand Update URL.
For other types of connectors, remove the connector and recreate the connector configuration.

Replace the old URL with the new URL (or the new connection in the service that triggers the post). You'll know the new URL is ready for you to copy when the Configure page shows a message that the URL is updated ("Url is up-to-date").

What you need to do to prepare:

The below dates are still unchanged and were communicated in previous updates:

Entire O365 Connector service in Teams will retire in December 2025.
Developers will no longer be able to create new Office 365 Connectors from the Developer Portal starting August 15th, 2024.

Additional documentation:

Create incoming webhooks with Workflows for Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support

Browse and add workflows in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support

Note about parity features for the Workflows app

We are currently developing a method for webhooks in the Workflow app to support the following scenarios and will share more details before March 30, 2025.

Post messageCard formatted message payloads (so you do not have to reformat the payload to adaptive card)
Post to private channels

MC800496 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New expanded gallery view option for minimized meeting window

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 398449

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

In Microsoft Teams, a new feature enhances the meeting view that is shown to attendees while the main meeting window is minimized.

When participants in a meeting minimize the main meeting window, they can multitask without losing sight of the meeting or missing important information by monitoring activity in a smaller meeting view window.

This view switcher feature update allows users to expand the default active speaker view of the meeting to an extended large gallery view. This view allows users to see up to 4 meeting participants, including reactions, raised hands, and a Me Video tile.

This expanded view can be toggled via a new UI control.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early August 2024 (previously early July) and expect to complete by mid-August 2024 (previously mid-July).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, and DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-August 2024 (previously mid-July) and expect to complete by late December (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

When multitasking with the main meeting window minimized, meeting participants will now be able to better keep track of the meeting activity by using an extended meeting view window.

What you need to do to prepare:

This feature is available by default. No action is needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC795750 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom emojis and reactions

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80659

Updated December 17, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

In Microsoft Teams, users will be able to add their own custom emojis and reactions by uploading an image or GIF file, and their emojis and reactions will be accessible to all users in the tenant alongside the standard Teams emojis and reactions. Up to 5,000 custom emojis can be added per tenant.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early July 2024 (previously late June) and expect to complete by mid-July 2024 (previously early July).

Worldwide: We will begin rolling out early August 2024 (previously mid-July) and expect to complete by early September 2024 (previously late July).

GCC: We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously late December) and expect to complete by early February 2025 (previously early January).

GCC High: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January).

DoD: We will begin rolling out late February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously early February).

How this will affect your organization:

This new custom emojis and reactions feature will be turned on by default. Users in the tenant will be able to upload emojis that are visible to the whole tenant. You can pre-emptively turn this feature off or restrict users who can create new emojis via the Teams Admin Center controls described below.

How do I use this feature?

Custom emojis and reactions will be found in the emoji and reaction menus in the Custom category. Users with upload abilities can add new content through the plus (+) button. Users with delete abilities can right-click any custom emoji to delete. Please note that deleted emojis may take up to 24 hours to reflect for all users in the tenant. Deleted emojis may take up to 24 hours to reflect for other users.

How do I manage this feature?

This feature can be managed through the Teams Admin Center. Admins will have access to the following controls:

Turn the feature on/off for the whole tenant via the Messaging Settings page (on by default).
Set which users can create new emojis via the Messaging Policy groups (on for all users by default).
Set which users can delete emojis via the Messaging Policy groups (off for all users except admins by default).

The Teams Admin Center controls will be made available in early June. We recommend adjusting your settings as needed prior to the Targeted and Worldwide Releases in late June 2024 to ensure that they are in place when the feature rolls out.

What you need to do to prepare:

This feature is on by default. If you would like to turn the feature off, please use the provided setting in the Messaging Settings page:

Messaging Settings

This feature allows all users to create new emojis by default and only allows admins to delete emojis by default. If you would like to adjust emoji creation and deletion permissions, please make the appropriate changes through the Messaging Policy groups.

MC781595 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Tenant-wide policy for permission to download meeting transcription

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 332800

Updated December 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: A new policy for IT admis to restrict permissions to download new meeting transcript files (stored in Microsoft OneDrive) for all users in the tenant. Admins can exempt people from the policy who are members of specified security groups such as governance or compliance specialists who require download access to meeting transcripts. This rollout applies to Teams for Mac and Teams for desktop.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early June 2024 (previously mid-May) and expect to complete by mid-June 2024 (previously late May).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-June 2024 (previously late May) and expect to complete by late June 2024 (previously early June).

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out late August 2024 (previously mid-July) and expect to complete by mid-September 2024 (previously late July)

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out late September 2024 (previously mid-August) and expect to complete by late December 2024 (previously late November).

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Learn more: Block the download of Teams meeting recording files from SharePoint or OneDrive - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (We will update this comm before rollout with revised documentation.)

MC767481 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Presenter window enhancements while screensharing

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 383653

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

In Microsoft Teams, we are delivering new enhancements to the presenter window that is shown while screensharing.

The presenter window now shows up to four meeting participants (both video and audio), active speakers, raised hands and reactions, and a preview of shared content.

Meeting notifications are surfaced to the central area of the screen for easier awareness and consistent windowing behavior.

These enhancements improve awareness and visibility of what's going on in your meeting and make it easier to engage with other attendees while screensharing.

When this will happen:

Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-May 2024 and expect to complete by late May 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, and DoD): We will begin rolling out early August 2024 (previously mid-July) and expect to complete by late December (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

When sharing the Microsoft Teams screen or content, the presenter will now be able to better keep track of the participants' activity during a meeting by using an extended presenter window.

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC726122 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: View, download, and delete Microsoft OneDrive transcript files

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 365720

Updated December 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We are beginning the process to standardize all transcript storage to OneDrive, starting with the storage of transcripts for meetings that only have transcription enabled. Previously, meetings with only transcription enabled saved the transcript file to the meeting organizer’s Exchange Online, while meetings with both recording and transcription enabled saved two transcript copies—one that is coupled with the recording saved to OneDrive and another transcript copy saved to the meeting organizer’s Exchange Online.

Now with this feature, meetings that have only transcription enabled will also save two copies (one in OneDrive and one in Exchange Online), but all meeting transcript entry points in Teams app will point to the OneDrive copy only, no entry points for meeting transcripts will source from the Exchange Online copy. At the same time, meeting transcripts will stop saving in Exchange Online altogether and all transcript storage will be standardized on OneDrive only.

The rollout of this feature also improves both the experience of meeting organizers to manually delete the transcript, as well as the ability for IT administrators to apply retention policies to the transcripts from meetings that only had transcription enabled.

When this will happen:

Targeted release: We will begin rolling out early June 2024 (previously mid-May) and expect to complete by mid-June 2024 (previously late May).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-June 2024 (previously late May) and expect to complete by late August 2024 (previously mid-August).

GCC High: We will begin rolling out late August 2024 and expect to complete by mid-September 2024.

DoD: We will begin rolling out late September 2024 and expect to complete by late December 2024 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

There is no change to the end user experience for viewing and downloading Teams meeting transcripts. The only change for meeting organizers and co-organizers is for any meetings that are held after this feature rolls out, they can delete all copies of the meeting transcript directly from the Teams app, instead of having to manually delete all copies of the transcript from two places (Teams app and Stream). For IT administrators, they can start applying retention policies for the copy of the transcript saved in OneDrive, including scenarios where a meeting only had transcription enabled. This retention policy won’t affect the copies saved in Exchange Online, to bulk delete transcript files saved in Exchange Online—please refer to this documentation.

We will also update the default transcript permissions. After the rollout, when the new policy is not applied, only meeting organizers and co-organizers will have permission to download or delete the transcript file, and meeting participants can only view the transcript in Teams or Microsoft Stream. Regardless of whether the new policy is applied, the meeting organizer will be able to select in Stream the participants who are restricted from downloading, viewing, and editing the transcript in Stream.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is no action needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC718553 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Change background while recording on phone

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 380852

Updated December 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Users can now record themselves anywhere and share it with coworkers in the Microsoft Teams chat or channel without worrying about the background. Users can now change their background to any image they want or make the background blurry while recording using their Microsoft Teams camera on iOS devices.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High and DoD): We will begin rolling out early May 2024 (previously late March) and expect to complete by late December 2024 (previously ate November).

How this will affect your organization:

Users will get an option to change their background to any image they want or make the background blurry while recording using their Microsoft Teams camera on an iOS device. To use this feature:

Press and hold the camera icon next to the Compose box and then tap the blur icon to the right of the shutter button.
You can then choose either an image to replace the background or choose to mildly or heavily blur your background.

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC718250 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Describe it to design it in Teams Workflows

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 382659

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Can't find a workflow template that matches what you need in Microsoft Teams? You will now be able to describe in detail how you want your automation to work and receive a workflow to match your needs. All you need to do is select the Workflow builder button at the bottom of the create dialog in the Workflows app in Microsoft Teams chat and channel overflow menu.

Workflow builder will come to the Workflows app in Microsoft Teams chat and channel overflow menu first. Other entry points to Workflows will get this feature later.

When this will happen:

Worldwide: We will begin rolling out late September 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously late September).

GCC Release: We will begin rolling out early October 2024 (previously mid-August) and expect to be complete by late December (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

All users with the ability to create workflows with the Workflows app in Teams will be able to describe the workflow they are trying to build and then receive a suggested flow.

Prerequisites

A work or school Teams account with access to a Power Automate environment in Europe or the United States.

Limitations

Power Automate supports workflow descriptions written in the English language only. Descriptions written in other languages might work but are not supported.

Cloud flows are the only type of flow that you can create from a written description.

In the version rolling out, the AI might omit some parameters, even if you provide them in the description.

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is needed to prepare for this rollout. If your tenant uses the Power Automate app within Microsoft Teams, you may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

To learn more: Create a cloud flow from a description (preview) - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

MC709270 — (Updated) Mute with Windows Taskbar available in the new Microsoft Teams on Windows

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 191528

Updated December 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

The Muting Teams with Windows Taskbar is now available. This feature, available in the new Teams experience on Windows, enables you to mute and unmute your audio by clicking the mic icon in Windows taskbar.

To control your call mic from the taskbar, do the following:

Select the mic icon on your taskbar or press Windows logo key + Alt + K to mute or unmute your microphone while using a calling app.

-OR- Click the volume icon in the hardware indicator for volume in Windows taskbar.

When this will happen:

Targeted release: We will begin rolling out early June 2024 (previously mid-May) and expect to complete by mid-June 2024 (previously late May).

Worldwide, GCC, GCC High & DoD: We will begin rolling out mid-June 2024 (previously early June) and expect to complete by late December 2024 (previously late November)

How this will affect your organization:

This enables a feature previously available in older version of Teams on Windows.

What you need to do to prepare:

To prepare, distribute updates on this rollout with your organization if applicable for your users.

MC704955 — (Updated) Now get Real Time Calendar Notifications in Teams

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 314355

Updated December 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

You can now get the Calendar Notifications in Teams from the Activity Feed.

You will get calendar notifications in the Activity Feed for the below scenarios:

o Meeting invite (including channel meetings you are explicitly invited to)

o Meeting updates

o Meeting cancellations

o Meeting forwards (as an organizer)

When you get a calendar notification, you will see an unread notification in the Activity Feed pane or at the bell icon.
When you click on a notification, you will see the details of the meeting/event in the right pane.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-March 2024 and expect to complete by early April 2024 (previously late March).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High & DoD): We will begin rolling out early April 2024 (previously late March) and expect to complete by late December 2024 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

Users will get Calendar notifications in the Activity Feed within Teams. These notification settings for Calendar can be modified from "Notifications and activity" in the Settings menu in Teams.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is no action needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC704035 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Integrate Chat notification with Meeting RSVP status

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 161739

Updated December 11, 2024: We have updated the rollout timelines below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Teams users will soon be able to control how they get notified in meeting chats through RSVP to their meetings. When they decline a meeting, they will not receive notifications or see the chats in chat list; when they accept a meeting, they will receive notification for all new messages. This release of Microsoft Teams Meeting ID will be rolling out across Microsoft Teams Desktop, Mobile and Web and will provide an additional way for users to control their chat list by selecting which meetings they want to receive message updates from.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release will begin rolling out mid-March 025 (previously mid-January and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late January).

Worldwide will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by early April 2025 (previously late February).

GCC will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously early March) and expect to complete by early April 2025 (previously mid-March).

GCC High will begin rolling out early April 2025 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by mid-April 2025 (previously late March).

DoD will begin rolling out early April 2025 (previously late March) and expect to complete by mid-April 2025 (previously late March).

How this will affect your organization:

You will not receive notifications or see chats from meetings you declined. You will be able to set how you want to be notified for meetings you RSVP with Accept or Tentative from Microsoft Teams settings.

What you need to do to prepare:

You might want to notify your users about this new capability to control meeting chat notifications by RSVP to meetings.

Microsoft Purview

MC971035 — Microsoft Purview | Data Lifecycle Management: New secure workflow to bypass legal holds and retention policies

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 392838

This new feature enables data governance administrators to expedite the permanent deletion of sensitive content from Microsoft Exchange mailboxes, overriding any existing retention settings or eDiscovery holds. This process may be required for security or privacy, such as after a data spillage incident or for compliance and regulatory requirements.

When this will happen:

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Priority Cleanup administrators can now set up a Priority Cleanup policy for Exchange to create exceptions to retention principles and e-Discovery holds for specific scenarios. Once administrators are within the Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) Solution on Microsoft Purview, they can visit the Priority Cleanup tab and follow the wizard to set-up this policy. Like auto-apply retention labels, Priority Cleanup supports policy simulation mode, so administrators can check the returned samples in case the policy configuration needs any fine-tuning before enabling the policy. Once set-up, because the deletion by a priority cleanup policy is irreversible and can override existing holds, the process requires multiple approvals, specific roles, and is audited. Thus, respective reviewers must be mandatorily added during policy creation to allow for disposition of items under a retention or e-Discovery hold.

What you need to do to prepare:

Because of the built-in safeguards, the feature itself is enabled by default at the tenant level. However, Priority Cleanup can be turned off on the Priority Cleanup settings page. If you can't create new Priority Cleanup policies, refer to your Data Lifecycle Management documentation for necessary roles and permissions requirements. A new role permission "Priority cleanup administrator" is now added to Purview role permissions to enable data governance administrators to use this feature.

MC969449 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention for endpoints: Four new conditions (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 374811

Updated December 31, 2024: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Four new conditions or predicates that admins can use in their policies for endpoint devices.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

After this rollout, DLP policies will include the capability to identify documents that are unscannable, partially scannable, exceed a specific file size, or have names matching configured patterns for Government cloud tenants on Windows endpoint devices. This functionality enables you to prevent users from accessing unscannable files on endpoints and attempting egress actions such as copying to a USB drive, copying to the clipboard, or transferring to another network share, among others.

The four new predicates are:

Document size equals or is greater than: Detects documents greater than or equal to the specified value.
Document name matches patterns: Detects documents where the file name matches specific patterns.
Document couldn’t be scanned: Applies to documents when their content wasn't scanned. Examples include password protected files, files for which text extraction failed, and files that exceed file size limit.
Document couldn’t complete scanning: Applies to documents when their content was scanned, but the entire document was not scanned. Examples include files for which extracted text exceeded the limits/thresholds.

When defining your DLP Policy, you can use these conditions across supported and applicable workloads for government cloud tenants. For example, you can extend any of the four new conditions that are available now in DLP for Exchange and scope them to Endpoint > Devices as part of your policies and rules, which enhances protection across the digital estate.

Please refer to the supported file types on endpoint, for which these predicates will provide protection.

What you need to do to prepare:

Learn more about conditions supported for endpoints
Get started with Data Loss Prevention in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.
Learn more: Using Endpoint DLP | Microsoft Learn

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your admins and users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

MC966637 — Microsoft Purview| Data Loss Prevention for endpoints: New "Document property" condition (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 417482

Coming soon for Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention (DLP): The new Document property is condition will be available for use in policies for endpoint devices.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

After this rollout, DLP policies can detect and monitor egress actions for documents that match defined custom properties. The new Document property is condition detects documents with custom properties matching the specified values.

As part of DLP policy definition, this new condition can be used across supported and applicable workloads. For example, the Document property is condition in DLP for Exchange can be extended to endpoint devices as part of DLP policies and rules, which enhances protection across the digital estate.

This change will be available by default for admins to configure.

What you need to do to prepare:

Get started with DLP in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

Learn more: Data Loss Prevention policy reference | Microsoft Learn

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

MC961761 — Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: IRM alerts in Microsoft Defender XDR

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422730

Coming soon to Microsoft Purview: Insider Risk Management (IRM) data including alerts, indicators and events will be available in these Microsoft Defender XDR experiences:

Unified alert queue: IRM alerts will appear in the unified alert and incident queue in Defender XDR for comprehensive investigation and correlation.
Advanced Hunting: IRM data will be available for advanced hunting in Defender XDR, allowing analysts to identify hidden risk patterns using KQL queries. Analytics can also create custom detections on the top of IRM data.
Graph API: IRM data will be accessible through the Microsoft Graph API, supporting bidirectional integrations with external applications.
Microsoft Sentinel: IRM alerts will be available in Microsoft Sentinel through the XDR-Sentinel connector, providing richer metadata.

When this will happen:

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by end of January 2025.

General Availability (WW, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early May 2025 and expect to complete by mid-May 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Enable this feature by turning on Share data with other security solutions in the IRM global settings.

Only users with Insider risk analysis or investigation roles in the Microsoft Purview portal can access IRM data in Defender XDR.

To access alerts, incidents, and events from Defender XDR via API, you need to provision apps with the necessary permissions. IRM data is accessible via Microsoft Security Graph APIs, allowing for reading and updating alert or incident statuses. Permissions are set at the application level, without solution-specific scoping. Any existing apps pulling data from these APIs will also access IRM data. So, if you integrate XDR alerts into external ticketing systems, IRM alerts will show up, unless you specifically filter out the alerts.

IRM alerts will appear in Sentinel if your tenant has the Defender XDR connector enabled in Microsoft Sentinel.

In Defender XDR, IRM data is not pseudonymized to allow effective correlation of IRM alerts with alerts from other solutions within the platform, such as Defender for Endpoint and Defender for Cloud apps.

These changes will be available by default for admins to configure in IRM global settings.

Admins will be able to view Insider Risk Management alerts in Defender XDR:

Harness the power of Advanced Hunting queries with two new tables that contain Insider Risk Management data: DataSecurityBehaviors and DataSecurityEvents. In this query, 54 confidential files were exfiltrated through mail.google.com by 2 unique users:

What you need to do to prepare:

Opt-in to data sharing settings in IRM global settings page.
Assign necessary permissions to analysts
Review existing apps accessing Defender XDR data through Graph APIs.
If your organization is using Microsoft Defender XDR connector, please review the list of users who will gain access to this data through Sentinel.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review your current configuration in IRM global settings to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

MC950890 — Microsoft Purview | Data Security Posture Management for AI

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469509

Generative AI (GAI) is being adopted at an unprecedented rate. AI fuels innovation and productivity but also poses risks – organizations are concerned about the risky AI use and sensitive data loss through AI apps. Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management for AI (DSPM for AI) is a central location in Microsoft Purview that helps organizations secure data in AI, including Microsoft AI applications such as Microsoft 365 Copilot and non-Microsoft AI applications. With the DSPM for AI capabilities in Purview, organizations can safely adopt AI without having to choose between productivity and protection.

DSPM for AI also supports admin units and displaying AI policies that were created in Purview solutions. A version of DSPM for AI is available to additional licensing, specifically Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-December 2024 and expect to complete by late December 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

DSPM for AI use cases

Viewing insights and analytics into AI activity in your organization.
Using policies to protect data and prevent data loss in AI prompts
Implementing compliance controls to apply optimal data handling and storing policies

Microsoft Purview DSPM for AI will be in the Microsoft Purview portal and will consist of 5 tabs: Overview, Recommendations, Reports, Policies, and Activity explorer.

The DSPM for AI Overview with getting started steps, two recommendations, two reports, and resources.

The Recommendations tab displays all recommendations provided by DSPM for AI.

Reports includes graphs for total interactions over time, sensitivity labels and sensitive information types found in AI interactions, user risk level, and more.

Policies displays all policies that have been created by default or AI policies created in Purview solutions.

Activity explorer shows events for AI interactions along with prompts and responses.

This feature will be enabled by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

Get ready for this change by reviewing the admin documentation:

MC933536 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention: New Microsoft Exchange Online predicates

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 418131

Updated December 5, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Four new Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Microsoft Exchange Online (EXO) predicates:

Message is not labeled: Detects if message body has no label.
Attachment is not labeled: Detects if there is any attachment without a label.
Message contains: Detects if the message body contains specified sensitive information types (SITs) or labels.
Attachment contains: Detects if an attachment contains specified SITs or labels.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We began rolling out early November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

After this rollout, you will be able to create new DLP policies or edit existing policies in the Purview compliance portal to include predicates to target specific email components like email body or attachments only.

This feature is on by default and available for admins to enable it.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more about how to prepare: Create and deploy a data loss prevention policy | Microsoft Learn

MC920308 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Information Protection: Auto-labeling policies will support "Fingerprint based SIT"

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 396173

Updated December 31, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Purview | Information Protection: Admins will be able to use auto-labeling policies to automatically label files and emails with Fingerprint based SIT (sensitive info type).

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout, admins are not able to use auto-labeling policies to automatically label files and emails with Fingerprint based SIT.

After this rollout, you can configure Fingerprint based SIT using the condition Content contains sensitive information types. Files that match Fingerprint based SIT will show in simulation.

Note: Contextual summary is not available for Fingerprint based SITs.

This change will be on by default and available for admins to configure.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review use cases and set up for configuring document fingerprinting.

Learn more

MC833890 — (Updated) Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint: Protect sensitive files with dynamic watermarking

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 400717

Update December 20, 2024: There is an issue causing users to get an access denied error when attempting to open files for which they are not the RMS owner, when the file has a sensitivity label configured for dynamic watermarking. We are working to resolve this issue.

Dynamic watermarking is a new sensitivity label setting that will add watermark text containing the consuming user’s information onto content in files created in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Sensitivity labels from Microsoft Purview Information Protection help you classify and protect your organization's data. Learn more: (Preview) Dynamic watermarking for sensitivity labels in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - Microsoft Community Hub

This message applies to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on the web, Desktop/Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS platforms.

When this will happen:

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-July 2024 and expect to complete by early August 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out to Current Channel mid-January 2025 (previously mid-November) and expect to complete by late January 2025. (previously late November).

The rest of the channels will follow in line with their normal cadence.

How this will affect your organization:

Before the rollout: Admins are not able to configure dynamic watermarking though sensitivity labels in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

After the rollout, refer to the admin documentation to configure dynamic watermarks in your tenant. This feature is off by default. Admins must configure the feature before it is accessible to users.

What you need to do to prepare:

Learn more

MC808165 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview eDiscovery | Modernized eDiscovery in new Microsoft Purview portal

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 383744

Updated December 27, 2024: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

A modernized new user experience (UX) for Microsoft Purview eDiscovery will be available in the Purview portal. In this new UX experience, Content Search, eDiscovery Standard, and eDiscovery Premium are unified so that users can now navigate a shared workflow that simplifies the transition between non-premium and premium features. This UX modernization also introduces features that enhance the eDiscovery process. Some of these new features include:

This new experience enhances Content Search security by placing all searches in an eDiscovery case. eDiscovery administrators and managers will have default access, with the ability to manage membership and control access to content searches. Users who are not eDiscovery administrators or managers will need to request to be added as case member in order to access content search.
Enhanced search efficiency with message ID and sensitivity labelsfor faster access to information.
Use of the improved search by Sensitive Information Type (SIT) interface for user-friendly selection without manual input.
Advanced Data Source Mappingallows linking a user's OneDrive using input such as the user's mailbox Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) address or user’s name, streamlining data retrieval and management.
Acceleration through powerful investigation capabilities, such as user's frequent collaborators, providing a comprehensive view of the user's networks.
Data Source Sync:Stay updated with the new Data Source synchronization feature, which allows users to easily track any new or removed data locations, ensuring that eDiscovery investigations remain aligned with the latest data source landscape.
Introduction of the new visual Statisticsallows users to gain insights at a glance (such as Results containing Sensitive Information Types, top communication participants, etc.)
Monitor long-running processes with an informed and transparent progress bar with the option to cancel (for certain process types) if needed.
Obtain a full process report for all actions taken, such as statistics for holds and exports, bolstering the defensibility of your eDiscovery efforts.
Customize your exports with new settings, including the option to export as a single PST file path truncation and the use of friendly names to make exported data more accessible.

When this will happen:

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out late July 2024 and expect to complete by late September 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously early January).

How this will affect your organization:

The unification of Content Search, eDiscovery Standard, and eDiscovery Premium into a single eDiscovery solution in the new Microsoft Purview portal will necessitate updates to your organization's training materials and documentation.

The deprecation timeline for the classic eDiscovery experience will be announced when the new modernized experience becomes generally available (GA). We will ensure that customers have ample time to transition to the new modernized experience before retiring the classic version.

What you need to do to prepare:

Update internal documentation and provide training to all eDiscovery users in your organization.

Learn more about the new Purview Portal.

Learn more about the modernized eDiscovery (preview) experience: Learn about eDiscovery (preview) solutions | Microsoft Learn

MC708079 — (Updated) Data Loss Prevention - Admin Units support for DLP alerts in Microsoft 365 Defender portal

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 165995

Updated December 5, 2024: After further review, we will not be rolling this out to DoD at this time. We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed. Thank you for your patience.

We recently released a new generally available capability that enables admins to delegate management and remediation authority for different people in different regions or organization units with role-based access control (RBAC) via Azure Active Directory Administrative Units. For example, German Admin Unit investigators would be able to investigate alerts and audit events for only German users.

We are extending Gov clouds support for the Admin Units capability currently available in Microsoft Purview Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to DLP alerts in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal.

When this will happen:

GCC, GCCH rollout will begin in early January 2024 and is expected to be complete by mid-January 2024.

DoD: We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed.

How this will affect your organization:

If you choose to not use this Admin Units feature, there is no impact to your organization. If your organization requires delegations of tasks based on users in specific regions or organization units, please follow the steps to set up this capability:

Set up Administrative Units (AU) in Azure Portal
Ring-fence Purview Admin Permissions to Administrative Unit scopes
Create and manage Admin Unit scoped MIP/DLP policies
Investigate user scoped DLP Alerts, Incidents, and Logs in Purview and/or M365 Defender
Investigate user scoped Activities and events in Activity Explorer in Purview and/or Advanced Hunting in M365 Defender

What you need to do to prepare:

Get started with Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal and Investigate data loss alerts with Microsoft 365 Defender | Microsoft Learn

MC690178 — (Updated) Information Protection - Keyword highlight support for document trainable classifiers

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 170738

Updated December 12, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

The keyword highlighting feature for Trainable Classifiers emphasizes the top 10 distinct keywords/phrases that influence the classification, showcasing up to 10 occurrences of each keyword.

The feature is being enabled through:

Content Explorer:

Viewing the classified document through Content explorer will highlight the keywords that match the Trainable classifiers detected.

Test Trainable classifier:

Uploading a document and testing it for a specific classifier OR selecting the document in the classifier’s matched item will highlight the keywords that match the Trainable classifier detected.

Note:

This feature will only work on the new/edited documents after the date “keyword highlight” has been enabled.

When this will happen:

Rollout will begin in early June 2024 (previously late March) and will complete by late June 2025 (previously mid-November).

How this will affect your organization:

The keyword highlight feature enables you to:

Quickly locate text that caused the positive outcome in the classifier.
Establish trust in the effectiveness of trainable classifiers.
Reduce the time to decide and take further actions.

What you need to do to prepare:

This feature will only work on new/edited documents after the date “keyword highlight” has been enabled.

Outlook

MC966640 — New Microsoft Outlook for Windows: Move email between mailbox and PST file

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 473993

Coming soon to new Microsoft Outlook for Windows: Users will be able move (drag and drop) emails from an Outlook Data File (.pst or Personal Storage Table file) to a mailbox and vice versa. Future releases of new Outlook for Windows will expand the support for .pst file capabilities.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Outlook Data File (.pst) support will be enabled by default in new Outlook for Windows. If you organization wants to block or limit Outlook Data File support, set the OutlookDataFile mailbox policy. Learn more: Set-OwaMailboxPolicy (ExchangePowerShell) | Microsoft Learn

What you need to do to prepare:

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

#newoutlookforwindows

MC966639 — New Microsoft Outlook for Windows: Manage email in PST files

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 473995

Coming soon to new Microsoft Outlook for Windows: Users will be able users will be able to move, copy, delete, flag/unflag, mark as read/unread, and set categories for email in an Outlook Data File (.pst or Personal Storage Table file). Also, users will be able to create, delete, move, and rename folders in .pst files. Future releases of new Outlook will expand the support for .pst file capabilities.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Outlook Data File (.pst) support will be enabled by default in new Outlook for Windows. If you want to block or limit Outlook Data File support, set the OutlookDataFile mailbox policy. Learn more: Set-OwaMailboxPolicy (ExchangePowerShell) | Microsoft Learn

What you need to do to prepare:

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

#newoutlookforwindows

MC962527 — New Microsoft Outlook for Windows and web: Delegates can create new categories for the account owner's Calendar

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 473997

Coming soon for new Microsoft Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web: Delegates can create new categories on behalf of the account owner who granted them delegate permissions. Delegates can also apply categories to the Calendar of the account owner.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

To access the new capability, the account holder assigning the permissions should open:

Open their Calendar > Hover over a calendar name and select the three-dot More optionsmenu. Then, select Sharing and permissions.

Enter the email address of the desired delegate:

Select Delegate from the dropdown menu and check the box forLet delegate manage categories.Select Share:

After the account holder applies the necessary permissions, delegates can view the list of the delegator's categories in their Settings > Accounts > Categories and select the delegator's account from the dropdown menu:

This change will be available by default. The new checkbox for Let delegate manage categories will not be selected by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before or after the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more: About delegates: Allow someone to manage your mail and calendar in Outlook - Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)

#newoutlookforwindows

MC960818 — Microsoft Outlook for iOS/Android: New reporting buttons integrated with Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 371383

Coming soon for Microsoft Outlook for iOS/Android: New built-in report buttons in version > 4.2446. Admins can control the appearance and behavior of these buttons that allow users to report emails as phishing / junk / not junk from the User Reported setting page in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal (security.microsoft.com). Admins can also customize where messages get reported to (reporting mailbox, Microsoft, or both) and what the user sees both before and after reporting messages from these buttons.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We began rolling out in early December 2024 and expect to complete by late January 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Information to keep in mind:

Microsoft OWA (Outlook on the Web) and the new Microsoft Outlook for Windows have had this functionality since November 2022. This rollout to iOS/Android does not change or affect that functionality.
Classic Microsoft Outlook for Windows client has had this functionality in current channel since August 2024. Learn more: MC841229(Updated) Classic Microsoft Outlook for Windows: New reporting buttons integrated with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (published July 2024, updated October 2024).
Microsoft Outlook for Mac released this functionality in September 2024.
If you have turned off the reporting feature in the Microsoft 365 Defender User reported settings page or are using a third-party add-in, the report buttons in Outlook for Android/iOS won't be visible.
The Microsoft reporting add-in (the Microsoft report message add-in and Microsoft phishing add-in) will be supported till further notice. The future goal is to have a consistent button reporting experience across all Outlook platforms. If you are using Microsoft reporting add-ins in Outlook for iOS/Android, your users will see two reporting experiences: one from the built-in Outlook buttons (added by this rollout) and one from the add-in. Both options will behave the same for users (except for the newly customizable pop-ups) and the reported messages will end up in the same place, causing minimal disruption.
The selections you make on the user reported settings page will determine the reporting experience for your users (whether they choose the add-in or built-in reporting option in Outlook). Either option will report to the same place (Microsoft, custom mailbox, or both) based on your User reportedsettings.
Like OWA and new Outlook for Windows, the built-in reporting button in Outlook for iOS/Android supports reporting from shared and delegate mailboxes.

This change is available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is required form you after this rollout because your current settings in the User reported settings page will not be changed.

Learn more

Report phishing and suspicious emails in Outlook for admins - Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn(will be updated before rollout)
User reported settings - Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn(will be updated before rollout)

MC934729 — (Updated) Microsoft Outlook: Reset people suggestions in Outlook search (GCC, GCC High, DoD)

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 467252

Updated December 17, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Outlook: The Reset People Suggestion feature will allow users to reset, export, and/or opt out of people suggestions in search through Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows settings. If a user resets their People Suggestions in Outlook on the web or Outlook for Windows, all versions of Outlook will reflect that change (even Outlook Mobile). This message applies to Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December).

How this will affect your organization:

Before the rollout: Users were not able to reset or export their suggested contacts from Outlook on the Web and the new Outlook for Windows.

After the rollout

The default on/off value for the Reset People Suggestion feature in Outlook will inherit each user's existing configuration from their Microsoft 365 My Account privacy settings at https://myaccount.microsoft.com/settingsandprivacy/privacy. No further action from users is needed to prepare.
Users will be able to reset, export, and/or opt out of People Suggestions from Outlook on the Web and the new Outlook for Windows Privacy and datasettings. This setting will stay in sync with the Privacy configuration in My Account.

Initial People Suggestion settings will be inherited from each user's Microsoft 365 My Account privacy settings at Settings & Privacy > Manage Contact Search

To modify the behavior of People Suggestions: Users can go to Microsoft Outlook > Settings > General > Privacy and data > Suggested people

This feature will be on by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

#newoutlookforwindows

MC926892 — (Updated) Microsoft Outlook: Sync folder order

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422816

Updated December 18, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

The order of folders in Microsoft Outlook mobile will now sync to match the folder order on Outlook web, Mac, and Windows platforms.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 (previously December) and expect to complete by early April (previously January)

Users will now see an updated folder order on their mobile devices that reflects the folder order on Outlook web and desktop platforms. If users want to re-order the folders, they must do so on Outlook for the web, Mac, and Windows devices, as folder re-ordering is currently not supported on mobile devices.

This feature is on by default and cannot be turned off.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC666613 — (Updated) Local Contacts Search

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 135281

Updated December 10, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Users will now have access to a quicker and easier method to search their Outlook Mobile contact list within the app. We are adding a search bar at the top of a user’s in app contact list that will allow users to type the name of a contact to easily find a contact. This search is limited only to the contacts within the Outlook Mobile app, and this feature does not search any device contacts that have not been synced with Outlook.

When this will happen:

Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-September 2023.

Worldwide: We will begin rolling out mid-October 2023 and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

There are no added settings or training needed for you as an admin. This feature will work for all users who have access to and/or use contacts in Outlook Mobile.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is nothing required to prepare.

Exchange Online

MC787382 — (Updated) Exchange Online to introduce External Recipient Rate Limit

Updated December 16, 2024: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

Important update regarding the cloud hosted Mailbox External Recipient Rate Limit: After carefully considering your feedback and understanding the need for additional time to adjust, Microsoft has decided to delay the rollout of the cloud hosted Mailbox External Recipient Rate Limit (MERRL) by ~six months. The MERRL will go into enforcement in October 2025 for trial tenants and new tenants provisioned after October 1st, 2025. In October 2025, the Exchange Admin Center Report will be available for tenant admins to review Sender mailbox data on external recipient volume. In April 2026, the MERRL will go into enforcement for all tenant's cloud hosted mailboxes including existing tenants.

Please refer to the ACS email documentation (Prepare an email communication resource for Azure Communication Services - An Azure Communication Services concept article | Microsoft Learn), or reach out to your Microsoft account team for further support in this journey.

We have made the decision to not proceed with this change for DoD, GCC, or GCC High organizations at this time. We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed. The External Recipient Rate Limit will only apply to WWMT/Production.

________________________________________

Today, we are announcing that, beginning in January 2025, Exchange Online will begin enforcing an external recipient rate limit of 2000 recipients in 24 hours.

Exchange Online does not support bulk or high-volume transactional email. We have not enforced limiting of bulk email until now, but we plan on doing so with the introduction of an External Recipient Rate (ERR) limit. The ERR limit is being introduced to help reduce unfair usage and abuse of Exchange Online resources.

When this will happen:

The new ERR limit will be introduced in 2 phases:

Phase 1 - Starting January 1, 2025, the limit will apply to cloud-hosted mailboxes of all newly created tenants.
Phase 2 - Between July and December 2025, we will start applying the limit to cloud-hosted mailboxes of existing tenants.

How this will affect your organization:

Exchange Online enforces a Recipient Rate limit of 10000 recipients for cloud-hosted mailboxes. The 2000 ERR limit will become a sublimit within this 10000 Recipient Rate limit. There is no change to the Recipient Rate limit, and both of these will be rolling limits for 24-hour windows. You can send to up to 2,000 external recipients in a 24-hour period, and if you max out the external recipient rate limit then you will still be able to send to up to 8,000 internal recipients in that same period. If you don't send to any external recipients in a 24-hour period, you can send to up to 10,000 internal recipients.

For example:

You use a cloud-hosted mailbox to send to 1,000 external recipients and 2,000 internal recipients at 6:00AM on Day 1, for a total of 3,000 recipients. You then send to another 1,000 external recipients at 8:00AM on Day 1. Because you sent to 2,000 external recipients, you will be blocked from sending to external recipients until 6:00AM on Day 2. During this period, you are able to send to up to 6,000 internal recipients, but for this example, let's assume that you don't.
At 6:00AM on Day 2, the 1,000 external recipients and 2,000 internal recipients sent at 6:00AM on Day 1 will no longer count toward the 24-hour limit calculation. Thus, from 6:00-8:00AM on Day 2, you can send to up to 9,000 total recipients (e.g., 9,000 internal or 8,000 internal plus 1,000 external).
If you don't send to any internal or external recipients during this period, then at 8:00AM on Day 2 you can again send to 10,000 recipients total with up to 2,000 of them being external recipients.

What you need to do to prepare:

If you have a cloud-hosted mailbox that needs to exceed the ERR limit, you can move to Azure Communication Services for Email, which is designed specifically for high volume email sent to recipients external to your tenant.

Microsoft 365

MC961557 — Microsoft Search in Bing Deprecation

Microsoft Search in Bing, the work search experience available on Bing.com, will be deprecated, such that the last day of availability is on March 31, 2025. This change is being made as we streamline search experiences and focus on enhancing core productivity tools.

The Microsoft Edge for Business address bar and the Windows search box will continue to support work search with some adjustments, which are detailed below.

Microsoft Search in Bing will no longer be available, with changes as follows:

Bing.com will no longer show work search results. Consequently, there will not be a dedicated page of work results and users’ work profile will no longer appear on Bing.com
Search boxes you’ve configured to point to Microsoft Search in Bing will no longer provide work results.

Edge for Business address bar and Windows search box will continue to support work search with some adjustments, including:

Edge for Business address bar will no longer return work search results on a Bing.com page but will continue to provide suggested results within the address bar. Work search for documents will be available initially, with additional content types available as quickly as possible.
Windows search box will see the removal of organization branding and the “work” tab but will continue to support work search. Search for documents will be available initially, with additional content types available as quickly as possible. With these changes, users will see some UX changes in the Windows search box.

As before, the core Microsoft Search experience remains accessible through Office.com, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft365.com.

An FAQ and further details will be available mid-January at https://aka.ms/MSBFAQ, which will be updated regularly.

When the Change Will Occur:

The last day of availability of Microsoft Search in Bing is March 31, 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

For organizations using Microsoft Search in Bing, users will need to transition to using Microsoft Search through Office.com, SharePoint Online, or Microsoft365.com for work search.

Users who are accustomed to using the Edge for Business address bar and the Windows search box can continue to conduct work searches through these endpoints, with the expectation that there will be some adjustment in these experiences after the deprecation date. (For details on changes, please refer to the FAQ link above, which will be available mid-January 2025.)

There may be earlier impact to a small set of users prior to March 31, 2025, where they temporarily cannot use work search in Bing.com, embedded search boxes pointing to Microsoft Search in Bing, the Edge for Business address bar, or Windows search box, as we begin testing the deprecation experience. In all cases, Microsoft Search remains accessible through Office.com, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft365.com.

What you need to do to prepare:

Customers should prepare to stop using Microsoft Search in Bing by March 31, 2025, and transition to using Microsoft Search through Office.com, SharePoint Online, or Microsoft365.com. It is recommended to inform users about the upcoming change and the alternatives available.

Adding your preferred entry point from this set to favorites or favorites bar in Edge for Business may be a helpful alternative pathway. Admins can easily set favorites in Edge for Business for their organization, please see details here.

Additionally, users can continue to use the Edge for Business address bar and the Windows search box, with some changes expected.

For admins who wish to set their own deprecation date prior to March 31, 2025, you can turn off Microsoft Search in Bing by going to the Microsoft 365 admin center > Settings > Search & Intelligence.

When the FAQ becomes available, customers will be notified through an update of this Message center post.

MC960443 — Important updates to the Microsoft 365 app in the GCC, GCC High, and DOD environments

We are making several important updates to the Microsoft 365 app name and icon in mid-January 2025.

The Microsoft 365app will be named Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Its icon will be updated to Microsoft 365 Copilot as announced during the November 2024 Ignite conference.

While the name and icon are updating, there are no changes in core functionality in the app.

Access to Copilot in the app varies across different government clouds.

For GCC customers, Microsoft 365 Copilot is available today. Please refer to additional details regarding Copilot in Roadmap ID #415097 and Roadmap ID #464984.

For GCC High and DOD, Microsoft 365 Copilot availability has been announced with a target GA date of Summer 2025 in the following blog: https://aka.ms/M365CopilotGCCHighBlog.

We will continue to keep you updated on Copilot progress via the message center, roadmap, and service description.

When this will happen:

These changes will begin rolling out in mid-January 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

The name change to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, and the new app icon, will roll out across App stores and the web in mid-January.

What you need to do to prepare:

No admin or user action is required as these changes roll out. However, we recommend keeping your users informed about these updates.

MC943681 — Reminder: Switch to New Forms Data Syncing Solution by January 13, 2025

Updated December 12, 2024: Email notifications will start being sent to Forms owners from December 12, 2024. We have also updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

In MC855685 (August ‘24), Microsoft Forms and Excel provided a new data sync solution which can sync a form's response data to an Excel workbook, replacing the old data sync solution which will be deprecated by Jan 13th, 2025.

Note: The new data sync can currently only be triggered in Excel for the web. If users want to receive new Forms response data in the Excel desktop app, open the target file in Excel for the web to sync new responses, and then wait for the file to update in the desktop app. Direct syncing support for the Windows and Mac versions of Excel is in progress and will be released soon.

Impact

There are {Users} users and {Groups} groups with a total of {Forms} forms using the old data sync solution in your tenant in the last 3 months (Aug - Oct 2024).

Action

To continue syncing new responses from their form to their Excel workbook, users will need to update the syncing solution for each affected form. The notification will be sent directly to form owners to guide users in taking action. If users do not migrate before January 13, 2025, they can still trigger migration to set up the new data sync and sync all data to Excel after Jan 13,2025. For admin: If you would like to notify users directly before the deprecation date, you can request a user ID list by filing a support ticket.

What do users need to do?

Pay attention to notifications in Forms, Excel for the web and Email. For each form which is using the old syncing solution, they must migrate the form according to the instructions provided. More details can be found here: Update to the new solution for syncing forms responses to Excel - Microsoft Community Hub.
If users are using the Forms Connector in Power Automate to get response data, they will not be impacted by this change, and no action is needed.
If users are using the old data sync solution in a workflow that relies on the Excel workbook being updated automatically without any user action, they will be impacted by the change as the Excel file will only get updated when it’s opened in a supported Excel client. These users will have to manually update their workflow. Our suggested solution is to use Power Automate: Setting Up an Automated Workflow Between Microsoft Forms and Excel Through Power Automate - Microsoft Support
User who are using Excel clients which don’t support the new sync solution (e.g. a perpetual client) can also consider setting up the Power Automate workflow to get updated data in their Excel workbook.

MC923419 — (Updated) Microsoft Loop: Configure guest sharing for tenants with sensitivity labels

Updated December 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Before this rollout, guest sharing for Microsoft Loop components, pages, and workspaces is available for tenants that have not configured sensitivity labels, as communicated in MC736437 Microsoft Loop: Guest Sharing (March 2024). After this rollout and the rollout of Microsoft Information Protection for Loop workspaces, B2B (business to business) guest sharing for Loop workspaces, pages, and components will be available for all tenants, including those who have configured sensitivity labels, subject to admin policy. If admins configure the policy, users will be able to share Loop workspaces, pages, and components with people outside of your tenant. This message applies to Loop on the web and on iOS/Android devices.

This message is related to MC923176 Microsoft Loop: Sensitivity labels at the container level (November 2024).

Note: Loop will respect your Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft SharePoint sharing settings. If your tenant does not allow sharing with guests, then it will prevent guest sharing of Loop workspaces, pages, and components as well.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out in early December 2024 (previously early November) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously early January).

How this will affect your organization:

After this rollout, if admins have configured Microsoft SharePoint for B2B guest sharing, users in your organization will be able to share Loop workspaces, pages, and components with people outside of your tenant. Users can share pages and components with the People you choose option. Guest users cannot create workspaces.

Admins: You can configure sharing of Loop workspaces, pages, and components with guests by enabling these policies in Microsoft SharePoint admin center > Policies > Sharing:

Set the organization-level external sharing settings for to allow content to be shared with New and existing guestsor Existing guests.
Enable the B2B collaboration with external guests. Learn more: Overview: B2B collaboration with external guests for your workforce - Microsoft Entra External ID | Microsoft Learn

Learn more:

Guest/external sharing: Overview of Loop workspaces storage and permissions | Microsoft Learn(will be updated before rollout)
Summary of governance, lifecycle, and compliance capabilities for Loop(direct link to section that says Loop workplace sensitivity labels are not available; will be updated before rollout)

What you need to do to prepare:

Documentation - Office 365 IP Address and URL web service

October 31, 2024 - GCC

September 30, 2024 - GCC High

September 30, 2024 - DOD

Updated Jan 28, 2025

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Blog Post

January 2025 - Microsoft 365 US Public Sector Roadmap Newsletter

Teams: New recording and transcription policies for town halls and webinars, Purview: new cleanup policies to mitigate data spills with retention, New Outlook: PST support

Purview

Quick Summarizations in eDiscovery

Microsoft 365 Copilot

Manage web searches in Copilot separately from optional connected experiences with new policy - GCC

Action required: Azure AD Graph API retirement

Microsoft 365 Copilot GCC generally available starting December 13th

Where to Start with Microsoft Teams Apps in Gov Clouds

Microsoft 365 Government Adoption Resources

SharePoint Online

MC915485 — (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint: Updates to font management capabilities

MC912181 — (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint: Add approvals to any document library

MC810419 — New enhancements for Restricted Access Control for sites using Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Entra security groups

Microsoft Viva

MC956696 — Microsoft Viva Connections: Power Apps card

MC947830 — (Updated) Microsoft Viva: Updates to the admin experience

MC867656 — (Updated) Microsoft Viva Connections news notifications in GCC, GCC High, and DoD

MC708077 — (Updated) Microsoft Viva: Modern All Company for non-native mode networks

Microsoft Teams

MC971032 — Microsoft Teams: New recording policies for town halls and webinars

MC971031 — Microsoft Teams: New transcription policies for town halls and webinars

MC966633 — Microsoft Teams: Meeting recap can be shared as a link

MC960811 — Microsoft Teams: Enhanced captions for Teams Rooms on Windows

MC960809 — Microsoft Teams: Live transcription for Teams Rooms on Windows

MC956699 — Microsoft Teams: Forward messages with app cards

MC953752 — Microsoft Teams: Scheduling channel messages

MC952891 — New VDI optimization solution for Microsoft Teams on Citrix virtual desktops - General Availability

MC952889 — Microsoft Teams admin center: Non-disruptive device operations for Microsoft Teams devices

MC952888 — Microsoft Teams: Pop out Chat, Copilot, and Notes panes in meetings

MC950898 — Microsoft Teams: Forwarding loop components

MC950897 — Microsoft Teams: Forward messages to and from channels

MC949966 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: Join and present in Microsoft events

MC949959 — Microsoft Teams: Customize the location of notifications

MC948994 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Collaborative Notes support for GCC High and DoD environments

MC947831 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Extensibility for PSTN calls

MC947049 — (Updated) Introducing Approvals in Microsoft Teams for GCC High

MC939927 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Premium: Decorate your background

MC937925 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Additional report fields in the time clock export for improved reporting in the Shifts app

MC934727 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: File Interactive Previews

MC932488 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New DVR capabilities for town halls (desktop and web)

MC931401 — (Updated) Ensuring Security and Compliance: Keep your Microsoft Teams desktop clients up to date

MC929034 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Best practices configuration dashboard in Teams admin center

MC925999 — (Updated) Microsoft 365 app: Auto release and check-in for Microsoft Places

MC923415 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure status indicator

MC920298 — Microsoft Teams admin center: Admins can disable the ability to send messages in meeting chat before and after a meeting

MC916866 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Shifts Graph APIs in beta moved to production (v1.0)

MC916294 — (Updated) New Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business Call Hold Synchronization

MC912707 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New policy for voice and face enrollment will default to "On" (configure now)

MC912178 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Download Transcription and View RTMP-In 708 Captions for Town hall and Webinar

MC908115 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Meeting organizers can turn off copying of captions, transcript and recap

MC903632 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android: 3x3 video gallery on dual displays

MC892055 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Participant roster grouping in Teams BYOD meeting rooms

MC884018 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Set sensitivity labels for town halls and webinar

MC809602 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New skin tone settings and reactions

MC808828 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom background and daily restart windows for Teams panels

MC808822 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom background and daily restart windows for Teams panels (GCC High)

MC808160 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Office 365 Connectors feature retires starting August 15, 2024

MC800496 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New expanded gallery view option for minimized meeting window

MC795750 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom emojis and reactions

MC781595 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Tenant-wide policy for permission to download meeting transcription

MC767481 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Presenter window enhancements while screensharing

MC726122 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: View, download, and delete Microsoft OneDrive transcript files

MC718553 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Change background while recording on phone

MC718250 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Describe it to design it in Teams Workflows

MC709270 — (Updated) Mute with Windows Taskbar available in the new Microsoft Teams on Windows

MC704955 — (Updated) Now get Real Time Calendar Notifications in Teams

MC704035 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Integrate Chat notification with Meeting RSVP status

Microsoft Purview

MC971035 — Microsoft Purview | Data Lifecycle Management: New secure workflow to bypass legal holds and retention policies

MC969449 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention for endpoints: Four new conditions (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

MC966637 — Microsoft Purview| Data Loss Prevention for endpoints: New "Document property" condition (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

MC961761 — Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: IRM alerts in Microsoft Defender XDR

MC950890 — Microsoft Purview | Data Security Posture Management for AI

MC933536 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention: New Microsoft Exchange Online predicates

MC920308 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Information Protection: Auto-labeling policies will support "Fingerprint based SIT"

MC833890 — (Updated) Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint: Protect sensitive files with dynamic watermarking

MC808165 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview eDiscovery | Modernized eDiscovery in new Microsoft Purview portal

MC708079 — (Updated) Data Loss Prevention - Admin Units support for DLP alerts in Microsoft 365 Defender portal