February 2025 - Microsoft 365 US Public Sector Roadmap Newsletter
SharePoint End of support for SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 is scheduled for July 14, 2026. It's advisable to upgrade directly to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition Purview Information Protection New workload for Copilot in Content Explorer Microsoft 365 New deployments of Microsoft 365 desktop client apps to include new Outlook – GCC Unlocking Opportunities for Government Efficiency The U.S. Federal Government stands at a critical inflection point, offering an unprecedented opportunity to redefine how it fulfills its vital missions. As leaders seek to reduce costs and enhance efficiency, much of this can be accomplished through thoughtful technology modernization applied to mission delivery. Feb 21: Announcing M365 Community Days DC 2025 in Arlington We are thrilled to announce M365 Community Days DC, hosted by DC area community leaders at the prestigious Microsoft Innovation Hub, Arlington VA at Rosslyn. Join us February 21st, 2025, for this in-person event featuring speakers from across North America, and headlined by elected official Roxy Ndebumadu, Councilmember for the City of Bowie, MD. Mark your calendars for a day of learning, networking, and innovation! 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 Roadmap This link is filtered to show GCC, GCC High and DOD: 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 Microsoft 365 Copilot (GCC) Microsoft Copilot Studio (GCC) Office 365 Platform (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Office 365 U.S. Government GCC endpoints Office 365 U.S. Government GCC High endpoints Office 365 U.S. Government DoD endpoints Microsoft Purview (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Enterprise Mobility & Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft Defender for Identity (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Azure Information Protection Premium Exchange Online (GCC, GCCH, DoD) SharePoint (GCC, GCCH, DoD) OneDrive (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Teams (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Office 365 Government (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Power Apps (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Power Automate US Government (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Power BI (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Planner (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Outlook Mobile (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Dynamics 365 US Government Microsoft Copilot Studio (GCC) WWindows 365 Government 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 / OneDrive for Business MC996585 — Microsoft SharePoint: Updated document libraries Coming soon to Microsoft SharePoint: We will update the document library experience to improve its overall performance and enhance the functionality of Edit in grid view. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, users can expect these improvements: Pages in document libraries will load faster. Enhanced editing in grid view: Choice field editing: Select or change values in Choice columns in grid view. Person field and Group field editing: Assign users or groups to a file by selecting the Person field in grid view. Image field editing: Add or change images in the grid, like the similar feature in Microsoft Lists. Better scrolling with large libraries: Instead of going to the next page if there are more than 100 documents, users can scroll down and see everything. New commands and navigation in grid view: With these improvements, grid view includes several new commands and navigational options that previously were either missing or less intuitive: New commands: Create new items in grid view. Clickable document titles: Document and file titles in the grid are now clickable, making it easier to open items without leaving the grid. Folder navigation: Navigate in and out of folders from the grid view. Details pane in grid view: Open the details pane in grid view. Redesigned Properties pane and right-click menu: Properties pane as a dialog: When you click or modify an item’s details, the properties pane appears as a dialog box. Right-click context menu: Right-click any item in the grid and instantly see context-aware options such as Open, Edit, Share, or Delete. Grouped view support while editing in grid view: Edit items in grid view even when the library is grouped by specific columns (such as grouped by a content type, department, or project). Rating column improvements: If your document library includes a rating column (star ratings or “likes”), we improved the experience of updating and viewing these ratings. A SharePoint document library with an item’s menu expanded (in grid view): A SharePoint document library showing editing option in a field (in grid view): These changes 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. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC989979 — Microsoft SharePoint: New preview mode for Pages and News posts Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 473452 Coming soon to Microsoft SharePoint: The new Preview mode can be used to understand how Pages and News posts will appear on different device types when viewed by an audience. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late January 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, a Preview button will display in the command bar while users are editing Pages and News posts in SharePoint. After selecting Preview, users can see what the page will look like in view mode for the audience. When previewing Pages, users can navigate between Desktop and Mobile device types. When previewing News posts, users can also choose to view the email version as Desktop or Mobile device types. This change will be available by default. What you need to do to prepare: You may want to notify users, update your user training, and prepare your help desk. This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before or after the rollout. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC976819 — (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint: New Accessibility assistant tool for authoring Pages Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470603 Updated January 16, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon for Microsoft SharePoint: A new Accessibility assistant tool to help content creators meet accessibility standards when authoring SharePoint Pages. This tool provides checks and brief guidance to help ensure pages are inclusive and accessible to a broad audience. This rollout reflects our ongoing commitment to fostering accessibility and inclusivity in SharePoint. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously early February). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High and DoD): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously early March). How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, authors can initiate an accessibility test while editing a page. Authors can select the Accessibility assistant icon from the right vertical toolbar. The Accessibility assistant will support five web parts: Banner, Text, Image, Hero, and Quick Links. The Accessibility assistant identifies accessibility issues: The Accessibility assistant guides authors to address accessibility issues in the specific web part: The Accessibility assistant confirms the author has addressed all accessibility issues: What you need to do to prepare: Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. 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. MC974358 — Microsoft SharePoint admin center: New "App insights" feature will be in Public Preview Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 417481 Coming soon for Microsoft SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM): A new App insights feature will be available in the Microsoft SharePoint admin center for Public Preview. You can continue to manage this feature with Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets if desired. When this will happen: Public Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, if you are part of SAM, you will be able to get insights in the SharePoint admin center for applications accessing SharePoint content. This feature will be available by default to SAM users. 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 users about this change and update any relevant documentation. Learn more: Generate App insights reports - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn MC974354 — (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint Online: Re-imagined Hero with the new carousel layout in pages and news Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 395214 Updated January 16, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. We are introducing a new Carousel layout to make the Hero web part more attractive. This new layout will feature a slideshow and a selection of new styles with imagery, bold text, and a call to action, creating a more engaging page experience. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will start rolling out in mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously late January). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High and DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously late-February). How this will affect your organization: Adding a Hero web part to a page or news post has not changed. This update allows authors to create eye-catching carousel slides in any section type, with up to five slides in Carousel layout, enhancing user engagement and highlighting key content to establish page hierarchy. It offers three new styles and supports Stream videos to make the page more appealing. 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. MC973514 — SharePoint Pages Flexible Sections Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 395213 Flexible sections are a new section type that allow authors to build pages without a strict column structure. Web parts can be dynamically resized and moved within flexible sections to create a fully customized section. Flexible sections unlock an endless number of design possibilities for sections. With the introduction of flexible sections, we have reimagined section templates that are located in the content pane toolbox. The new section templates will be powered by both flexible and column-based sections with example content. All sample content from these templates is placed onto the canvas when a section template is applied. The new flexible section type and section templates will be available in SharePoint and Viva Amplify. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late-January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025. General Availability (Production, GCC, GCC High, DOD): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025. How this will affect your organization: Users will see a new option when adding a section to a page, called “Flexible”. Within a flexible section, users can drag and drop web parts anywhere on the grid. Web parts will snap to the closest grid line when moved. Users can also resize web parts. Card-based web parts, such as Quick Links, People, or Hero, only have four different width options (full width, 1/3 canvas width, ½ canvas width, and 2/3 canvas width). These web parts can only be resized to one of the four options. Non-card-based web parts, such as Text, Image, and File & Media can be resized to any width. Web parts will snap to the closest gird line when being resized. Users can resize flexible sections manually, change the arrangement of overlapping web parts, multi-select web parts, and group web parts. Users can select or drag and drop a new section template from the content pane toolbox. After the template is added to the canvas, users can make adjustments to the web parts and section until ready to publish. What you need to do to prepare: You might want to notify users, update your user training, and prepare your help desk. MC973498 — Microsoft SharePoint: New "Editorial card" web part for Pages and News Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 414524 Coming soon to Microsoft SharePoint: a new web part for Pages and New posts called the Editorial card. Unlike automated web parts like News and Events, the new Editorial card allows SharePoint designers to manually tailor the content presentation to their needs. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will start rolling out late January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will start rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, users can: Showcase content in an engaging card format with advanced background and content settings Configure content to suit varied author needs This change will be available to users by default. The Editorial card in the Web parts section of the Toolbox (right pane): 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 users about this change and update any relevant documentation. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. Examples of Editorial card content: MC947052 — (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint: Filter search results by "Messages" General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): This rollout has completed Updated February 3, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. The same Messages search vertical at microsoft365.com will soon be available for organization-wide search in Microsoft SharePoint. Search verticals are tabs on the search result page that show results of a specific type or from select sources. For example, the Files vertical shows results classified as files and makes it easy for users who are looking to find documents. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): This rollout has completed. How this will affect your organization: This feature will be on by default. If you have disabled the Messages search vertical for microsoft365.com, the Messages search vertical will also be disabled in SharePoint. Learn more: Manage search verticals | Microsoft Learn 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 users about this change and update any relevant documentation. MC912181 — (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint: Add approvals to any document library Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 420336 Updated January 16, 2025: 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 late January 2025 (previously early January) 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. Configure approvals in SharePoint Online: 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. MC906496 — (Updated) Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft SharePoint: New setting to disable presence in the file viewer Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 419814 Updated January 8, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Administrators can now use the Microsoft SharePoint Online Management Shell to disable the user presence feature in the Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint file viewer on a per-site collection basis. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late October 2024 and expect to complete by mid-January (previously December). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout: When previewing a file in the OneDrive and SharePoint file viewer, users can see the presence of other users who have the file open. This behavior will not change by default. After this rollout, if desired, SharePoint admins can use the SharePoint Online Management Shell to disable the presence feature for a given site collection. This can be done by updating to the latest version of the SharePoint Online Management Shell and running Set-SPOSite -HidePeoplePreviewingFiles $true along with a list of valid site identifiers. Learn more: Set-SPOSite (Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell) | Microsoft Learn. By default, this feature is 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 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 if you choose to enable this feature. MC693865 — (Updated) SharePoint Add-In retirement in Microsoft 365 Updated February 1, 2025: This update serves as a reminder that SharePoint Add-Ins will retire and stop working in 14 months from now (April 2, 2026). Since the release of SharePoint Add-Ins in 2013, Microsoft has evolved SharePoint extensibility using SharePoint Framework (SPFx) enabling you to write applications that can be used in Microsoft SharePoint, Viva Connections and Microsoft Teams. With our continued investment in SharePoint Framework, Microsoft is retiring SharePoint Add-Ins. Key Points: Major: Retirement Timeline: o Starting July 1st, 2024, SharePoint Add-Ins cannot be installed from the public marketplace, also referred to as store by existing tenants. Installation from a private app catalog stays possible. o Starting November 1st, 2024, new tenants will not be able use SharePoint Add-Ins, regardless of their origin (public marketplace, private tenant catalog). o Starting April 2nd, 2026, Microsoft will remove the ability use SharePoint Add-Ins for existing tenants. Action: Review and assess impact How this will affect your organization: If your organization still uses SharePoint Add-Ins, they will no longer function after April 2nd, 2026. We recommend customers to port their customizations to SharePoint Framework (SPFx) and ask their solution vendors for updated solutions. What you need to do to prepare: You will want to notify your Add-In users and developers. Update your user training and prepare your help desk. For admins Use the Microsoft 365 Assessment toolto scan your tenants for SharePoint Add-In usage. Disable SharePoint Add-Inson your tenant using SharePoint Online Management Shell Review the guidance for migrating from SharePoint Add-Ins to SharePoint Framework. There will not be an option to extend SharePoint Add-Ins beyond April 2nd 2026. New: How to disable SharePoint Add-Ins on your tenant Admins can disable SharePoint Add-Ins with the Set-SPOTenant SharePoint Management Shell PowerShell command. Connect-SPOService -Url https://<tenant>-admin.sharepoint.com Set-SPOTenant -IsSharePointAddInsDisabled $true After SharePoint Add-Ins are disabled, users will not be able to add SharePoint Add-Ins to their sites, and admins cannot add new SharePoint Add-Ins to the tenant and site collection app catalogs. SharePoint Add-Ins already added to sites will stay available and can still be used by the site's users. New: SharePoint Add-Ins will not be available from the public marketplace After July 1, 2024, users browsing the public marketplace (AppSource) will see SharePoint Add-In, but if they select Get it now, a message will explain that SharePoint Add-Ins are retired and cannot be added. If you still require a specific SharePoint Add-In, contact the Add-In creator to understand the possible options. Learn more Support update for the retirement of SharePoint Add-Insin Microsoft 365. MC693863 — (Updated) Azure ACS retirement in Microsoft 365 Updated February 1, 2025: This update serves as a reminder that Azure ACS in Microsoft 365 will retire and stop working in 14 months from now (April 2, 2026). Since the first use of Azure Access Control Services (ACS) by SharePoint in 2013, Microsoft has evolved the authorization and authentication options for SharePoint Online via Microsoft Entra ID (a.k.a. Azure AD). Using Microsoft Entra ID as auth platform for your SharePoint Online customizations will provide your applications the most secure, compliant and future proof model. With our continued investment in Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft is retiring the use of Azure ACS as auth platform for SharePoint Online. Key Points: Major: Retirement Timeline: o Starting November 1st, 2024, new tenants will not be able use Azure ACS. o Starting April 2, 2026, Microsoft will remove the ability use SharePoint ACS for existing tenants. Action: Review and assess impact How this will affect your organization: If your organization still uses Azure ACS to grant custom developed or third party applications access to SharePoint Online, they will no longer have access after April 2nd, 2026. We recommend customers to update their customizations to use Microsoft Entra ID and ask their solution vendors to do the same. What you need to do to prepare: You will want to notify your Azure ACS users and developers. Update your user training and prepare your help desk. For admins Use the Microsoft 365 Assessment toolto scan your tenants for Azure ACS usage. Review the guidance for migrating from Azure ACS to Microsoft Entra ID. There will not be an option to extend Azure ACS usage for SharePoint Online beyond April 2nd 2026. Learn more Support update for the retirement of Azure ACS for SharePoint Onlinein Microsoft 365. MC542767 — (Updated) SharePoint 2013 workflow retirement Updated February 1, 2025: This update serves as a reminder that SharePoint 2013 workflow will retire and stop working in 14 months from now (April 2, 2026). Since the release of SharePoint workflows, Microsoft has evolved workflow orchestration to not only encompass SharePoint, but all the productivity services you use with Microsoft 365 and beyond. With the continued investment in Power Automate as the universal solution to workflow, Microsoft is retiring SharePoint 2013 workflows. When this will happen: Starting April 2nd, 2024, SharePoint 2013 workflows will be turned off for any newly created tenants. Starting April 2nd, 2026, Microsoft will remove the ability to run, or create and execute SharePoint 2013 workflows for existing tenants. How this will affect your organization: If your organization still uses SharePoint 2013 workflows, they will no longer function after April 2nd, 2026. We recommend customers to move to Power Automate or other supported solutions. What you need to do to prepare: You will want to notify your users, workflow developers and site owners. Update your user training and prepare your help desk. For admins Use the Microsoft 365 Assessment tool to scan your tenants for legacy workflow usage. Review Guidance: Migrate from classic workflows to Power Automate flows in SharePoint Review the Power Automate resourcesas a solution to legacy workflows. Note: There will not be an option to extend SharePoint 2013 workflow beyond April 2nd 2026. Learn more: Detailed support articlewith additional resources. Microsoft Copilot MC981631 — Microsoft Teams: Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams meetings will be generally available to GCC Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 476072 Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: We’re excited to announce that Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams meetings will soon be available. This message pertains to Teams for Windows desktop, Teams for the web, Teams for Mac desktop, and Teams for iOS/Android. A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required to use this feature. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025. How this will affect your organization: This rollout marks an important step in delivering Copilot in Teams meeting capabilities for your organization including: Ask Copilot questions about the meeting in real-time and after meeting ends Use out-of-the-box prompts for common tasks, such as generating a meeting recap, listing action items, capturing unresolved questions, or listing main ideas discussed in the meeting Use Copilot during the meeting without retaining a transcript after the meeting Generate Copilot responses based on both the spoken transcript and the written meeting chat Here are key details to help you prepare and understand what to expect: Teams admin center updates: Over the coming weeks, you may notice Copilot controls appearing in your Teams admin center. These controls will allow you to get familiar with how you will be able to manage Copilot in Teams in anticipation of the full rollout. Functionality launch: We will start rolling out Copilot for Teams meetings to the Teams application in early February, but the Teams admin center controls may become visible earlier. The Copilot in Teams setting in the Teams admin center will be ON (requiring transcript) by default. Copilot in Teams will be available to users by default. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we finalize this deployment. Our team is committed to ensuring a smooth experience for both admins and users. 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 users and admins about this change and update any relevant documentation. Learn more Manage Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams meetings and events - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn Use Copilot in Microsoft Teams meetings - Microsoft Support Microsoft Viva MC989956 — Microsoft Viva: Edit and schedule polls in Viva Engage Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 467251 Starting in February 2025, customers with the Microsoft Viva suite or Microsoft Viva Communications and Communities premium licenses will see an option to schedule or edit a poll prior to publication. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, users did not have a way to schedule polls in Engage. After this rollout, premium-licensed users will have a new option in the publisher to schedule a poll post in the same location as other post types (discussion, question, praise, article). From their drafts, users can publish or edit a poll. Users may also edit a poll prior to publication from their drafts. Users cannot edit poll posts, including voting options, after publication. This feature will be available by default. The new option to schedule or edit a poll prior to publication: What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date. There is no action for admins to enable or opt-in to this feature. 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: Write and schedule posts, articles, and announcements in Viva Engage - Microsoft Support MC979826 — (Updated) Microsoft Viva Connections: Update to app name Updated January 24, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. We are renaming the Viva Connections app to Connections. This change is intended to ensure the app name fits better within Microsoft Teams, preventing it from being truncated. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously mid-February). How this will affect your organization: If you have already customized the Viva Connections app name in the Microsoft Teams app store, your customizations will remain unchanged. 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. Microsoft Teams MC996588 — Microsoft Teams: Adding and editing external contacts on Teams phone devices Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 476485 A new feature allows users to add and edit external contacts using the lightweight People app on Microsoft Teams phone devices. With this capability, you will be able to manage and interact with contacts outside of your organization on Teams phone devices. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-May 2025 and expect to complete by late May 2025. General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-August 2025 and expect to complete by late August 2025. How this will affect your organization: Users will now be able to add and edit external contacts from Teams phone devices. To add an external contact: Click Create new contact from the People app. Add in the details of the external contact, and then click Save. What you need to do to prepare: Please ensure that your Teams phone devices are updated with the latest People app to get access to this new feature. This feature will only be available with the latest application update. MC996587 — Microsoft Teams Voice: Link Voice apps without using resource accounts We are excited to introduce a new feature in the Voice section of the Microsoft Teams admin center that allows admins to create linked Voice apps without needing to associate them with a resource account. This update simplifies the process of managing Auto attendant (AA) and Call queue (CQ) services. When this will happen: General Availability (Production): Available now. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, in the Redirection options, you can select Voice app or Resource account to link AAs and CQs. Before this rollout, the Voice app option lets you link AAs and CQs using the resource account associated with them. If you prefer to use a resource account, you can still select Resource account: Admins can use the using the Voice app option to create linked Voice apps without associating them with a resource account: For example, this feature is useful when you want to create a call flow where multiple AAs and CQs are linked together. If you have an AA that needs to transfer calls to different departments, you can link it directly to multiple CQs without needing a separate resource account for each CQ. This new feature 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 the rollout. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update relevant documentation. Admins should review your existing AA and CQ setups and update them to take advantage of the new feature. Existing configurations will continue to work as before under the Resource account option. Learn more Manage resource accounts for service numbers - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn(will be updated before rollout) The Nested Auto attendants and Call queuessection in Plan for Teams Auto attendants and Call queues - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn MC994288 — Microsoft Teams: Speed dial on line keys for touch phone devices Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 476486 A new feature allows you to configure custom contacts and speed dial on the line key of touch phone devices certified for Microsoft Teams. It enables you to swiftly access frequently dialed numbers and contacts, incorporating one-touch/press dialing and easy management of contact lists on touch devices. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete late March 2025. General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-May 2025 and expect to complete late May 2025. General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-August 2025 and expect to complete late August 2025. How this will affect your organization: Users will have the ability to use line keys on touch phone devices. To assign line keys, tap on pre-defined placeholders and choose a contact to be added as a speed dial. Once you add a speed dial, you can make outgoing calls through one-touch/press on those line keys. What you need to do to prepare: Please ensure that your Teams phone devices are updated with the latest Microsoft Teams application. This feature will only be available with the latest application update. Lastly, for this feature to work, you will need to assign line keys on the device. MC994287 — Microsoft Teams: Webinars will be generally available (DoD) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 475279 Webinars in Microsoft Teams will soon be generally available. After this rollout, users will be able to schedule webinars with internal audiences and use capabilities such as creating an event page, sending attendee registration automated emails, and more. This message applies to Teams on Windows desktop, Teams on Mac desktop, and Teams for the web. Teams for iOS/Android users can attend webinars but not schedule them. When this will happen: General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-April 2025. 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 the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation. User documentation: Get started with Microsoft Teams webinars - Microsoft Support MC993227 — Microsoft Teams: Native Bluetooth call controls using hands-free protocol for multiple peripheral devices Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 475853 Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: When you have several peripheral devices connected to Teams, the one you use to answer a call will temporarily become the main device that will sync with Teams when using the device's buttons. After the call, the original device selected in Teams settings will take over again as the main device. After this rollout, users can use multiple native Bluetooth devices can be confident that call controls will function correctly with all of them. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-April 2025. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, users will be able to switch between their connected peripheral devices when answering a call without manually changing the selected device in Teams settings. 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 the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation. Learn more: Phones and Devices for Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn Before rollout, we will update this post with new documentation MC993226 — Microsoft Teams: New location sharing settings for emergency calls and other features Microsoft Teams will soon have a new location sharing setting that will allow users to grant location access to specific features. This change will affect emergency dynamic policy and the network bandwidth policy. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop (version 24H2 or greater) and Teams for Mac desktop. VDI clients will not be supported at this time. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025. How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout: Location access was governed exclusively at the operating system level. With this update, location consent will also be required from users at the individual application level. As a result, users gain more granular control over which specific application features can access their location. After this rollout, Teams users can grant location access to certain Teams features. The setting for IT insights for admins feature are in Teams Settings > Privacy > Location. The setting for the Emergency calls feature is in the user's device's location settings. The user can find a link to their device's location settings in Teams Settings > Privacy > Location: If a user consented to location access before the rollout, the user will be prompted to confirm their selection in this new popup that will display after the next Teams version update. If a user has not previously consented, they will not see the popup and can adjust their preferences in Settings. What you need to do to prepare: NOTE: After this rollout, dynamic emergency calling may not work as intended unless users allow location detection at the operating system level and app level. This dynamic emergency calling issue includes scenarios where admins have configured a network site for their users (location must be enabled by the user). To ensure emergency calls are properly routed to the nearest public safety answering point (PSAP), please advise your users to accept the new location requests from Teams. This also applies to users who may have consented to location access before the rollout. You can communicate this requirement by setting the emergency service disclaimer with a custom message that will display in the Calls app in Teams. Ensuring that end users have location turned on is crucial for proper functioning of emergency calls and their safety. Learn more about sending a custom message: Manage emergency calling policies in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn To continue managing video and media settings with the network roaming policy, users must enable Insights for IT admins in Teams Settings > Privacy > Location > Insights for IT admins. Learn more about the changes to location services and privacy policies Windows location service and privacy - Microsoft Support Enable location sharing - Microsoft Support(will be updated before rollout) 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. Please notify your users and admins about this change and update any relevant documentation. MC989975 — Microsoft Teams: Occupancy status on Teams panels Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 474441 Before this rollout, Microsoft Teams panels indicate a room availability based only on reservation data. After this rollout, Teams panels can smartly utilize signals from Teams Rooms devices and occupancy sensors paired with Teams panels to indicate when a room is in use, so users are not surprised to find an available room is actually occupied. This feature will be supported for accounts with a license for Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro or Microsoft Teams Shared Devices. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by early April 2025. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, this feature will be set to on by default, so the current experience will change. The room is in use when the room is not currently reserved and a user is in a call, presenting, whiteboarding, or casting with a Teams Rooms device, or the room is detected as occupied through a paired occupancy sensor. When the room is in use, the panel's LED will adjust to the color selected by the admin for the busy state. In addition, the panel's home screen will reflect that the room is occupied. Note: The room can still be reserved on the device itself, through Microsoft Outlook, or through Microsoft Teams. If the device is paired with a Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android, after a user reserves the occupied room from the device, a message will appear on the room display to let the user inside of the room know that the room has been reserved and to exit. This notification will be off by default, and the admin will need to enable it after pairing the device. An admin can choose to turn off these features in Teams admin settings > Device settings > Occupied state. The two settings are Allow occupied state and Allow booking notifications. If Allow occupied state is turned off, the booking notifications also will be turned off. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen by the specified date with no admin action required. You may want to update any relevant documentation as appropriate and plan to update your devices to the latest Teams app when it becomes available. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC989974 — Microsoft Teams: New microphone volume indicator for users Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468274 Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: A new Mic volume indicator on the user bar in Teams meetings. This feature will provide users with real-time visual feedback on their audio levels in the meeting, eliminating the need to ask, “Can you hear me?” This feature is designed to minimize interruptions as well as enhance user confidence and meeting effectiveness. This feature applies to Teams on Windows desktop and Mac desktop. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out in early March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out in late March 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025. General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out in mid-May 2025 and expect to complete by mid-June 2025. General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out in late June 2025 and expect to complete by early August 2025. How this will affect your organization: This feature will be available to users by default and has no admin policy. Users can select the Mic icon and review the Microphone section of the menu to find out more about their audio levels in the meeting: 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. Learn more: Muting and unmuting your mic in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support MC985484 — Microsoft Teams: Additional work information in people search results Multi-tenant organization (MTO) users will be able to see additional work information in people search results. With this feature, MTO users will be able to see the company name and department name of a user in people search results, helping users to make sure they are communicating with the right people. When this will happen: 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: Tenant admins who have MTO enabled will be able to toggle this feature on and off in the Teams admin center. Toggle behavior: This toggle will be off by default. Turning on the toggle will enable the ability to see company name and department name in results. Turning off the toggle will disable the ability to see company name and department name in results. Instructions to toggle: Navigate to the Teams admin center (TAC). Navigate to the Teams Client Config page. Using the Enable Extended Work Info in People Search toggle: Switch the toggle to on to enable the ability to see company name and department name in results. Switch the toggle to off to disable the ability to see company name and department name in results. For more information, see Set up a multitenant org in Microsoft 365. What you need to do to prepare: Tenant admins will need to complete cross-tenant synchronization and sync the company name field in order to take advantage of this feature. For more information, see Synchronize users in multitenant organizations in Microsoft 365. MC981629 — Microsoft Teams: Updates to make meeting transcripts more accurate and reliable Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 471426 Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Updates to make meeting transcripts more accurate and reliable. These improvements will also enhance the quality of live captions in Teams, Microsoft Copilot in Teams, and intelligent meeting recap for Microsoft Teams Premium users and users with a Copilot license, ensuring more accurate outputs and enhancing the overall experience of each feature. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop and Teams for Mac desktop. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025. General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. How this will affect your organization: Key changes in this rollout: Setting the meeting spoken language up front: Before starting features like Recording, Transcription, or Copilot that generate transcripts, users will be prompted to set the spoken language. Whether users enable these features manually or through Meeting options, this change ensures the transcription system starts with the correct language configuration. Limiting who can change the spoken language for a meeting: When transcription is enabled, either on its own or as part of Recording or Copilot, only the meeting organizer, co-organizer, or the person who started the transcript will be allowed to change the spoken language. This ensures consistency and prevents issues caused by mismatched language settings. If transcription is not enabled, any meeting participant can change the spoken language. Simplifying language settings: Language settings and caption customization options are on separate screens, instead of overwhelming users with all options in a single screen. Identifying language mismatches: A Language mismatch detected notification will appear onscreen if the spoken language does not match the settings. Users can quickly resolve mismatches by confirming the system’s language suggestion directly from the notification, avoiding the need to navigate through settings. This change will be available to users 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. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC980799 — Microsoft Teams: Allow presenters to moderate Q&A Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469492 Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: Organizers of town halls and webinars will be able to select and assign presenters to also moderate the Q&A, allowing them to manage and publish questions asked during the event. This feature lets organizers make changes to the group of moderators at any time (before or during the event), and it is available to all users organizing a town hall or webinar. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Teams for Mac desktop, Teams for the web, and Teams for iOS/Android. 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 feature is supported for presenters with Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AAD) IDs. Presenters using consumer domains (such as live.com or gmail.com) are not supported. Meeting organizers can enable this feature in Meeting options while setting up the event or during the event. This feature 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. 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: Q&A in Microsoft Teams meetings - Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout) MC979828 — Microsoft Teams: Cross-cloud collaboration in Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 471434 Microsoft Teams Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) users can join meetings with people in other Microsoft 365 cloud environments (e.g. a user in GCC High joining a meeting in Worldwide, GCC, or DoD environments) through three options: Authenticated access via cross-cloud meeting connection. Authenticated access using a guest account. Anonymous access. These scenarios require the new Slimcore-based optimization, since WebRTC-based optimization does not support meetings across different cloud environments. For more information on the new optimization, see New VDI solution for Teams. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCCH, DoD): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025. How this will affect your organization: For users who are already optimized with SlimCore in their VDI environments, after this feature is rolled out, cross-cloud anonymous and cross-cloud authenticated meetings will now open in Teams desktop client, and users with Guest Access in another cloud will be able to switch tenants via their Account picker in the Teams Settings UI. What you need to do to prepare: To access this new feature, enable the new VDI optimization based on SlimCore. MC978932 — Large Events: End Session for Attendees and Return Presenters to Green Room Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470432 Organizers and presenters can now end the session with this new "End Event" button for town halls, webinars, and structured meetings. After selecting this button, attendees will see a message on stage stating that the session has concluded, and presenters will return to the Green Room. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025. General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025. General Availability (GCC High and DoD): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by early April 2025. How this will affect your organization: When users join a town hall, webinar, or structured meeting with Green Room turned ON, they will now see the "End event" or "End meeting" button: What you need to do to prepare: This feature change will be available once it is fully released in your tenant. MC975308 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: iPad Multi-window support Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 467246 Updated January 17, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Teams now supports multiple windows on iPad. With this 'multi-window' feature, users can easily manage different Teams windows side-by-side, increasing productivity and flexibility. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCCH, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late February). How this will affect your organization: Apple's "split view" capability allows iPad users to have multiple applications and windows open side-by-side. Starting in February, Teams will now support the ability for there to be multiple Teams windows open at once. This makes it easier for users to attend a meeting and have their chat open on the other side or use Stage Manager to move windows to external displays. This feature is available by default when users update the Teams app on iPad. 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. MC975304 — Microsoft Teams: The Approvals app is generally available (DoD) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 473448 The Approvals app 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 can take advantage of the Approvals app in Teams: Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3 If you do not have users that meet the licensing requirement, you may safely ignore this message. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Teams for Mac desktop, Teams for the web, and Teams for iOS/Android. When this will happen: General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025. How this will affect your organization: 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 a user's systems, including Power Automate, SharePoint, and Microsoft Dynamics 365: What you need to do to prepare: The Approvals app is on by default if your tenant has enabled Microsoft Power Automate. As an admin, you can manage the Approvals app in the Teams admin center on the Approvals app page, including customizing which users can access the app with permission policies. Currently, all approvals are created in your organization's default environment. The Approvals app page in the Teams admin center: Learn more Approvals in Microsoft Teams - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn Manage the Approvals app in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn What is Approvals? - Microsoft Support 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. In October 2027, we will remove the option to specify the need for passcodes. This change will ensure that all meetings are consistently secured with passcodes. This final step will simplify the meeting creation process and provide an additional layer of protection for users. We will remove the isPasscodeRequired property on the joinMeetingIdSettings resource of the Microsoft Graph online meetings API. MC974361 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Edit your display name in meetings Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 122934 Updated January 21, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. In Microsoft Teams, while in a live meeting, participants will soon be able to edit their display name for the duration of the meeting. This name change is for the meeting duration only and does not affect a participant's original name on their People card. This feature is available for participants using the Teams desktop and web apps for both Windows and Mac. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early March 2025 (previously February) and expect to complete by mid-March 2025 (previously mid-February). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early April 2025 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by mid-April 2025 (previously early April). General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late April 2025 (previously early April) and expect to complete by mid-May 2025 (previously mid-April). How this will affect your organization: The feature is off by default for all tenants. Admins can turn it on for their organization in the Teams admin center for all or selected tenant members. These members can then enable the feature in their private scheduled meetings. If turned on for the tenant, a meeting organizer can turn the feature on for their meeting in Meeting options > Let people edit their display name. The feature is OFF by default in Meeting options and has to be enabled by meeting organizer. If turned on for a meeting, participants can join the meeting and then select People at the top of the screen to edit their own display names in the Participants panel. Example: Daniela Mandera can change her name in a meeting to Daniela M. (Before rollout, we will update this post with revised user documentation for changing the name.) Participants who have edited their names will have an (edited) label next to their name in the meeting screens. *Original People card names will display in some meeting features such as calendar invites, the list of people invited to meetings, group chat rosters, and so on. Permanent meeting artifacts (such as the attendance report and transcriptions) will not reflect name changes. What you need to do to prepare: You can turn this feature on for your tenant users to allow the capability in the meetings they organize. You might want to notify your users about this new feature and update your training and documentation as appropriate. MC973513 — Simplify UX flow to enable Together Mode Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470427 Together mode will get a new simplified flow which will take the user from the beginning to the end through the steps of setting up the scene, assigning the seats and applying for everyone in the call in a transparent and easy-to-understand way. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025. How this will affect your organization: With the improved experience, the function itself does not change but there will be more transparency thanks to the icons on the meeting toolbar for an easy access for each next step in the familiar Together mode flow. What you need to do to prepare: You may consider updating your training and documentation as appropriate. MC973502 — Microsoft Teams: New "Tag mentions" filter for the Activity feed Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470598 Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Users will have a new Tag mentions filter in the Activity feed to see their tag mentions in their chat and channel messages. The existing @Mentions filter allows users to catch up quickly on personal mentions. 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, GCC High, DoD): 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. There are no tenant level settings. Defaults will not change. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before or rafter the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation. User documentation: Explore the Activity feed in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout) MC973497 — Microsoft Teams: The Updates app is generally available (GCC) Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Users can access the Updates app to streamline their daily reporting workflow and increase collaboration efficiency. Users can use the Updates app to set up a daily or weekly reporting form and workflow to collect regular updates from others. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025. How this will affect your organization: Learn more about how to manage the app: Manage the Updates app for your organization - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn. This change is available 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 and update any relevant documentation. User documentation: Get started in Updates - Microsoft Support MC971032 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New recording policies for town halls and webinars Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 473887 Updated January 24, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 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 early March 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by mid-March 2025 (previously late February). 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 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New transcription policies for town halls and webinars Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 473886 Updated January 24, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 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 early March 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by mid-March 2025 (previously late February). 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 MC960811 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Enhanced captions for Teams Rooms on Windows Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 423089 Updated January 24, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 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-March 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late February). General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-April 2025 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously late March). General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out early Mary 2025 (previously early April) and expect to complete by mid-May 2025 (previously mid-April). 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 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Live transcription for Teams Rooms on Windows Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 423088 Updated January 28, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. 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-March 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late February) General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-April 2025 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously late March). General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out early May 2025 (previously early April) and expect to complete by mid-May (previously mid-April). 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. 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 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Forward messages with app cards Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469506 Updated January 17, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. 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: 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, GCC, GCC High, 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: 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. 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. 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 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Forwarding loop components Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469507 Updated January 7, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. 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 April 2025 (previously early February). 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. MC946818 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Updates to Gallery in Teams Rooms on Windows Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468277 Updated January 28, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows, the updated Gallery view introduces these changes to enhance your meeting experience: All participants will appear in consistent tile sizes By default, video participants have priority and appear first on the meeting stage by default (audio participants appear on the side or bottom of the screen) Ability to disable priority on video participants to create a mix of audio participants and video participants in the Gallery Optimized view of up to 25 participants on a single display and up to 50 participants on dual displays Preview video is part of the Gallery, appearing next to the rest of the participants Ability to hide the preview video across all layouts When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late February). How this will affect your organization: The updated Galleryprovides a unified meeting experience across both Teams Rooms and desktop. A more consistent and predictable layout can drive meeting efficiency and visibility for remote participants in hybrid meeting scenarios. In 1:1 meetings, the preview video will be positioned at the bottom right, overlapping the other participant. In group meetings, the preview video will be on the last available tile in the Gallery, next to the rest of the participants. Admins can use two new settings to adjust the default view: Prioritize vide0;< PrioritizeVideoParticipantsGallery> – Default value is True. The default experience will show video participants on the main stage with audio participants on the side or bottom rail. If you would like to display all audio and video participants mixed in the Gallery, change the value to False. Hide me <HideMeForAllLayout> – Default value is False. If you would like to hide preview video across all layouts in Teams Rooms on Windows, change the value to True. In-room users can adjust these settings on the console during a meeting, if desired. Lastly, when another Teams Room joins the meeting, the video of the room automatically enlarges if there are more than two in-room users, providing a clearer view and better connection, and so users can focus on the person speaking. These changes will be available by default. What you need to do to prepare: Please notify your users about this change and update any training documentation, as appropriate. 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. Learn more Remotely manage Microsoft Teams Rooms device settings - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn(will be updated before rollout) Microsoft Teams Rooms (Windows) - Microsoft Support(will be updated before rollout) MC939927 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Premium: Decorate your background Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 419811 Updated January 28, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. We will not release this feature to DoD at this moment. We are sorry for any inconvenience. We will share DoD timeline when available. 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 March 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete rollout by mid-March 2025 (previously late February). General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out in mid-March 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete rollout by late March 2025 (previously late February). General Availability (DoD): We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed. 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. MC932488 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New DVR capabilities for town halls (desktop and web) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422804 Updated January 28, 2025: 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 March 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by mid-March 2025 (previously mid-February). General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by late March (previously late February). General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously late February) and expect to complete by early April 2025 (previously early March) 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: 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. Learn more: Plan for Teams town halls - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout) MC929034 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Best practices configuration dashboard in Teams admin center Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421185 Updated January 28, 2025: 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 late January 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late 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. 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. MC920179 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: The new streamlined Chat and Channels experience Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415249 Updated January 17, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your engagement with the new chat and channels experience in Teams. The new chat and channels experience has been in Public Preview and Targeted Release since November 2024 and was targeted for General Availability starting in late January 2025. Based on requests from customers to have additional time to prepare their organizations for the change, we will be postponing the rollout to General Availability from January to a later date. The GA rollout date is updated to starting late March 2025. We’ve been listening to user feedback on the pace of work and the challenges of keeping up with conversations, managing messages scattered across different locations, and triaging quickly. To address this, we’ve streamlined the chats, teams, and channels experience to make it easier for users to stay on top of what matters most. For more details and screenshots, refer to Microsoft Teams announces out a new chat and channels experience | Microsoft 365 Blog This message applies to Teams on Windows desktops, Mac desktops, the web, and iOS and Android devices. This message excludes Education tenants. We will send a future post with an update on the plan for Education tenants. When this will happen: Public Preview / Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-November 2024. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by early April 2025 (previously early February). General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-June 2025 (previously mid-April) and expect to complete by late June 2025 (previously late April). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, users have separate Chat and Teams views (apps) with no option to unify these views; custom sections of chats and channels were not possible; and there was no view for collecting all personal mentions in one list across chats and channels. The new experience brings chat, teams, and channels into one place, in Chat, so users can easily navigate between all conversations without switching between contexts. Users start in the combined Chat view but can opt to keep chat separate from teams and channels like before. In the Chat view, users will see these sections (in order): Favorites containing any previously pinned chats and channels Chats sorted by most recent Teams and channels, organized in same order as in the Teams view Also, users can create custom sections to organize projects and topics that can include individual, group, and meeting chats, as well as channels. New filters for Unread, Chat, Channels, Meetings and more help users focus on relevant conversation in their list. Filters persist until turned off. The new @mention view gathers all personal @mentions into one interactive list. Users can quickly access messages with @mentions across chats, channels, and meetings. Use /go to: Quickly navigate to your frequently used conversation across your chat and channels with a new keyboard shortcut Ctrl+G (Cmd+G on Mac). Customizing the experience Users can tailor their chat and channels experience in Teams Settings. Users can choose to keep chat, teams, and channels combined in Chat (default) or switch to separate Chat and Teams views. In the combined Chat view, message previews are off by default to simplify the list. Users can turn on message previews in Settings. When using the separate Chat and Teams views, users can still use the new filters and the @mentions view to triage and organize topics with custom sections. Starting the new experience A self-service guided onboarding flow in Teams will help users discover the new experience and configure it to their preferences. Users who prefer to keep chat and channels separate can easily do so during the onboarding process or later, without IT assistance. The Get started button will take users to the new combined chat, teams, and channels experience in Chat, and highlight the location of settings. Users will have the option to defer the new experience up to three times over the course of approximately three days, providing flexibility while also moving an organization to the new experience overall. This feature is on by default. The new experience has no admin policy. Each user can make choices to optimize for how they work best. 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. To help prepare organizations for the new features, product guides for admins and users will be available on the adoption web page The new Microsoft Teams chat and channels experience before rollout begins. For admins who opt in to emails for recommended Microsoft 365 training, an email for users will summarize the update when released. MC920084 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Usage reports for bookable desks Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421604 Updated January 28, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. With this rollout, admins will have access to reports and insightful usage analytics for desk pools (workspace resource accounts) that have at least one associated peripheral. These capabilities will be available in the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. This message applies to tenants with Teams Rooms Pro or Teams Shared device licenses. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January). General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January). How this will affect your organization: The Teams Rooms Pro Management portal will have a new tab under Reports called Desk usage. Desk pools that have at least one peripheral associated will appear under this tab. Admins will be able to review overall metrics about their desk pools such as the number of total associated desks, the number of desks that are unused, and the percentage of reservations that were unplanned. For each desk pool, they will be able to review more analytics such as utilization, total reservations, reservation occupancy (percentage of time that desk pool was utilized during reservations), and more. Admins will also be able to select a specific desk pool to review specific metrics, such as a peak utilization matrix. 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 the rollout. You may also want to notify your admin team about this change and update any relevant documentation. Also, we recommend setting up desk pools with up to 8 seats in each pool. We will show analytics for up to 8 desks per desk pool. Reports for desk pools will be in public preview and available with no licensing requirement until July 2025. More information on licensing requirements will be provided prior to that date. Learn more: Setting up Bookable Desks in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated soon after rollout) MC918570 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom name on Teams panels Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 417153 Updated January 14, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. Prior to this new feature, the display name on a Microsoft Teams panel could not be customized. It would always match the Global Adress Book (GAL) name for the account that is shown in Teams and Outlook. With this rollout, we will be providing admins with the ability to customize this display name. This feature will be supported for accounts that have a Teams panel and a Teams Rooms Pro or Teams Shared Device license. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early January (previously early December) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: An admin must choose to use the feature. This feature is set to off as default, so there is no change to the current experience otherwise. To change the display name on the panel, navigate to Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal > Planning > Inventory and then click on the account you’d like to customize. On the pane that opens on the right, there will be a custom name field which an admin can edit to enter in the new display name. Please note that the custom name will be displayed on the Teams panel home screen, so we recommend making sure it is clear and understandable to your users. By default, this field will be filled with the GAL name. In addition, please note that this will not change the display name shown on Microsoft Teams Rooms if you have one inside of the room. Within 24 hours of the name being updated, the Teams panel home screen will reflect the new name. The home screen will also have a tooltip that, when selected, will show the user the GAL name. In Teams admin settings, an admin can view the GAL name and custom name if one has been applied. It is not possible to edit the name in these admin settings. Editing can only be done in the Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal. If you would like to remove the new custom name, you can simply remove the custom name from the field in the Pro Management Portal, and the display name on Teams panel will default back to the GAL name. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen by the specified date with no admin action required. You may want to update any relevant documentation as appropriate. Please update to 1449/1.0.97.2024122401 to use this feature. 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. MC912709 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Bookable desks and BYOD rooms supported in GCC Updated February 4, 2025: We have updated the content. Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: Bookable desks and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) rooms. To set up these two solutions, admins must have access to the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. Bookable desk features in Teams desktop, including plug-in-based reservations and peripheral discovery and inventory in the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal (released earlier in 2024), will be available to enhance your flexible work environments. In the future, admins will also get valuable analytics and insights for space management and planning. Bring your own device (BYOD) meeting room features including Shared Display mode and peripheral discovery, inventory, and reports in the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal (released earlier in 2024) also will be available. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by early February 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, admins are not able to set up bookable desks and BYOD rooms in their tenant. After this rollout, admins will have the option to set up bookable desks and BYOD rooms in their tenant. This feature is default off on Teams desktop client. To enable bookable desks and BYOD, please see our desk and room guides. We also have a user support article for desks and rooms. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout To prepare for this feature, we recommend reviewing the published guides and documentation, discussing this new feature with your team, and share instructions if needed. Learn more Setting up Bookable Desks in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn Bring Your Own Device Rooms in Pro Management Portal - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn For users: First things to know about bookable desks in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Supportand Use shared display mode in meeting rooms - Microsoft Support MC912707 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New policy for voice and face enrollment will default to "On" (configure now) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 413708 Updated January 31, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. A new csTeamsAIPolicy policy for Microsoft Teams (available now via Microsoft PowerShell and taking effect in mid-March 2025 (previously mid-February) 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-March 2025 (previously mid-February) and is expected to be fully in effect by late March 2025 (previously late 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: Set-CsTeamsAIPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn Get-CsTeamsAIPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn 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. MC908117 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Swap screens on Teams Rooms on Android Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415243 Updated January 28, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android: As an admin, you can configure dual display mode and swap the screens of dual display devices using device settings and the Teams admin center. This feature allows you to deliberately set the display mode of your device and also to fix reversed display installations remotely and at scale, enhancing your device management capabilities. A Teams Rooms Pro license is required for this feature. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early November 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024. General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out early December 2024 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout Teams Rooms on Android devices automatically enter dual display mode when two external displays are physically connected to a Teams Rooms on Android device. Because the display mode depends only on the physical connection to the device, rooms can be easily misconfigured when external displays are accidentally disconnected or intentionally unplugged by room users without admin approval. If external displays are set up in reverse (with the main display on the left and the extended display on the right), admins are not able to correct the misconfiguration with remotely. Admins must send someone to each affected room to manually swap cables. After this rollout A Teams Rooms on Android device will only operate in dual display mode if admins physically connect two external displays to the device and explicitly set the device to run in dual display mode using Teams admin settings on the device or the Teams Rooms on Android configuration profile in the Teams admin center > General > Dual display mode. If dual display mode is enabled for a device but only one external display signal is detected through the physical connection to the device, an error message about the disconnected display is shown on the device, prompting room users to contact IT support for resolution. This setting helps ensure that the Teams Rooms on Android app is showing the user interface configured by the admin. Teams Rooms devices with dual displays are designed with the main display (where the calendar is shown) on the right side and the extended display (where the date, time, and room information are shown) on the left side. When dual display devices are reversely installed, you can fix display positioning errors made during device setup with minimal effort. You can swap the display using Teams admin settings on the device or the Teams Rooms on Android configuration profile in the Teams admin center > General > Dual display mode > Swap screens NOTE: If you are deploying Teams Rooms on Android devices with dual displays, be aware that dual display mode must be explicitly enabled in the configuration profile. By default, the dual display setting is OFF, which means that using an existing configuration profile (designed for single-display devices by default) may inadvertently disable dual display mode for your existing dual display rooms. To avoid this, you must create and maintain a separate configuration profile for any devices that require dual display support. This feature will be off by default and available for admins to configure. What you need to do to prepare: After updating your Teams Rooms on Android devices to the latest app version through the Teams admin center, you may notify your users about the 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. MC907108 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Admin email support for "Report a problem" on Teams Rooms on Android Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415247 Updated January 28, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android: As an admin, you can configure an email address for receiving issues submitted by users through the Report a problem feature on Teams Rooms on Android devices. The email address can be set through device settings or the Teams admin center. This feature will allow you to collect logs and feedback directly from your device Teams Rooms on Android devices, enhancing your ability to triage, respond, and escalate issues as needed. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early November 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024. General Availability (GCCH): We will begin rolling out early December 2024 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January ). How this will affect your organization: Before the rollout: When room users encounter issues while using the conference room, there is no way for them to directly report issues to admins from the Teams Rooms on Android devices. After the rollout When you configure an email address in Teams admin settings > General > Logs and feedback, the Report a problem option on Teams Rooms on Android devices will be enabled, and any feedback submitted by room users using Report a problem will be sent to the email address in the device settings. You can also choose to have app logs automatically attached to the feedback you receive in email. Users can access Report a problem from the Help button on the home screen or the More button in meetings. Report a problem can also be accessed on the pre-sign in screens. The email you will receive will contain the feedback entered by the room user and will include information like the room account, device model, and app version. If configured, the email will also include app logs as an attachment. NOTE: If you’re reaching out to Microsoft Support regarding an issue you receive through email, make sure to download complete device logs from the Teams admin center. For more information, see Collect Teams Android device logs | Microsoft Learn. This feature will be off by default and available for admins to configure. If you don’t have physical access to the Teams Rooms on Android device, you can also remotely configure an email address for log and feedback collection through the Teams Rooms on Android configuration profile found on the Teams admin center. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. After the rollout: After updating your Teams Rooms on Android devices to the latest app version through the Teams admin center, configure your devices as desired, notify your users about the change, and update your training and documentation as appropriate. MC906501 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Net Promoter Score survey on Teams Rooms on Android Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415245 Updated January 28, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android: Users can rate how likely they are to recommend Microsoft Teams Rooms from 1 to 5 and provide their comments in a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey delivered on Teams Rooms on Android devices. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early November 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024. General Availability (GCCH): We will begin rolling out early December 2024 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout: NPS surveys do not appear on Android devices. After this rollout Like Teams Rooms on Windows and other Teams platforms, NPS surveys will appear periodically after meetings end on Teams Rooms on Android devices. NPS surveys gauge the likelihood of users recommending Microsoft products and services to their peers, and the feedback gathered is used to improve Microsoft products and services. This feature will be on by default and available for admins to allow or prevent NPS surveys. If you do nothing, the surveys will be on by default. As an admin, you can prevent room accounts from getting NPS surveys with Microsoft PowerShell. Learn more at Manage feedback policies in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. After updating your Teams Rooms on Android devices to the latest app version through the Teams admin center, you may want to notify your users about this change and update your training and documentation as appropriate. MC903632 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android: 3x3 video gallery on dual displays Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415239 Updated January 13, 2025: 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 January 2025 (previously late December) 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. MC889534 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Embed support for Teams town hall Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 401120 Updated January 28, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. As a part of Team’s ongoing effort to enable our customers to create, manage, and run large scale events, end users can now embed Teams town hall in sites they manage. This capability allows town hall attendees to watch the event instance within a particular website. Embed for town hall introduces embeddable support for town hall engagement features on release. Attendees will have the same engagement feature access within the embed player as they do in client such as Q&A, Captions, Reactions and more. To implement embed for town hall, organizers can access their town hall events unique embed code from the town hall scheduling template upon publish. Organizers can then take that code and inject it to their SharePoint or Microsoft 365 site as desired. On event start, attendees will be able to view and engage with the embed stream on the published site. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early November 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by mid-November 2024 (previously mid-October). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early December 2024 (previously late October) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: Users will be able to copy embed code directly from town hall scheduling form on event publish. After the embeddable code is placed in the website, the town hall player will be accessible to attendees who have access to the URL. Note: Attendee access to the embedded video player is driven by the town hall event access. What you need to do to prepare: Organizers with SharePoint or Microsoft 365 site who want to utilize embed support for town hall can begin implementing the embeddable code upon release. MC884018 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Set sensitivity labels for town halls and webinar Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 409226 Updated January 21, 2025: 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 January (previously late December). 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: 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. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC884009 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Start/stop recording on Teams Rooms on Windows Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 412072 Updated January 28, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: Users can start or stop recording meetings directly from a Teams Rooms on Windows device. This feature requires a Teams Rooms Pro license and Teams Rooms on Windows app version 5.2. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by early February 2025 (previously late January). General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by mid-February 2024 (previously mid-January). General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-February (previously early January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: Before the rollout: When attending a meeting using a Teams Rooms on Windows device, if users want to record the meeting, they need to also join the meeting on a companion device to initiate the meeting recording. After the rollout Start/stop recording is supported in any meeting where a participant belongs to the same tenant as the organizer, including scheduled meetings, ad-hoc meetings, channel meetings (only for channel members), and Teams Cast sessions. Users can select Start recording or Stop recording from the More menu, shown here at the bottom of the screen: When users start recording 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 they can access the meeting chat on their Teams desktop or mobile app where the recording file will be available after the meeting. 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 recording meetings with the Teams meeting recording policy: Using the Teams admin center: Learn more at Manage Teams recording policies for meetings and events - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn. Using Microsoft PowerShell: Learn more at Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn. NOTE: Both the meeting organizer and the recording initiator (room account) need to have recording permissions to record the meeting, or the start/stop recording button will not be available. Also, if the meeting organizer uses Meeting options to remove permissions from the room account to record the meeting, the start/stop recording button will not be available as well. Start/stop recording is not supported in these scenarios: Teams calls including P2P, group, and PSTN calls External/cross-tenant Teams meetings and calls Third-party meetings and calls including Direct Guest Join and SIP NOTE: Avoid assigning Microsoft OneDrive for Business licenses to your room accounts to ensure that IT-managed room accounts do not become owners of the recording files. What you need to do to prepare: After your Teams Rooms devices are updated to the 5.2 app, configure the desired meeting recording policy, 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. MC866447 — (Updated) CAPTCHA Verification for Anonymous Meeting Participants Updated January 7, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Microsoft Teams tenants will soon be able to enable verification for anonymous meeting participants via CAPTCHA. This release of CAPTCHA Verification for Anonymous Meeting Participants will be rolling out across Microsoft Teams Desktop, Mobile and Web and will provide additional security against malicious bot and third-party app joins. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late October 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-December). How this will affect your organization: Tenants can enable anonymous meeting attendee verification via CAPTCHA in the Teams Admin Center. When enabled, any users that join the meeting as an anonymous user will be required to pass a CAPTCHA verification before landing in the meeting (including the meeting lobby, if enabled). What you need to do to prepare: This feature is off by default and Tenant Admins will need to enable CAPTCHA verification for their tenants through Meeting policies in the Teams Admin Center. MC818885 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Multiple camera view for Teams Rooms on Windows Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 402517 Updated January 15, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows will be soon able to send up to four single-stream USB camera feeds to render on the receiver side, so remote meeting participants can view all cameras simultaneously. This opt-in feature requires admins to first enable the multiple camera view and map cameras to the desired order that will be displayed on the receiver side. With multiple camera view enabled, remote meeting participants will be able to follow all the action in the room and manually switch to the desired room. This message applies to Teams for Desktop (Windows, Mac). When this will happen: Targeted release: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December). General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously late December). General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out in mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously early January). How this will affect your organization: Before the rollout Multiple camera views are not available in Teams Rooms on Windows. After the rollout A multiple camera view can create more visibility and coverage for large and complex spaces, such as multipurpose rooms, classrooms, and executive boardrooms. Admins can set up multiple camera views in two ways: Admins can configure settings on a local device by turning on the Multiple camera view toggle and using the dropdown menu to map the cameras. Admins can configure multiple camera view using Remote Accessin the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. After the feature is enabled, in-room participants can disable multiple camera view with the Camera chevron button on the meeting console. This action will return the device to a single camera view, and all receiver-side participants will see a single camera view. This in-room setting will only affect that meeting and the device will revert to the admin settings for the next meeting. Remote participants will see the multiple camera view by default. On the top right corner of the room's video tile, a remote participant can use the arrows to switch to the desired camera view. This toggle will only affect the remote participant's own view and will not affect other meeting participants. Admin setting to configure Multiple camera view on a local device: What you need to do to prepare: To prepare for the change, create a plan for the rooms that may require multiple cameras in consideration of the space, meeting scenario, and the desired experience for in-room and remote participants. Then, configure the multiple camera view on the local device or in the Teams Pro Management portal and notify your users about this new experience. You may want to update relevant training documentation. 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 January 13, 2025: 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 late December 2024. General availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 (previously mid-November) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously late December) 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 January 13, 2025: 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 January 2025 (previously late December) 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. MC781595 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Tenant-wide policy for permission to download meeting transcription Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 332800 Updated January 13, 2025: 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 complete by late January 2025 (previously late December). 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.) MC772556 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Shorter meeting URLs Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 381953 Updated January 10, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Please note that information about meeting link expiry changes related to this rollout has been added. We are reducing the length of Microsoft Teams meeting URLs for easier sharing. This rollout applies to all Microsoft Teams platforms (Teams for iOS, Android, Mac, Teams devices, desktop, and web). When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-April 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously late March). General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early June 2025 (previously mid-April) and expect to complete by late June 2025 (previously late April). How this will affect your organization: The new URL syntax is: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/<meeting_id>?p=<HashedPasscode> To make meeting URL shorter, we are removing several parameters such as tenant ID, conversation ID etc. This change serves two main goals: 1) improving usability of URL during sharing and 2) making the URL more secure and less susceptible to malicious attacks. Here are some details about how meeting links work and when they expire: In case the meeting organizer gets removed from the tenant, the links to the meetings scheduled by them automatically expire. Every meeting link expires in 60 days after the scheduled event or in 8 hours, if it was created as Meet Now. Learn more about expiration timelines for different types of meetings. With the Short Meeting URL release, expiration limit will be applied to all newly created links. Once the change to Short Meeting URL is released, all newly created meetings will expire as described in the documentation: 60 days after meeting ends for scheduled meetings and 8 hours after creation for Meet Now. Once this expiry period is over, in case someone clicks the link (e.g. outside of Teams app OR in the meeting details inside Teams calendar section), they will be unable to join the meeting. Note: Old links created before short meeting URL release will continue working as it previously was (user will be able to join even after the documented expiry limits). The reason why we are making this change is simple: security is our topmost priority. Maintaining a high security level is essential to protect sensitive data, prevent financial losses, ensure business continuity, and meet compliance and legal obligations. It is a critical aspect of modern digital life and business operations. This adjustment is designed to enhance the security of Teams meeting links, thereby better safeguarding the customer tenant. We want to be on par with modern security standards, that’s why the new behavior is a step in the right direction that we must take. It’s not possible to keep the current behavior. If you think it breaks some of your business processes, please leave comment to the MC post and describe your case there. Recommendations in case the meeting link has expired: For meeting organizer: We recommend scheduling a new meeting. If the meeting organizer got removed from the tenant someone else should reschedule their meetings from scratch. For participant: Please reach out to the meeting organizer and ask them to reschedule the meeting or send you an updated link. What you need to do to prepare: You may want to check if you have any integrations that use parameters from URL. After the rollout, the URL will only contain the meeting ID. Parameters such as tenant ID, organizer ID, conversation ID and message ID will not be in the URL. You may inform meeting organizers from your tenant who use expired meeting links, or you may want to make a tenant-wide announcement about this change. 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. MC750668 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Access Workflows from the three-dot menu on shared file Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 381643 Updated January 27, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon: Microsoft Teams will be bringing Workflows powered by Microsoft Power Automate to the three-dot menu for files shared in Teams chat or channels. 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). Worldwide: We will begin rolling out early November 2024 (previously late October) and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously early November). GCC: We will begin rolling out early December 2024 (previously late October) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: To make sure Microsoft Teams provides the best workflow experience for our users, we are making it easier to configure and run workflows for files. A user will be able to select the three-dot menu on files shared in Teams chat or channels, and then choose Workflows. From Workflows, the user will choose an instant workflow to run on a file. The user must set up the workflows in advance. A user can set up a new workflow for files by selecting See more workflows at the bottom of the three-dot menu. This launches the Workflows task module, where a user can choose a template to start setting up a new workflow. Examples of file workflows include Request approval for selected file, Get notified in Teams when a file is updated, Create a PDF copy of the file, and Add a task for this file. If the Power Automate app is disabled in the Teams admin center, users will not see this option in the three-dot menu. This feature will only be available in the New Teams client on the desktop and on the web. What you need to do to prepare: No action is needed from you to prepare for this rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change so they can find the new entry point for Workflows. MC726122 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: View, download, and delete Microsoft OneDrive transcript files Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 365720 Updated January 13, 2025: 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 January 2025 (previously late December) 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 January 21, 2025: 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 January 2025 (previously late December). 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 January 23, 2025: After further review, we will not be rolling this out to GCC. We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed. 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 not be proceeding with this change at this time. 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 January 13, 2025: 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 complete by late January 2025 (previously late December) 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. MC705760 — (Updated) Teams: Latest meeting experiences with performance improvements on web for Safari and Firefox (for guests) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 329253 Updated January 24, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. The latest Teams meeting experiences will be available for Teams on the web in Safari and Firefox browsers - including performance improvements, refreshed pre-join, updated meeting stage, and the updated meeting toolbar. (for anonymous join only) When this will happen: Worldwide: We will begin rolling out early September 2024 (previously mid-August) and expect to complete by early October 2024 (previously late August). GCC, GCC High and DoD: We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: We make constant steps to improve Teams performance irrespective of the platform – this time we are making the experience of Teams meetings on web (in Safari and Firefox browsers) better for anonymous users (guests). That’s crucial because it improves external collaboration. For example, if participants from your tenant would like to have meetings with non-Teams users (who are often joining as guests) it’ll become simpler as guests joining meeting from Safari/Firefox web browsers won’t have to wait significant amount of time for the meeting experience to load. You may also notice that currently meeting UI in Chrome and Safari/Firefox is different, but with this update it won’t be a case anymore and you’ll enjoy all the benefits of modern UI (such as meeting toolbar on top of the screen, etc). What you need to do to prepare: You may want to update your internal documentation to inform your users about this improvement. MC688109 — (Updated) Co-organizer experience updates in Teams Webinars and Townhalls Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 168524 Updated January 15, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Scheduling, setting up, and managing an event is not a simple task. Which is why we allow co-organizer to be added to the event so they can work alongside or on behalf of the organizer. So far co-organizers were able to set up event theming, manage registration, meeting options, view reports and more but were not able to edit event details like title, date/time, description, event group; nor publish or cancel event. Now they can! Co-organizer can edit event details, publish, and cancel the event like the organizer can. So once the co-organizer is added they will have full parity of experience as organizer and control/manage/edit event. When this will happen: Targeted release: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by mid-January 2024 (previously mid-December). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously early January). How this will affect your organization: When co-organizer opens the event scheduling page, they should have the ability to edit the details page, publish, and cancel the event. What you need to do to prepare: Nothing required to prepare. Microsoft Purview MC989980 — Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: Public preview of policy deletion enhancement (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 171601 Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management will be rolling out a policy deletion enhancement. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-February-2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, admins with appropriate permissions will be able to delete all associated alerts and users in scope when deleting a policy, to help quickly reset and remove inactive policies. Cases will not be impacted. This change will be available by default. What you need to do to prepare: No action is needed to enable these features. 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. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy. You can access the Insider Risk Management solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. Learn more: Create and manage insider risk management policies | Microsoft Learn MC986518 — Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: Updates to email scoring (GCC, GCC High, DoD) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 471010 Coming soon: Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management (IRM) will be rolling out updates to email scoring. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025. How this will affect your organization: Insider Risk Management email scoring logic is being updated. With current logic, a single email to multiple recipients is counted multiple times, and this is creating noise by increasing the risk score. In the new logic, a single email to multiple recipients is counted once, and this new principle is applicable to the email containing multiple unallowed domains or priority content. After this rollout, all email insights in Alerts will display the new count and score. 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 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. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy. You can access the Insider Risk Management solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. Learn more: Configure policy indicators in insider risk management | Microsoft Learn MC985476 — Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: Share user risk details with other security solutions (GCC, GCC High, DoD) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 475857 Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management is introducing the ability to share Insider Risk Management data with other Microsoft services for Government customers. When turned on, admins with the correct permissions will be able to review user risk details and alerts from Insider Risk Management in other solutions such as Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Microsoft Purview | Communication Compliance, and Microsoft Defender. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025. How this will affect your organization: Admin can access the toggle in Microsoft Purview > Insider Risk Management settings > Share user risk details with other security solutions: 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 the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation. Consider assessing your organization’s needs and decide if your organization will benefit from reviewing Insider Risk Management alerts through other solutions. Learn more: Share insider risk management data with other solutions | Microsoft Learn MC973511 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Data Lifecycle Management: Separate retention policies for Copilot and AI apps Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470025 Updated January 10, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. This new feature provides the capability for admins to configure separate retention policies for various Microsoft 365 Copilot and AI apps. As a result, admins will have the option to configure policies that can delete Copilot and Generative AI interactions faster. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously mid-February). How this will affect your organization: Organizations will now have controls to configure different retention policies for Microsoft Teams Chat, Copilot, Copilot studio, and ChatGPT Enterprise. This feature is available by default. What you need to do to prepare: For more information, see Create and configure a retention policy. 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. MC969449 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention for endpoints: Four new conditions (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 374811 Updated January 16, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. 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 mid-January 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-January). 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 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention for endpoints: New "Document property" condition (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 417482 Updated January 16, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. 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 mid-January 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-January). 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 Updated January 23, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. 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 late June 2025 (previously early May) and expect to complete by mid-July 2025 (previously mid-May). 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. 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 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Data Security Posture Management for AI Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469509 Updated January 24, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 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: We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January). How this will affect your organization: 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. 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: 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. Get ready for this change by reviewing the admin documentation: Considerations for Data Security Posture Management for AI & data security and compliance protections for Copilot Microsoft Purview data security and compliance protections for generative AI apps MC949003 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention: Gain policy insights with Microsoft 365 Copilot for Security Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 466740 Updated January 17, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. As part of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Security in Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Policy Insights helps admins understand DLP policies and its constructs. This enhancement enables DLP admins to gain insights on coverage of policies on pivots like location, classifiers, and notifications. DLP admins can get these insights on all the policies or on a few selected policies. They will be able to use prompts to gain a deeper level view of how a policy is configured for their digital landscape. This helps them align their data posture on a regular basis and make corrections to policy posture as needed. When this will happen: Public Preview: We will began rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by early December 2024. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January). Currently, Copilot for Security is not designed for use by customers using US government clouds, including but not limited to GCC, GCC High, DoD, and Microsoft Azure Government. For more information, consult with your Microsoft representative. How this will affect your organization: Administrators can invoke the policy insights to understand the insights from all their policies or selected polices. The insights offered start with a higher-level view of how their policies: are effective across locations. detect the presence of sensitive information types throughout their digital estate. notify administrators of violations. educate users while they perform activities they should not. These insights are offered with different pivots by location, classification, and by administrative scopes. This is offered to give the security policy administrators different views for deeper understanding of policy constructs and their impact. Step 1: Select the policies you wish to get insights/quick summaries about. Step 2: Click on the Get Insights with Copilot button. You will see the prompt is already pushed into the Copilot Experience in the side panel. Step 3: Copilot responds with insights on the selected policies. What you need to do to prepare: Admins can prepare by having Security Computer Units (SCUs). Copilot for Security is sold in a provisioned capacity model and is billed by the hour. Get more information about SCUs: Get started with Microsoft Copilot for Security | Microsoft Learn. MC920308 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Information Protection: Auto-labeling policies will support "Fingerprint based SIT" Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 396173 Updated January 24, 2025: We have updated the content. 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 early February 2025 (previously mid-January). 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 About document fingerprinting | Microsoft Learn Automatically apply a sensitivity label in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn MC911618 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: Multi-policy settings in Adaptive Protection Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 171735 Updated January 24, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Protection is a feature in Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management that allows organizations to identify risky users and create dynamic policies in Data Loss Prevention, Conditional Access, and Data Lifecycle Management. After this rollout, admins will be able to select multiple Insider Risk Management policies in the Risk levels for Adaptive Protection settings. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by mid-March 2025 (previously mid-February). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, admins can select single Insider Risk Managment policies in the Risk levels for Adaptive Protection settings. This new feature will be on by default and available for admins to configure. What you need to do to prepare: No action is required for this update. To configure user risk level for Adaptive Protection, admins can go to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal > Insider Risk Management > Adaptive Protection (preview) > Risk levels for Adaptive Protection Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy. Learn more: Help dynamically mitigate risks with Adaptive Protection (preview) | Microsoft Learn MC892050 — Microsoft Purview | Compliance Portal: Enrich triage in Communication Compliance within Insider Risk Management context Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415170 Updated January 16, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. This feature update to Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance (CC) introduces a pivotal enhancement that integrates Insider Risk Management (IRM) alerts within CC triage flow, providing a holistic approach to compliance risk assessment. This integration empowers investigators with enriched insights by correlating communication alerts with a user's risk profile and activity history from IRM directly in the CC triage flow. This synergy between IRM and CC facilitates a more nuanced and informed decision-making process during investigations. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously late February). How this will affect your organization: The integration of IRM context into CC is a significant stride towards enhancing the efficacy of compliance investigations. This will allow investigators to view a user's risk profile and history alongside communication alerts, enabling a more informed and efficient triage process. The insider risk severity (Low, Medium, or High) determined by activity detected in IRM policies helps admins prioritize and respond to user activity accordingly. A new user activity timeline will show messages and activities from IRM in one screen, simplifying the review process. What you need to do to prepare: To use this feature, please connect with an IRM administrator to enable data sharing from IRM settings. If you don't turn this setting on, you will see “Insider risk activity not available.” MC808165 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview eDiscovery | Modernized eDiscovery in new Microsoft Purview portal Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 383744 Updated January 9, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. 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): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by early mid-February 2025. GCC: We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025 GCC-High: We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025 DoD: We will begin rolling out late March 2025and expect to complete by late March 2025. 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 MC805721 — (Updated) Purview | Insider Risk Management: Adaptive Protection is generally available in GCC, GCCH, and DoD Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 335856 Updated January 24, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon: Adaptive Protection integrates the breadth of intelligence in Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management with the depth of protection in Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention, to continuously and automatically fine-tune policies and protect data where and when it matters the most. The capability is built into the Microsoft platform with no endpoint agents required so organizations can get started using this as soon as it rolls out. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously mid-February). How this will affect your organization: Before the rollout: Admin are not able to configure custom definitions for insider risk levels in Insider risk managements or use insider risk levels as conditions in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to apply dynamic controls to risky users. After the rollout: Adaptive Protection is a capability of Microsoft Purview that enables organizations to dynamically optimize the balance between data protection and productivity. By leveraging the machine learning-driven analysis in Insider Risk Management, Adaptive Protection detects potentially risky user actions that may result in a data security incident and automatically adds the user to a stricter Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy. The protection policies are adaptive based on user context, ensuring low-risk users can maintain productivity and high-risk users have appropriate protection in place. What you need to do to prepare: To begin using this capability, configure risk levels for Adaptive Protection in Insider Risk Management and add a new condition for risk levels for Adaptive Protection in new or existing DLP policies for Exchange, Teams, or Devices. You can also set up Adaptive Protection using the one-click activation option from the home page of Microsoft Purview compliance portal. With one click, Adaptive Protection will create an Insider Risk Management policy based on aggregated risk insights of anonymized user activities in your organization, set your risk levels for Adaptive Protection, and create a DLP policy in test mode. The default state of this feature is off. Get started with Adaptive Protection in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal > Insider risk management > Adaptive Protection: References Learn about adaptive protection Learn about insider risk management Learn about data loss prevention Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies to manage security and compliance. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy. 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. MC795079 — Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management - Adaptive Protection - HR resignation date as a condition for risk level Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 124972 and 171748 Updated January 7, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Microsoft Purview: The feature to configure HR resignation date as a condition for risk level in Adaptive Protection will be rolling out to General Availability. We communicated the preview for this feature in MC681240 Adaptive Protection in Microsoft Purview: Public preview of HR resignation date as a condition for risk level (November 2023). When this will happen: General Availability: We will begin rolling out late June 2024 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously late mid-December). How this will affect your organization: When the HR connector has been configured, admins with appropriate permissions can now select the HR resignation date as a condition to assign a minor, moderate, or elevated risk level. For example, an admin can configure the elevated risk level to be assigned when an HR resignation date is sent via the HR connector. What you need to do to prepare: No action is required for this update. To configure user’s risk level for Adaptive Protection, admins can visit Insider Risk Management > Adaptive Protection (preview) > risk levels for Adaptive Protection. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy. Additional Resources: You can access the Insider Risk Management solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. Home - Microsoft Purview Learn more about adaptive risk mitigation: Help dynamically mitigate risks with Adaptive Protection (preview) | Microsoft Learn MC791110 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Data Lifecycle Management: New integration with Adaptive protection Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 392839 Updated January 9, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon for Microsoft Purview: We are announcing the public preview of the integration of Adaptive protection with Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) to help you find the right balance to protect against data sabotage while enabling productivity. This new integration leverages DLM features to provide an additional control for Adaptive protection that automatically preserves items deleted by a user with an elevated risk level, so items can be restored if needed. When this will happen: Public preview: We will begin rolling out in late June 2024 (previously early May) and expect to complete by late July 2024 (previously mid-July). General Availability: We will begin rolling out in mid-March 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late February). How this will affect your organization: After the rollout, and after you enable Adaptive protection for your tenant, the retention label and auto-apply policy for data lifecycle management will be automatically created for you. This policy will automatically include elevated risk users identified by Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management solution. If these users delete content from Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft OneDrive, or Microsoft Exchange, a retention label is automatically applied to that content to retain it for 120 days. Retention labels are automatically applied to unlabeled content deleted by these users. When these users are no longer at the elevated risk level, they are automatically removed from the DLM policy, and the system will no longer keep a copy of content they delete. Any content copies previously retained when the user had an elevated risk level will be kept for the 120 days as specified by the retention label. Unlike other retention labeling scenarios, users do not see the retention label, and you do not need to create or manage the retention label or policy. At this time, you can't change the retention period or assign different policies based on the different risk levels, or for different locations. The single retention label and auto-labeling policy for your tenant is not visible in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. What you need to do to prepare: Learn more: Learn about retention policies & labels to retain or delete | Microsoft Learn If you're using Adaptive protection and want to automatically retain content deleted by elevated risk users, follow these steps to turn on this new integration. Sign in to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. Navigate to Data lifecycle management > Microsoft 365 > Adaptive protection settingsin the top right corner. Turn the setting ON and select Save. If you’re not using Adaptive protection already, turn on Adaptive protection and the new feature will be enabled along with Adaptive protection. 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 as appropriate. MC678065 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Information Protection - New cmdlet for Content Explorer Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 117531 Updated January 9, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. The Content explorer Export feature has a limitation of exporting data only after drill down to specific location. This feature is now available in Public Preview and allows admins to use a new cmdlet within the Security & Compliance PowerShell, Export-ContentExplorerData, to export all rows of data for the content that are scanned and shown on the Content Explorer. When this will happen: This feature will begin rolling out early July 2025 (previously mid-April) and expect to complete by late July 2025 (previously mid-May). How this will affect your organization: This feature can be accessed through the Security & Compliance PowerShell, Export-ContentExplorerData. What you need to do to prepare: There are no additional settings needed for this feature. Get started with content explorer | Microsoft Learn Outlook MC993229 — New Microsoft Outlook for Windows and web: New folder color feature Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 472921 Coming soon to new Microsoft Outlook for Windows desktop and Microsoft Outlook for the web: Users can customize folder icon colors, making it easier to visually differentiate and personalize folders. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late April 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, this feature will be available for all Outlook accounts except for shared mailboxes and shared folders. Colors work for light and dark mode. Note: Some Outlook themes will have low contrast with some folder colors. To change the color of a folder, a user can hover over the folder name, select the three-dot menu, select Change color and then choose a color. To turn off the color, follow the same process, and select Automatic. The folder color will display in the list of folders and in Favorites if the colored folder is added to Favorites. 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. #newoutlookforwindows MC981624 — Microsoft Outlook name change: "Outlook (new)" on Windows will change to "Outlook" Coming soon: The installed name for new Microsoft Outlook for Windows will change from "Outlook (new)" to "Outlook." This rollout comes after a change to the classic Outlook in version 2407, previously announced in MC803006 (Update) Outlook for Windows display name change (published June 2024, updated August 2024), which added "(classic)" to the installed name to differentiate the two apps. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025. What you need to do to prepare: Outlook in the Windows Start menu. Left: Before the name change. Right: After the name change: This change will be on by default. This part of the app identity is not customizable for organizations. As always, we recommend planning your organization's migration to the new Outlook using the resources at https://aka.ms/newOutlookAdoption 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. #newoutlookforwindows MC974362 — (Updated) Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions encryption support in new Outlook for Windows Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 397891 Updated January 21, 2025: After further review, we will not be rolling this out to 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. We are rolling out fundamental Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) support for primary accounts in new Outlook. With this new feature, new Outlook will start supporting sending and reading signed and encrypted emails. In new Microsoft Outlook, this option is available in Options > More Options. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide): We began rolling out mid-December 2024 and expect to complete by late January 2025. General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025. General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed. How this will affect your organization: If your organization is not using New Outlook this will not impact you. If your organization does not have S/MIME setup for your users, this will not impact you. If your organization is currently using S/MIME, you will soon see controls to apply S/MIME encryption when signing into new Outlook. Similarly, you will be able to verify, sign, decrypt, and reply to S/MIME emails. 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. Users with S/MIME certificates on their machine or Smart Card will be able to use this new feature in new Outlook. Learn more: Overview of the new Outlook for Windows MC960818 — (Updated) Microsoft Outlook for iOS/Android: New reporting buttons integrated with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 371383 Updated January 29, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 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: 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. 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) MC947045 — (Updated) Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android: Attach emails while composing an email Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 464206 Updated January 16, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon for Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android users: In response to customer requests, we are rolling out the ability to attach emails directly in the compose window. This enhancement allows users to include individual emails as attachments in new messages, facilitating seamless sharing and providing more context for recipients. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by late February 2025. How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, users can forward emails as attachments but cannot attach emails while composing. After this rollout, users will notice a new Attach email option when they select the paper clip attachment icon in the compose window. Users can select this option to browse for, choose, and attach individual emails to their new message. This change is available by default. What you need to do to prepare: This change will happen automatically by the specified date. No admin action is required. Please notify your users about this change, update relevant documentation. MC882252 — (Updated) New Microsoft Outlook for Windows: Sharing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint local files through email Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 397094 Updated January 23, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to new Microsoft Outlook: Users will be able to share Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint files stored on their device (not stored in a cloud like Microsoft OneDrive) from new Outlook for Windows. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early October 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by late August 2025 (previously late December). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, users are only able to see old Outlook for Windows when they try to share a Word, Excel or PowerPoint fie. After this rollout, when users want to share a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file that is saved to their device (not stored in a cloud like Microsoft OneDrive), the user can right-click the file name in File Explorer, select Share, and select new Outlook for Windows to email the file. This option 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. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation. MC847877 — (Updated) Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android: Choose fonts while composing Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 409969 Updated January 9, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon for Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android: We will add support for choosing fonts while composing emails. We will also improve support for fonts while reading emails. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 (previously mid-October) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously early December). How this will affect your organization: When this update rolls out, users will be able to select fonts to use in emails, signatures, automatic replies, and calendar invitations. What you need to do to prepare: You might want to notify your users about this new capability and update your training and documentation as appropriate. MC799635 — (Updated) Microsoft Outlook: Add shared folders to Favorites Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 388913 Updated January 16, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon for new Microsoft Outlook for Windows and Outlook for web: Users will be able to add shared folders to their Favorites list in the top left corner of the screen. This message does not apply to Outlook for Mac or Outlook for mobile devices. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously early February). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by early April 2025 (previously early March). How this will affect your organization: This new functionality will enable users to add shared folders and individual folders from shared mailboxes to their Favorites. This means that users can easily access important folders from shared resources or individual colleagues, directly from their Favorites. Users can share calendars, or folders that contain mail, contacts, tasks, or notes. 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 as appropriate. Learn more: Open and use a shared mailbox in Outlook - Microsoft Support Exchange Online MC982553 — Microsoft Exchange Online: Search-MailboxAuditLog and New-MailboxAuditLogSearch will retire We will retire the Search-MailboxAuditLog and New-MailboxAuditLogSearch cmdlets in Microsoft Exchange Online starting March 1, 2025, and completing in late March 2025. After the retirement, new records will be written to Search-UnifiedAuditLog and Search-MailboxAuditLog will be accessible only as a historical record. How this will affect your organization: After the retirement, admins will be able to access Search-MailboxAuditLog and New-MailboxAuditlogSearch and make changes and downloads until late June 2025. After late June, Search-MailboxAuditLog and New-MailboxAuditlogSearch will become a static record only, and admins will no longer be able to make changes and downloads. What you need to do to prepare: This change will happen automatically by the specified dates. Please notify your users about this change, update your relevant documentation, and share the alternate capability Search-UnifiedAuditLog. To use the Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet, you must ensure auditing is enabled for your tenant. Learn more about enabling auditing for your tenant and about the changes to these cmdlets: Microsoft Exchange Online: Search-MailboxAuditLog and New-MailboxAuditLogSearch will retire | Microsoft Community Hub MC902782 — (Updated) Exchange Online token deprecation plan Updated February 3, 2025: We have updated the content. This is a reminder that starting February 17th, legacy Exchange Online user identity and callback tokens will be turned off across all Microsoft 365 tenants. This impacts all Outlook add-ins that request a legacy Exchange Online token to identify the user or make Exchange web services (EWS) calls. This change only applies to Exchange Online and doesn’t apply to Exchange on-premises. Recommended actions Identify any add-ins that are impacted.Determine if your tenant has any deployed Outlook add-ins that are impacted by this change. For more information, see Which add-ins in my Organization are impacted. Contact add-in publishers.Microsoft has worked with many Outlook add-in publishers to update their add-ins to use Entra ID tokens and Microsoft Graph. If you identify any impacted add-ins on your tenant, we recommend that you reach out to the publishers of those add-ins to learn more about their plans to update. Can I opt out of this change? You can opt out of the February 17th change if all the following are true. Your tenant has add-ins impacted by this change. The impacted add-ins will not be updated to no longer use legacy Exchange Online tokens by February 17th. The add-ins are necessary for your organization. To opt out, run a command to set legacy Exchange Online tokens to remain on. It takes up to 24 hours for the command to take effect. If you turn tokens on before February 17th, your tenant will be exempt from the February 17th change. Tokens will remain on until June 2025 or until you explicitly turn them off. What happens on February 17th? Microsoft will begin deploying a change to all users worldwide in Microsoft 365 tenants that will turn off the issuance of legacy Exchange online tokens. The deployment will take several weeks to deploy to all users. If an Outlook add-in requests a legacy Exchange token, and token issuance is turned off, the add-in will receive an error. Outlook add-ins that still request legacy Exchange Online tokens will be broken by this change. Please note that even after legacy tokens are turned off, already issued legacy tokens will continue to be valid for approximately 24 hours. Note that since the change is applied per user, and deployed over several weeks, you could see some user’s affected while others are not. Where do I get more information? The Outlook legacy tokens deprecation FAQ is updated regularly and contains information about tools and how to upgrade add-ins. We recommend you refer to the Q&A section for Microsoft 365 administrators. We also recommend you share the FAQ with any developers in your organization that need to update LOB Outlook add-ins using legacy Exchange Online tokens. Additional resources Turn legacy Exchange Online tokens on or off Legacy Exchange Online token deprecation FAQ Enable single sign-on in an Office Add-in with nested app authentication NAA Outlook sample MC886603 — (Updated) Reject multiple From addresses (P2 From headers) without a Sender header Updated January 31, 2025: We are proactively opting tenants out of the rollout that were detected as sending high volumes of emails exhibiting multiple From addresses without a Sender address header. These exempted senders will only be able to send emails exhibiting multiple From addresses without a Sender address header to recipients belonging to the same tenant as the sender. We will provide a subsequent update by the end of February with an updated timeline for tenants that are opted out. Starting February 3 (previously December 1), we're going to start gradually dropping messages that have multiple From addresses (also known as P2 From headers) without a Sender header from being processed via Exchange Online. If we see significant traffic exhibiting multiple From addresses (P2 From headers) without a Sender header in your tenant in the month of September, we will send you a Message Center Post by October 15th alerting you and providing some sample message IDs. We are doing this to comply with RFC 5322 (https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5322#section-3.6.2) which mandates the Sender header to be present and contain a single address if the From header has more than one address. Noncompliance with this could be exploited by attackers, allowing them to impersonate a sender address by misleading the client into using the From header to determine the sender instead of the Sender header. When this will happen: February 3, 2025 (previously December 1st) We are delaying the rollout start date from December to February 3rd 2025 in order to provide more time to customers for investigating messages exhibiting multiple P2 From Addresses without a Sender Address. Most of the traffic exhibiting multiple P2 From Addresses without a Sender Address will be inbound spam destined for your tenant sent by malicious spammers on the internet. Some customers are sending legitimate emails with this malformed header configuration. On October 15, we sent a targeted MC post to customers showing high volumes of messages exhibiting multiple P2 From Addresses without a Sender Address as they may be impacted by this change. For investigating if you will be impacted by this change, focus your investigation on messages sent using On Premises Inbound Connectors to Exchange Online. Authenticated mail submission is not impacted because submitting messages like this using those submissions are not allowed (Graph, Outlook clients, SMTP AUTH Client Submission). How this affects your organization: If email clients including devices and applications that you use to send messages, do so using multiple From addresses but without a Sender address header after December 1st, you will get an NDR error code 550 5.1.20 “Multiple From addresses are not allowed without Sender address’”. What you can do to prepare: When this change is in effect, if you need to send a message that has more than one email address in the From field, make sure that you have a single email address in the Sender header. If you expect this change to cause any issues for your organization, please share that feedback. Microsoft 365 MC986516 — Microsoft Forms | Data sync to Microsoft Excel: migrating from the older solution to the new solution We will be retiring the old data sync feature from Microsoft Forms in GCC. Instead, we recommend new live data sync to Excel solution. Note: You may have received MC943681 (November '24) if we had identified that your tenant utilized legacy data sync between August '24 and October '24. When this will happen: We will begin rolling out the change on February 13, 2025, and expect to complete by February 27, 2025. How this will affect your organization: Users who rely on the older version to sync data from Forms to Excel will need to manually update the data sync to the new solution. After the old data sync solution has been deprecated, existing Excel workbooks using the old data sync solution will no longer receive new responses. Users can still migrate these existing Excel workbooks to the new data sync solution to receive new responses when needed. For each form using the old syncing solution, users can migrate the form according to the instructions provided in Forms and Excel for the web. 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 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 Note: The older version of the data sync exists in group forms created with Microsoft 365 Groups. The new data sync can only be triggered in Excel for the web. If users want to receive new Forms response data in the Excel desktop app, open the file in Excel for the web, and then wait for the desktop app file to sync from the web file. (Support for other versions of Excel is in progress.) The new data sync solution will be on by default and available to all Forms and Excel for the web customers. What you need to do to prepare: Share the migration solution if users report they cannot get Forms data updated in Excel. Learn more: Introducing Forms data sync to Excel - Microsoft Community Hub 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. MC980798 — Microsoft Excel: Python in Excel will be generally available in Excel for Windows (GCC) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 475046 Python in Excel allows you to bring the capabilities of Python directly into the Microsoft Excel grid. With this rollout, Python in Excel with standard compute will be generally available in Excel for Windows. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out to Excel for Windows mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025. After we complete the rollout to Excel for Windows, we will send a separate message with the timeline for rolling out this change to Microsoft Excel for the web and Microsoft Excel for Mac. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, eligible users will be able to add Python formulas to their workbooks without any installation required. These Python formulas will be run by Excel in a secure container on the Microsoft Cloud with enterprise-level security and with standard compute. With this release, eligible Excel users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license will also be able to use the Copilot in Excel with Python feature, enabling them to leverage the capabilities of AI and Python in Excel for deeper data analysis. Note: Some premium Python compute will be included with each user’s Microsoft 365 subscription each month, giving them limited access to faster calculation speeds. After they have used all of their premium compute, they can continue to use the Python in Excel feature with standard Python compute. To get more premium compute, admins will be able to purchase the Python in Excel add-on license for their users after it becomes available later this year for GCC. We will send a separate message with the timeline for the rollout of the Python in Excel add-on license. An example of a Python formula in an Excel workbook: The Python in Excel feature will be enabled by default. What you need to do to prepare: To learn more about Python in Excel, please review the Python in Excel documentation. To learn more about data security: Data security and Python in Excel - Microsoft Support 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 relevant documentation. MC833890 — (Updated) Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint: Protect sensitive files with dynamic watermarking Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 400717 Updated January 24, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. 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 February 2025 (previously late January). 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: 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. Learn more Apply encryption using sensitivity labels | Microsoft Learn (Preview) Dynamic watermarking for sensitivity labels in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - Microsoft Community Hub Documentation - Office 365 IP Address and URL web service January 30. 2025 - GCC January 30. 2025 - GCC High January 30. 2025 - DODUnderstanding Compliance Between Commercial, Government, DoD & Secret Offerings - Feb 2025 Update
Understanding compliance between Commercial, Government, DoD & Secret Offerings: There remains much confusion as to what service supports what standards best. If you have CMMC, DFARS, ITAR, FedRAMP, CJIS, IRS and other regulatory requirements and you are trying to understand what service is the best fit for your organization then you should read this article.Understanding Compliance Between Commercial, Government and DoD Offerings - September 2023 Update
Understanding compliance between Commercial, Government and DoD offerings: There remains much confusion as to what service supports what standards best. If you have DFARS, ITAR, FedRAMP, CJIS, IRS and other regulatory requirements and you are trying to understand what service is the best fit for your organization then you should read this article.GCC/GCCH Teams Phone Summit - Feb 25-26 Arlington, VA - REGISTRATION OPEN!
Registration is now open for the GCC/GCCH Teams Phone Summit in Arlington, VA, Feb 25-26. Click here to register: https://msevents.microsoft.com/event?id=3586839266 We look forward to hosting you at the GCC/GCCH Teams Phone Summit on Tuesday, Feb 25 and Wednesday, Feb 26, in Arlington VA! The This is your opportunity to explore current and coming capabilities to your government environments! You’ll be surrounded by the experts to get answers and receive the tools and resources to navigate your unique voice journey. Day 1 - Tuesday, Feb. 25 - 8:30am-4:30pm Welcome from Javier Vasquez, VP, Microsoft Federal Teams Phone and Device Overview - latest and greatest and coming capabilities Call Records Insights Admin Tips and Tricks Fireside Chat highlighting 3 government agency's journeys to Teams Phone Partner Corner: Momentum Telecom (Lunch Sponsor), CIS Secure (Breakfast Sponsor), Audiocodes, SOFTEL, and Poly Day 2 - Wednesday, Feb. 26 - 9:30am-3:00pm 1:1 time with Dave Jennings - only 3 slots left (11am-12pm, 12-1pm, and 1-2pm EDT) - sign up here: Book Time with Dave! Topical breakout sessions with GCC/GCCH engineering experts (each one delivered three times during the day): Unlocking Insights: Mastering Teams Phone Monitoring and Reporting Teams Fortress: Ensuring Security & Compliance Microsoft Teams Advanced Calling and Beyond MS Teams Phone and the Future of Copilot/AI Lunch coupons to local establishment(s) to be provided Reach out to Danny McBride at dannymcbride@microsoft.com with any questions.Microsoft Product Placemat for CMMC - October 2024 Update
This Microsoft Tech Community Public Sector Blog post is an update of the Microsoft Product Placemat for CMMC assisting the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) for compliance with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).January 2025 - Microsoft 365 US Public Sector Roadmap Newsletter
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 Office 365 Platform (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Office 365 U.S. Government GCC High endpoints Office 365 U.S. Government DoD endpoints Microsoft Purview (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Enterprise Mobility & Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft Defender for Identity Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Azure Information Protection Premium Exchange Online (GCC, GCCH, DoD) SharePoint (GCC, GCCH, DoD) OneDrive (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Teams (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Office 365 Government (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Power Apps (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Power Automate US Government (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Power BI (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Planner (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Outlook Mobile (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Viva Insights (GCC) Dynamics 365 US Government 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: 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. 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: 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. 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: 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. 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: 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. 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: 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. 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: 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. 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: Set-CsTeamsAIPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn Get-CsTeamsAIPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn 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: 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. 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: 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. 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: 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. 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. 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 (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: 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. 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 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. 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: 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. Get ready for this change by reviewing the admin documentation: Considerations for Data Security Posture Management for AI & data security and compliance protections for Copilot Microsoft Purview data security and compliance protections for generative AI apps 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 About document fingerprinting | Microsoft Learn Automatically apply a sensitivity label in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn 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: 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. Learn more Apply encryption using sensitivity labels | Microsoft Learn (Preview) Dynamic watermarking for sensitivity labels in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - Microsoft Community Hub 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 https://purview.microsoft.com/compliance Investigate DLP alerts in the Microsoft Defender portal Permissions in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal 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. Release of Keyword Highlighting for Train & new Business Context Classifier (microsoft.com) Trainable classifiers definitions Increase Classifier Accuracy | Microsoft Learn 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: 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. 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: 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. 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: 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. 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: 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 as appropriate. #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. 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. ________________________________________ 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: 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. Documentation - Office 365 IP Address and URL web service October 31, 2024 - GCC September 30, 2024 - GCC High September 30, 2024 - DODDecember 2024 - Microsoft 365 US Public Sector Roadmap Newsletter
Teams Updates to macOS keyboard shortcuts to align with the macOS HIG policy Chat for organizers and presenters in town hall - GCC Identity New Trust Store for Certificate Based Authentication is coming soon Purview Teams supports label inheritance from shared files to Teams meeting Microsoft 365 Microsoft 365 Apps, Office on-premises and Windows Server 2025 Microsoft Ignite session: AI for the Public Sector with Microsoft 365 Copilot GCC available Nov 19 In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the public sector stands at the forefront of innovation, driven by the transformative power of AI. Microsoft 365 Copilot GCC (Government Community Cloud) is set to revolutionize how public sector organizations operate, offering new capabilities that will enhance human capabilities, streamline workflows, and support compliance with stringent security standards. 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. What’s New in Microsoft Teams | October 2024 Teams webinars is now available in the Government Community Cloud High (GCCH) environment, providing a secure and compliant platform for hosting large-scale virtual events. Microsoft 365 Government Community Call Watch past episodes of Jay Leask and other members of the Government Community on LinkedIn! 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 Office 365 Platform (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Office 365 U.S. Government GCC High endpoints Office 365 U.S. Government DoD endpoints Microsoft Purview (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Enterprise Mobility & Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Microsoft Defender for Identity Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Azure Information Protection Premium Exchange Online (GCC, GCCH, DoD) SharePoint (GCC, GCCH, DoD) OneDrive (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Teams (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Office 365 Government (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Power Apps (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Power Automate US Government (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Power BI (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Planner (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Outlook Mobile (GCC, GCCH, DoD) Viva Insights (GCC) Dynamics 365 US Government 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 SharePoint Online / OneDrive for Business MC906496 — (Updated) Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft SharePoint: New setting to disable presence in the file viewer Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 419814 Updated November 8, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Administrators can now use the Microsoft SharePoint Online Management Shell to disable the user presence feature in the Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint file viewer on a per-site collection basis. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late October 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024 (previously late November). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout: When previewing a file in the OneDrive and SharePoint file viewer, users can see the presence of other users who have the file open. This behavior will not change by default. After this rollout, if desired, SharePoint admins can use the SharePoint Online Management Shell to disable the presence feature for a given site collection. This can be done by updating to the latest version of the SharePoint Online Management Shell and running Set-SPOSite -HidePeoplePreviewingFiles $true along with a list of valid site identifiers. Learn more: Set-SPOSite (Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell) | Microsoft Learn. By default, this feature is 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 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 if you choose to enable this feature. MC947052 — Microsoft SharePoint: Filter search results by "Messages" The same Messages search vertical at microsoft365.com will soon be available for organization-wide search in Microsoft SharePoint. Search verticals are tabs on the search result page that show results of a specific type or from select sources. For example, the Files vertical shows results classified as files and makes it easy for users who are looking to find documents. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, 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: This feature will be on by default. If you have disabled the Messages search vertical for microsoft365.com, the Messages search vertical will also be disabled in SharePoint. Learn more: Manage search verticals | Microsoft Learn Before this rollout: Default vertical experience without the Messages vertical: After this rollout: New default vertical experience with the Messages vertical: 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 users about this change and update any relevant documentation. 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 November 19, 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: We will begin rolling out early December 2024 (previously early November) and expect to complete by late January 2024 (previously late November). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 (early December) 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. MC891238 — (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Teams: Update on new Microsoft Lists rollout Updated November 6, 2024: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to Microsoft SharePoint and Lists in Microsoft Teams: An updated Microsoft Lists. This rollout introduces new features to users, including the ability to add ratings to any list, drag and/or paste images directly into a list, see who is collaborating with you in real time, switch views by clicking tabs, and more. This is an update to MC600726: (Updated) Microsoft Lists User Experience Update (updated October 2023) and MC709979 (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint: Updated Lists in Team Sites, Lists progressive web app (PWA), and Teams (January 2024). When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late September 2024 and expect to complete by mid-November 2024 (previously late October). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, Lists do not have features like visible real time collaborators, easy access to views via tabs, and applied filters at the top of a list. Note: Some features described in the May 2023 blog Microsoft Lists: Easier, Better, Faster, Stronger - Microsoft Community Hub, such as new forms to collect information easily, have started to roll out or have fully rolled out. After this rollout, users in active tenants will see the remaining Lists feature updates described in the May 2023 blog when browsing lists on SharePoint sites, the Lists progressive web app (PWA), the Lists app on the web, and the Lists app in Teams. All Lists in SharePoint sites will retain the SharePoint site's theme and navigation. Existing lists configured with these features will be updated after this rollout: SharePoint Framework (SPFx) command extensions Power Apps forms Approvals Note: Extensions that depend directly on DOM (Document Object Model) structure or CSS (cascading style sheets) are not supported and may break. We recommend using Microsoft SharePoint Framework, which provides a rich API to customize the SharePoint experience. These Lists components are not included in the new rollout: SharePoint Framework (SPFx) field customizers The Playlist template integrated with Microsoft Stream All new and updated List features are on by default. 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 as appropriate. Learn more Microsoft Lists: Easier, Better, Faster, Stronger - Microsoft Community Hub(May 2023) Introducing Drag and Drop to Reorder Items in Microsoft Lists - Microsoft Community Hub(August 2024) Collect information like a pro New Microsoft Lists forms experience in Microsoft 365(March 2024) Microsoft Viva MC947830 — Microsoft Viva: Updates to the admin experience 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 early December 2024 and expect to complete by late December 2024. 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) Updated Viva admin landing page: 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) New user interface for Feature Access Management: These changes 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. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. MC867656 — (Updated) Microsoft Viva Connections news notifications in GCC, GCC High, and DoD Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 410198 Updated November 11, 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 November 2024 (previously late October). 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. Microsoft Teams MC947831 — Microsoft Teams: Extensibility for PSTN calls Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468280 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 mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025. 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 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 The new calling extensions section to pin apps in Teams admin center: 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 — Introducing Approvals in Microsoft Teams for GCC High Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468867 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-January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025 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. MC946946 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Phone: Shared call history on devices Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 416292 Updated December 3, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon for Microsoft Teams Phone devices: The Shared call history feature will enable users to view the call history of shared lines, providing a comprehensive overview of all incoming, outgoing, and missed calls across shared lines. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out this feature from mid-March 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late January). General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out this feature from mid-April 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously late February). General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out this feature from mid-May 2025 and expect to complete by late May 2025 How this will affect your organization: The Shared call history feature is designed to enhance collaboration and streamline communication in teams by offering visibility into shared line activities. Users can access call details, such as caller ID, call duration, and timestamps, ensuring they stay informed and can easily track call interactions. What you need to do to prepare: Please ensure that your Teams phone devices are updated with the latest application to get access to the new features mentioned above. The features listed above will ONLY be available with the latest application update. Please follow the steps in Shared line appearance in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn to set up a shared line. 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. MC946818 — Microsoft Teams: Updates to Gallery in Teams Rooms on Windows Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468277 Coming soon to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows, the updated Gallery view introduces these changes to enhance your meeting experience: All participants will appear in consistent tile sizes By default, video participants have priority and appear first on the meeting stage by default (audio participants appear on the side or bottom of the screen) Ability to disable priority on video participants to create a mix of audio participants and video participants in the Gallery Optimized view of up to 25 participants on a single display and up to 50 participants on dual displays Preview video is part of the Gallery, appearing next to the rest of the participants Ability to hide the preview video across all layouts When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025. How this will affect your organization: The updated Galleryprovides a unified meeting experience across both Teams Rooms and desktop. A more consistent and predictable layout can drive meeting efficiency and visibility for remote participants in hybrid meeting scenarios. In 1:1 meetings, the preview video will be positioned at the bottom right, overlapping the other participant: In group meetings, the preview video will be on the last available tile in the Gallery, next to the rest of the participants: Admins can use two new settings to adjust the default view: Prioritize vide0;< PrioritizeVideoParticipantsGallery> – Default value is True. The default experience will show video participants on the main stage with audio participants on the side or bottom rail. If you would like to display all audio and video participants mixed in the Gallery, change the value to False. Hide me <HideMeForAllLayout> – Default value is False. If you would like to hide preview video across all layouts in Teams Rooms on Windows, change the value to True. In-room users can adjust these settings on the console during a meeting, if desired: Lastly, when another Teams Room joins the meeting, the video of the room automatically enlarges if there are more than two in-room users, providing a clearer view and better connection, and so users can focus on the person speaking. These changes will be available by default. What you need to do to prepare: Please notify your users about this change and update any training documentation, as appropriate. 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. Learn more Remotely manage Microsoft Teams Rooms device settings - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn(will be updated before rollout) Microsoft Teams Rooms (Windows) - Microsoft Support(will be updated before rollout) MC946797 — Microsoft Teams: Collaborative call delegation on Teams Phone devices Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 416288 Coming soon for Microsoft Teams Phone devices: The Collaborative call delegation feature allows users to delegate call management tasks to a group of individuals in a circular manner, ensuring that calls are handled efficiently, and no important communications are missed. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out this feature from mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025. General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out this feature from mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025. General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out this feature from mid-May 2025 and expect to complete by late May 2025. How this will affect your organization: The Collaborative call delegation feature is designed to enhance collaborative workflows by allowing calls to be passed seamlessly between team members. Users can set up a delegation group, and incoming calls will be routed in a predefined sequence among the group members. This ensures that if one delegate is unavailable, the call will automatically be directed to the next available delegate, creating a continuous loop of availability. What you need to do to prepare: Please ensure that your Teams Phone devices are updated with the latest application to get access to the Collaborative call delegation feature. The features listed above will ONLY be available with the latest application update. Please follow the steps in Shared line appearance in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn to set up Collaborative call delegation using Microsoft PowerShell (Note: Collaborative call delegation can only be set up only using PowerShell). 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. MC942831 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Phones: Remotely manage contacts in Teams admin center Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 81379 Updated December 3, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to the Microsoft Teams admin center: Admins will be able to remotely manage contacts to ensure crucial contacts are available for users on their Teams Phone devices. This feature is only available for common area phones. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out this feature in mid-April 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously late January). General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out this feature in early June 2025 (previously mid-February) and expect to complete by mid-June 2025 (previously late February). General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out this feature in early July 2025 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by mid-July 2025 (previously late March). How this will affect your organization: IT admins can access the Manage contacts feature from Teams admin center > Teams Devices > Phones > Common area phones. Select the applicable devices and then select Manage contacts. In the right panel, use the Search box to search for and select contacts to add to selected devices. You can upload a CSV file for contacts not found through Search. Newly added contacts will be synchronized to the Calls app and People app on the Teams phones devices under the group name Company contacts within 24 hours. For any device, admins can review or delete the added contacts from the Manage contacts right panel. Track the progress and status of contact operations with the Activity log in the Teams phone inventory. This new feature 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 the rollout. If you have questions or need further assistance regarding this feature, please reach out to our support team. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC942829 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams admin center: Activity log for Teams Phone device management Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 420326 Updated December 3, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. We’re excited to announce the rollout of a new feature in the Teams admin center: Activity log for Teams Phone device management. This feature empowers Teams administrators to actively monitor and track device operations, providing greater control over remote operations on Teams devices. Updated December 3, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Currently, the Activity log supports only the remote management of contacts on Teams Phones; however, we’re working to expand this feature to other device types and additional operation categories. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out this feature in mid-April 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by early July 2025 (previously mid-March). How this will affect your organization: Admins can access the new Activity log by navigating to the Teams admin center > Teams Devices > Phones > Activity log Because only remote management of contacts for Teams Phones is currently supported, admins will be able to track operations such as Add contacts or Delete contacts and details like created time, impacted users, operation status, and more. By selecting an operation name, admins can view status updates at a granular level for each device involved in that operation. The Activity log 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 the rollout. If you have questions or need further assistance regarding this feature, please reach out to our support team. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC942822 — Microsoft Teams: Queues app on phone devices Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 416282 Soon, the Queues app will be generally available for agent experiences on Teams certified phone devices. The intuitive interface and real-time updates of the Queues app help agents manage incoming calls, provide assistance, and resolve issues efficiently. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete late January 2024. General Availability (GCCH): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete late February 2024. General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-May 2025 and expect to complete late May 2024. How this will affect your organization: This new feature experience includes a dedicated Queues app on the home screen, with an ability to view and opt-in/opt-out of all the call queues an agent is part of. Also, agents can view others on the line along with call history of the call queue. Agents also have access to built-in call controls that allow efficient call handling with the ability to take, hold, and transfer calls with speed and ease. Agents can also place outbound calls on behalf of the queue, preserving the privacy of the agent’s phone and presenting your organization’s brand. What you need to do to prepare: Please ensure that your Teams phone devices are updated with the latest application to get access to the new features. The features listed above will only be available with the latest application update. Also, for this feature to work, you need Teams Premium licensing. MC939927 — Microsoft Teams Premium: Decorate your background Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 419811 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 January 2025 and expect to complete rollout by late January 2025. General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out in mid-January 2025 and expect to complete rollout by mid-February 2025. General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out in late January 2025 and expect to complete rollout by late February 2025. 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. MC939924 — Microsoft Teams: Start Whiteboard from Teams Rooms on Android in GCC and GCC-H Microsoft Whiteboard storage is moving from Azure to OneDrive for Business to deliver greater compliance, governance, and retention capabilities. This improvement allows us to offer the Start Whiteboard feature in additional cloud environments (GCC and GCC High) that support OneDrive for Business. The enhanced Whiteboard experience, includes: Features unique to whiteboards stored in OneDrive, such as Follow me, Commenting, Collaborative cursor, and more. Improved performance on whiteboards now stored in OneDrive. Improved compliance and security associated with whiteboard being stored in OneDrive. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out late November 2024 and expect to complete rollout by late January 2025. How this will affect your organization: Outside of a meeting Whenever you want to brainstorm in the office, just start whiteboarding using the new Whiteboard button on the home screen. With one touch, you can quickly launch Microsoft Whiteboard and start collaborating outside of a Teams meeting. Since a resource account does not have OneDrive, it will launch a temporary whiteboard. The Save button will guide you to invite your work account to a meeting with your Teams Room so that the temporary whiteboard can be saved in your OneDrive for Business. You will see a saving failure error if you invite a non-room participant who does not have OneDrive. Switch from local to online collaboration by selecting Start meeting on the local whiteboard screen. This initiates an ad-hoc meeting and presents the temporary whiteboard. From there, you can add participants into the meeting and contribute across the same whiteboard in real time. The temporary whiteboard will be saved in OneDrive for the first non-room user who joins the meeting. In a meeting During a meeting, click the Share button and select Microsoft Whiteboard to initiate a whiteboard. The whiteboard will be shared in the meeting and saved in OneDrive for Business for one of the non-room participants at the meeting automatically. What you need to do to prepare: Please verify that your tenant setting meets the requirements described in this documentation: Manage sharing for Microsoft Whiteboard - Microsoft Whiteboard | Microsoft Learn. The Start Whiteboard feature will be turned on by default. Your Home screen (outside of the meeting) will show the Whiteboard button, and the in-meeting share tray will show the whiteboard option. If you want to disable the Start Whiteboard feature, please turn it off via the admin setting on your device or apply the configuration profile in Teams admin center using the 'Allow room to use Microsoft Whiteboard' setting under the 'Meeting settings' section. Even if the Start Whiteboard feature is disabled for your Teams Rooms on Android device, you can see a whiteboard that remote participants share in a meeting. MC938541 — Microsoft Teams admin center: Manage external access policies for users in your organization Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 423476 Coming soon: Manage External access policies for users in your organization using Microsoft Teams admin center. The new external access policy management page allows admins to easily view, add, edit, and remove external access policies for users within their organization, all through the Teams admin center UI. Previously, these actions could only be performed using PowerShell commands, but now they are also accessible directly in the Teams admin center. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025. General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025. General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025. General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025. How this will affect your organization: Navigation: Teams admin center > External access > Policies tab: Policy management tasks that admins can perform: Creating and saving new custom policies: This change will be available by default 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. Admin center UI to view, edit and manage external access policies would be available for use by tenant admins. Learn more: IT Admins - Manage external meetings and chat with people and organizations using Microsoft identities - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout) 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 2, 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 mid-January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-December). 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. MC937915 — Microsoft Teams: Explicit Consent for recording and transcription in group calls and Meet Now The Microsoft Teams Explicit Consent meeting policy is expanding to support group calls and Meet Now. When applied to a user, this policy will ensure that any recording/transcription initiated by that user in a group call or Meet Now will prompt all participants to provide consent for their media to be included in the recording and transcription. Participants cannot share audio, video, or screenshare/content-share until consent is given. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024. How this will affect your organization: The Explicit Consent feature is off by default and is controlled by IT administrators through Teams meeting policy. Admins can enable this feature either for the entire tenant or for specific individuals, according to their business requirements. When a user with the policy enabled starts a recording in a group call or Meet Now, all call participants will be prompted to give their consent to be included in the recording/transcription. Until consent is given by each participant, their audio, video, and screenshare/content-share will not be captured in the recording/transcription. What you need to do to prepare: Update any relevant training materials to reflect that this policy now applies to group calls and Meet Now. Admins can enable or disable this feature using PowerShell or the Teams Admin Center. For more details, visit: Require participant agreement for recording and transcription Manage via Teams Admin Center Manage through PowerShell MC935643 — Microsoft Teams: Introducing town halls (GCC High) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 423478 Updated November 27, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. To simplify the virtual event experience in Microsoft Teams, we are integrating our live event capabilities into the Teams meeting experience. This will create a unified experience for users when hosting a small meeting, customer-facing webinar, or company-wide town hall. As a part of this integration, we are introducing town halls in Microsoft Teams, a new experience to host and deliver large-scale, internal events to create connections across an organization. Town halls provide a one-to-many experience with advanced production capabilities and a structured approach for attendee engagement. With town halls, customers can host various types of internal and external events, including company-wide town halls, all hands, global team meetings, internal broadcasts, fireside chats, and more. Town halls apply to Teams on Windows desktops and Mac desktops, and Teams on the web, iOS, and Android. Town Hall will be available for Teams customers. Advanced capabilities in town hall will be available for Teams Premium customers. When this will happen: General availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December). How this will affect your organization: Users in your tenant will see the new entry for town hall on the new meeting menu. Learn more: Get started with town hall in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support Note: Q&A for town hall will not be available in this rollout. We will update this message when we have firm dates for the general availability of Q&A for town hall. Basic town hall functionality: Attendee capacity of up to 10,000 attendees Host up to 15 concurrent events across a tenant Co-organizer support Automated invitation and event recording emails Green room Manage what attendees see Natively stream your meeting to an external audience using a Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) stream On-demand recording Live translation captions (up to 6 languages) Live transcription (AI-generated) AI-generated captions Microsoft eCDN (Enterprise Content Delivery Network)and third-party eCDN support to reduce network congestion during large corporate virtual events Attendee reporting What you need to do to prepare: This feature will be enabled by default upon release, however if required by admin policy, can be disabled. Learn more: Manage who can schedule and attend town halls in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft 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 users about this change and update any relevant documentation. Learn more Admins: Overview of meetings, webinars, and town halls - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn Users: Get started with town hall in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support MC934727 — Microsoft Teams: File Interactive Previews Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421188 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 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 late February 2025. General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-Apr 2025. General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025. General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out early April 2025 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 November 15, 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 January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December). General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025. General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025 (previously late January). 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: 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. 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 3, 2024: We're delaying further rollouts of warning banners and blocking pages in December and intend to resume in mid-January. We'll have a more detailed update later. 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. 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 November 12th, 2024. How this will affect your organization: New Teams - Windows & Mac Versions desktop clients (not running in a VDI environment) Beginning November 12th, 2024, Teams desktop clients >30d out of date, will present a banner or notification to users that they are on an outdated version of Teams. For reference, o Windows client versions less than 24231.512.3106.6573 are impacted on November 12. o Mac client versions less than 242507.3125.3475 are impacted on Nov 12. (On hold) Beginning December 4th, 2024, Teams desktop clients older than 90d 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. For reference, o Windows client versions less than 24193.1805.3040.8975 are impacted on December 4th. o Mac client versions less than 24215.1002.3039.5089 are impacted on December 4th. 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 January 13th, 2025, for clients more than 30d out of date will get a banner or notification to users that they are on an outdated version of Teams. Beginning February 3rd, 2025, for clients older than 90d out of date, the Teams desktop client will present a blocking page. Note: The enforcement policies on preview rings may start mid-November. The 30d out of date in app messaging and 90d out of date blocking dates still apply (for versions released to that ring) 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. MC931375 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Teams Updates app is available in GCC High Updated December 3, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. For Microsoft Teams, GCC-High users can access the Teams Updates app to streamline their daily reporting workflow and increase collaboration efficiency. Users can use the Teams Updates app to set up a daily or weekly reporting form and workflow to collect regular updates from others. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC High): We will roll out in early November 2024. How this will affect your organization: Learn more about how to manage the app: Manage the Updates app for your organization - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn. This change is available 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 and update any relevant documentation. MC929034 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Best practices configuration dashboard in Teams admin center Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421185 Updated November 27, 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. MC923415 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure status indicator Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 423472 Updated November 20, 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 mid-January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously late December). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by early February 2025 (previously late January). 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 November 14, 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 January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December). General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-January) General Availability (GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously late January). General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out late early February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously early 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: 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. Learn more: Manage chat in Teams meetings - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout) MC920084 — Microsoft Teams: Usage reports for bookable desks Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421604 Updated November 22, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. With this rollout, admins will have access to reports and insightful usage analytics for desk pools (workspace resource accounts) that have at least one associated peripheral. These capabilities will be available in the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal if the desk pool has a Microsoft Teams Shared Devices license assigned. This message applies to tenants with Teams Rooms Pro or Teams Shared device licenses. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-December). General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: The Teams Rooms Pro Management portal will have a new tab under Reports called Desk usage. Desk pools that have at least one peripheral associated and are licensed with a Teams Shared device license will appear under this tab. Admins will be able to review overall metrics about their desk pools such as the number of total associated desks, the number of desks that are unused, and the percentage of reservations that were unplanned. For each desk pool, they will be able to review more analytics such as utilization, total reservations, reservation occupancy (percentage of time that desk pool was utilized during reservations), and more. Admins will also be able to select a specific desk pool to review specific metrics, such as a peak utilization matrix. This change will be available by default to tenants with the required license and associated peripherals. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. We recommend that admins ensure they have Teams Shared Devices licenses in their tenant before this rollout. You may also want to notify your admin team about this change and update any relevant documentation. Also, we recommend setting up desk pools with up to 8 seats in each pool. We will show analytics for up to 8 desks per desk pool. Learn more: Setting up Bookable Desks in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated soon after rollout) MC918570 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom name on Teams panels Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 417153 Updated November 26, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Prior to this new feature, the display name on a Microsoft Teams panel could not be customized. It would always match the Global Adress Book (GAL) name for the account that is shown in Teams and Outlook. With this rollout, we will be providing admins with the ability to customize this display name. This feature will be supported for accounts that have a Teams panel and a Teams Rooms Pro or Teams Shared Device license. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early January (previously early December) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: An admin must choose to use the feature. This feature is set to off as default, so there is no change to the current experience otherwise. To change the display name on the panel, navigate to Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal > Planning > Inventory and then click on the account you’d like to customize. On the pane that opens on the right, there will be a custom name field which an admin can edit to enter in the new display name. Please note that the custom name will be displayed on the Teams panel home screen, so we recommend making sure it is clear and understandable to your users. By default, this field will be filled with the GAL name. In addition, please note that this will not change the display name shown on Microsoft Teams Rooms if you have one inside of the room. Within 24 hours of the name being updated, the Teams panel home screen will reflect the new name. The home screen will also have a tooltip that, when selected, will show the user the GAL name. In Teams admin settings, an admin can view the GAL name and custom name if one has been applied. It is not possible to edit the name in these admin settings. Editing can only be done in the Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal. If you would like to remove the new custom name, you can simply remove the custom name from the field in the Pro Management Portal, and the display name on Teams panel will default back to the GAL name. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen by the specified date with no admin action required. You may want to update any relevant documentation as appropriate and plan to update your devices to the latest Teams app when it becomes available. MC915486 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Users can take control during screensharing on the web Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 420327 Updated November 19, 2024: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to Microsoft Teams on the web: Users will be able to use the Take control feature during screensharing on the web, like they can in Teams for Windows desktop. Note: This feature is currently not available for 1:1 calls on the web. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early December 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025. How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, users are not able to use the Take control feature in Teams on the web. This feature will be available to Teams on the web users. 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.< Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC912707 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New policy for voice and face enrollment will default to "On" (configure now) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 413708 Updated November 27, 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-January 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: 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 early February 2025 (previously mid-January) and is expected to be fully in effect by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January). 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: Set-CsTeamsAIPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn Get-CsTeamsAIPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn Learn more: Overview of voice and face enrollment - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn MC908115 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Meeting organizers can turn off copying of captions, transcript and recap Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 416072 Updated November 25, 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. 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 will be on by default and available 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. MC892646 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New policy for voice and face enrollment defaulting to 'On' Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 413708 Updated November 27, 2024: We have updated the content. Thank you for your feedback. We're introducing a new policy that gives IT admins enhanced flexibility with distinct settings for voice and face enrollment. This adjustment provides greater control over managing these features, allowing organizations to tailor to their needs. Voice and face biometric enrollment will be enabled by default, enabling voice isolation and speaker recognition in meeting rooms and enhancing intelligent meeting recaps and Microsoft Copilot for meetings. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out the new policy in early October 2024 and expect complete by mid-October 2024. The policy will be enabled beginning in early February 2025 (previously early January) and expect to be complete by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: These changes will provide your organization with increased flexibility in managing voice and face enrollments. By using separate settings, you can customize for your organization's specific needs. The enrollment policy will be enabled by default. Once enabled, these enrollments will activate features like Voice Isolation and enhanced speaker recognition, leading to more efficient and productive meetings. What you need to do to prepare: To ensure you have enough time to prepare for this change, you have until mid-January 2025 to configure everything to best suit your needs. If your organization requires keeping face and voice enrollments off, be sure to review the new policy and adjust the settings during this time. This period provides an opportunity to optimize how you manage voice and face data, enhancing your team's control over the process. The new csTeamsAIPolicy will replace the current csTeamsMeetingPolicy, introducing two separate settings for face and voice enrollment: EnrollFace and EnrollVoice. Each can be set to Enabled or Disabled. To help you get ready, review: Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy Get-CsTeamsAIPolicy For more information about voice and face enrollment, visit Overview of voice and face enrollment - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn MC866454 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: VDI users can upload custom backgrounds Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 410366 Updated October 29, 2024: After further review we have decided not to proceed with this change at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience. If Microsoft Teams users want to change what appears behind them in a video meeting, they can either blur their background, use Teams virtual background templates, or with a Teams Premium license, they can change their Teams meeting background to a branded logo or image specific to their company. After this rollout, users on the new VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) solution for Teams can replace their background with any desired image. This message applies to the New VDI solution for Teams only. When this will happen: We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed. How this will affect your organization: Users on the new VDI optimization for Teams will be able to upload their own background image as their background through the Video effects and settings option: This feature is on by default. What you need to do to prepare: Make sure you meet the minimum system requirements for the new VDI solution as described in New VDI solution for Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 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. MC866447 — (Updated) CAPTCHA Verification for Anonymous Meeting Participants Updated November 26, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Microsoft Teams tenants will soon be able to enable verification for anonymous meeting participants via CAPTCHA. This release of CAPTCHA Verification for Anonymous Meeting Participants will be rolling out across Microsoft Teams Desktop, Mobile and Web and will provide additional security against malicious bot and third-party app joins. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late October 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by mid-December 2024 (previously mid-November). How this will affect your organization: Tenants can enable anonymous meeting attendee verification via CAPTCHA in the Teams Admin Center. When enabled, any users that join the meeting as an anonymous user will be required to pass a CAPTCHA verification before landing in the meeting (including the meeting lobby, if enabled). What you need to do to prepare: This feature is off by default and Tenant Admins will need to enable CAPTCHA verification for their tenants through Meeting policies in the Teams Admin Center. MC862236 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: External presenters can join on mobile Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 409228 Updated November 18, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. In Microsoft Teams, town halls and webinars currently support the ability for an external user outside the organization to present in an event only through the Teams desktop. With this update, external presenters will have the option to join the event through the Teams mobile app on their Android or iOS devices. Note: It is currently not supported for external presenters to join a town hall or webinar through web platforms. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out in late September 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by early October 2024 (previously late September). General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out in mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by early December 2024 (previously late November). How this will affect your organization: Presenters external to the organization will now be able to join events through their mobile devices. For more information on external presenters, see Schedule a town hall in Microsoft Teams. 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. MC856756 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: Native PTZ controls Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 409534 Updated November 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows will soon support native PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) controls for cameras capable of supporting PTZ controls. The PTZ controls will appear in the Camera settings pop-up menu when the Enhanced Framing toggle is set to off. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-May 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by late May 2025 (previously mid-December). General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late May 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by early June 2025 (previously late January). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout: Native PTZ controls are not displayed in Camera settings pop-up menus for PTZ-capable cameras. After this rollout: Admins will be able to toggle this feature for each Teams Rooms on Windows in the device's Admin Settings for Peripherals. This setting will be on by default. Users in a Teams Rooms on Windows with a PTZ-capable camera connected will see PTZ controls in the Camera settings pop-up menu. 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 new capability and update any supporting documentation for your users. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC818885 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Multiple camera view for Teams Rooms on Windows Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 402517 Updated November 7, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows will be soon able to send up to four single-stream USB camera feeds to render on the receiver side, so remote meeting participants can view all cameras simultaneously. This opt-in feature requires admins to first enable the multiple camera view and map cameras to the desired order that will be displayed on the receiver side. With multiple camera view enabled, remote meeting participants will be able to follow all the action in the room and manually switch to the desired room. This message applies to Teams for Desktop (Windows, Mac). 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): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously late December). General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out in mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously early January). How this will affect your organization: Before the rollout Multiple camera views are not available in Teams Rooms on Windows. After the rollout A multiple camera view can create more visibility and coverage for large and complex spaces, such as multipurpose rooms, classrooms, and executive boardrooms. Admins can set up multiple camera views in two ways: Admins can configure settings on a local device by turning on the Multiple camera view toggle and using the dropdown menu to map the cameras. Admins can configure multiple camera view using Remote Accessin the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. After the feature is enabled, in-room participants can disable multiple camera view with the Camera chevron button on the meeting console. This action will return the device to a single camera view, and all receiver-side participants will see a single camera view. This in-room setting will only affect that meeting and the device will revert to the admin settings for the next meeting. Remote participants will see the multiple camera view by default. On the top right corner of the room's video tile, a remote participant can use the arrows to switch to the desired camera view. This toggle will only affect the remote participant's own view and will not affect other meeting participants. What you need to do to prepare: To prepare for the change, create a plan for the rooms that may require multiple cameras in consideration of the space, meeting scenario, and the desired experience for in-room and remote participants. Then, configure the multiple camera view on the local device or in the Teams Pro Management portal and notify your users about this new experience. You may want to update relevant training documentation. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC816179 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Bidirectional Support for Teams Live Interpretation Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 403103 Updated November 26, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. With bidirectional support in Teams Live Interpretation, interpreters can now switch the translation direction between two languages by clicking on the button of the language they want to interpret into at the bottom of the screen. The highlighted language button will be the language the interpreter is translating into and attendees hear. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early September 2024 (previously early August) and expect to complete by mid-September 2024 (previously mid-August). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-September 2024 (previously mid-August) and expect to complete by mid-December 2024 (previously late September). General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early December 2024 (previously ate October) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously early December). How this will affect your organization: The new bidirectional capability allows tenants to hire fewer interpreters to do live translation in Teams meetings, reducing the operation costs for tenants. 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. MC814584 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Q&A will be generally available in late August 2024 Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 395935 Updated November 25, 2024: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience In Microsoft Teams, organizers of meetings, webinars, and town halls will soon be able to enable a Q&A feature for their events. This interactive tool allows for real-time engagement, enabling organizers to field and answer questions from attendees. It is particularly effective for large, structured gatherings such as all-hands meetings or training sessions. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out early September 2024 (previously late August) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously late September). How this will affect your organization: Organizers can enable the Q&A feature in their Microsoft Teams meetings via Meeting Options by toggling on Q&A. This provides structured dialogue, allowing attendees to ask questions, reply, and react by clicking the Q&A icon within the meeting interface. Moderators can enable moderation to review questions before publishing them live. Additionally, they can allow attendees to submit questions anonymously by turning on the anonymous posts option. This Q&A feature will be automatically enabled upon rollout. Q&A reports downloads are under development and not yet available in GCC. What you need to do to prepare: Please inform the meeting organizers at your organization that they can use the Q&A feature in their meetings, webinars and town hall. Additional Resources: Follow these instructions to enable the Q&A feature: Q&A in Microsoft Teams meetings - Microsoft Support Your organization may have requirements to limit which users can enable the Q&A feature. Please use Meeting Policies in the Teams admin center to manage which users can enable the Q&A feature in their events: Manage Q&A in Teams meetings and events - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn Using Teams Town Hall with Teams Q&A: Get started with town hall in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support MC814577 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Roster grouping for in-room participants through Proximity Join for Teams Rooms Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 400702 Updated November 27, 2024: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. When joining a meeting in Teams Room on Windows or Android with a companion device (laptop or mobile), in-room participants will be grouped under the room node. Participants must join through Proximity Join. This update includes additional UI elements to create visual clarity of the in-room participants who are together. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late September 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by mid-December 2024 (previously mid-November). General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-September 2024 and expect to complete rollout by late October 2024 (late September). How this will affect your organization: This update is available by default if the companion device has enabled the Bluetooth setting and the Teams Room device has any one of the following XML <SkypeSettings> configuration settings enabled: <BluetoothAdvertisementEnabled>true</BluetoothAdvertisementEnabled> <UltrasoundAdvertisementEnabled>true</UltrasoundAdvertisementEnabled> <RoomQRcodeEnabled>true</RoomQRcodeEnabled> On the roster, in-room participants will automatically be grouped under the room node. The two scenarios in which in-room participants can be ungrouped from the room node are: Raised hand: For raised hand, we continue to follow the sequential order of raised hands. Therefore, in-room participants who use their companion device to raise their hand will be broken up and ordered accordingly. Role assignment: For changes in roles (Presenters/Attendees), in-room participants can be broken up and placed in the appropriate category on the roster. In both scenarios, the room information will be listed below the participant's name. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen automatically. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate. MC808828 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom background and daily restart windows for Teams panels Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 402183 Updated November 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 November 2024 (previously late October). 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. 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 (GCC High): We will begin rolling out early September 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously late October). 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. MC804771 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Hiding inactive channels Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 325780 Updated November 11, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Note: Users with EDU licenses assigned will not receive this change. Microsoft Teams will detect and hide inactive channels users have not interacted with recently. Users can choose to have Teams run this automatically as well as initiate the hiding process on demand when needed. They can review the list of channels and choose none, some or all of the inactive channels to be hidden. Users can opt out of automated hiding anytime from Teams Settings. This message applies to Microsoft Teams for Desktop, web, and Mac. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-July 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 (previously mid-August) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-September) General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously late September) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously early October). General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously early October) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-October). General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously late October) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late October). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout: Users had to manually manage their relevant channels list by hiding inactive and irrelevant channels. After this rollout: Manage preferences for automated hiding via Teams Settings If users prefer to manage channels manually, they can opt out of the auto-hiding process. Simply go to Teams settings, select General, and toggle off "Hide Inactive Channels." Hide inactive channels on demand when needed Users can manually view which channels are inactive and choose to hide some or all of them whenever you need. This can be done from Settings, under General, by clicking the "Hide Now" button. Note that this action can be performed once every 24 hours. Automated hiding of inactive channels With this, Teams will hide channels that have been inactive for the user. Inactive channels are identified based on the following criteria: if the user has not been active in the channel in the last 120 days – meaning there is no new messaging in the channel that the user has read or reacted to – the channel is considered inactive. Once the inactive channels are identified, the user is notified with the coach mark message, "We're hiding some inactive channels for you." The user can select View changes to see the details. The user can keep the channels hidden or show them again. If a user has less than or equal to 25 shown channels, no channels will be hidden for that user. What you need to do to prepare: Admins need to be aware of this feature, but no additional action is needed. The feature will roll out starting in November 2024. Users will first see their settings enabled to manage their preferences for automated hiding; additional to the ability to manually hide inactive channels. Users will start to see the automated hiding of inactive channels, a few weeks after the feature has rolled out. MC800496 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New expanded gallery view option for minimized meeting window Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 398449 Updated November 7, 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 November 2024 (previously late October). 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. MC798684 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom backgrounds for Teams Rooms on Android Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 380671 Updated November 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Soon, you can upload images on the Microsoft Teams admin center to apply as custom backgrounds for your Teams Rooms on Android devices to showcase your brand identity or provide support information in your meeting rooms. This feature requires a Teams Rooms Pro license and will be available with the next Teams Rooms on Android app release. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): We will begin rolling out early August 2024 (previously early July) and expect to complete by mid-August 2024 (previously mid-July). General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-August 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously late October). Note: There can be a delay between when features are released by Microsoft and when they become available on a particular device model and make. How this will affect your organization: To manage custom backgrounds for your Teams Rooms on Android devices, log into Teams admin center > go to Teams devices > Teams Rooms on Android > select Configuration profiles > Add or Edit > Device settings > Background > select Upload a custom background. You can upload up to three images and specify which one goes to the main display, extended display, or touch console. Note: In a dual screen setup, the main display is where the room calendar is shown and is meant to be placed on the right side. The extended display is where the date/time and room information is shown and is meant to be placed on the left side. No matter how many screens your devices may have, the main display and extended display inputs are required in the Teams admin center configuration profile, while the touch console input is optional. When you push the configuration profile to a single screen device, only the main display image will show up. When you have two front-of-room displays or when you connect a second display later, the extended display image will be shown. If no image is uploaded for the touch console, a purple gradient default image will be displayed as the background. Custom background image files must meet the following requirements: Minimum resolution: front-of-room display (1920 x 1080), touch console (1280 x 720). Format: JPG, JPEG, and PNG. Maximum size: 20MB. Note: If the aspect ratio and the resolution of the image do not match with the aspect ratio and resolution supported by the display, the image may be scaled to fill the frame of the display and/or center-cropped. Once the images are saved in the configuration profile and the configuration profile is assigned to your Teams Rooms on Android devices, at the next device restart, the custom background image will be applied to the devices that are logged in with a resource account that has a Teams Rooms Pro license. On your Teams Rooms on Android device settings (Settings > Teams admin settings > General > Background), you can switch the background of your device from the custom image pushed to the device to one of the default images or vice versa. To change the custom image saved on the device, you must go to the Teams admin center. What you need to do to prepare: Plan on designing custom background images for your devices and updating your devices to the latest app version through the Teams admin center. More detailed design guidelines similar to the Teams Rooms on Windows PSD templates will be provided on the Microsoft Learn website closer to the release. MC795750 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom emojis and reactions Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80659 Updated November 26, 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 December 2024 (previously late September) and expect to complete by early January 2025 (previously early October). GCC High: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously early October) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-October). DoD: We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously mid-October) and expect to complete by early February 2025 (previously late January). 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: Emoji Creation Setting (enabled for all users by default) Emoji Deletion Setting (only enabled for admins by default) Additional feature capabilities: View custom emojis in the emoji menu Press the plus (+) menu to select an image to upload Set a name for your emoji Right-click on an emoji to delete or to see the creator MC792603 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Ask to join a shared channel with a channel link Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 325330 Updated November 12, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: In-tenant users who attempt to access a shared channel with a link will be able to request to join the channel. Channel owners will receive the join request and can decide to approve or deny request. This rollout applies to Teams for Desktop and Mac. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-June 2024 and expect to complete by mid-June 2024. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late June 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2024. General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-July 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously late October). How this will affect your organization: Before the rollout, a user who selects a channel with a link receives a You don’t have access message. After the rollout, a user who selects a channel with a link receives will be able to ask to join a channel: After the rollout, out-of-tenant users who click on a shared channel link from another tenant will continue to see the You don’t have access message. Admins cannot turn off this feature. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate. Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. MC790796 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New onboarding to teams and channels Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 381734 Updated November 6, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Updated May 17, 2024: We have updated the content below to clarify the experience for EDU and FLW licensed users. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon in Microsoft Teams: A new way to join teams and channels. This message applies to new Teams for the web and Teams for desktop. It does not apply to Teams for iOS or Android. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early June 2024 and expect to complete by mid-June 2024. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-September (previously mid-July) 2024 and expect to complete by late September (previously late July) 2024. General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late September (previously late July) 2024 and expect to complete by early October (previously late July) 2024. General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early October (previously early August) 2024 and expect to complete by late November (previously late October) 2024. How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, a team owner could mark a standard channel as Show for members while creating the channel or later from the team management page. These channels appeared automatically in the teams and channels list on the left side of the screen for all team members. After this rollout: A team owner will be able to recommend channels for team members to join. This functionality replaces Show for members. When joining a new team, team members will see only the Generalchannel. On the team onboarding page, additional channels may be tagged as Recommended by the team owner. Members can review channel details and opt into channels of interest. This rollout is designed to help team members join the most relevant channels, for a more streamlined experience in Teams. The view from the Activity stream: A team owner adds a user to team (called Cross team collaboration) and recommends specific channels (Feature crew, General) for the user to show in the teams and channels list. The view from the teams and channels list: General is the only channel shown when a team owner adds a user to team (called Cross team collaboration) and recommends additional channels (Feature crew, General) for the user to show in the teams and channels list. Note: Users with EDU and FLW licenses will continue to see "owner recommended" channels in their teams and channels list automatically. What you need to do to prepare: This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate. We will update this comm before rollout with revised documentation. MC772556 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Shorter meeting URLs Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 381953 Updated December 2, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. We are reducing the length of Microsoft Teams meeting URLs for easier sharing. This rollout applies to all Microsoft Teams platforms (Teams for iOS, Android, Mac, Teams devices, desktop, and web). When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late 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 late February 2025 (previously late March). General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early April 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously mid-January). How this will affect your organization: Longer URLs for meetings scheduled before the rollout will continue to work. The new URL syntax is: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/<meeting_id>?p=<HashedPasscode> What you need to do to prepare: You may want to check if you have any integrations that use parameters from URL. After the rollout, the URL will only contain the meeting ID. Parameters such as tenant ID, organizer ID, conversation ID and message ID will not be in the URL. 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. MC767481 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Presenter window enhancements while screensharing Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 383653 Updated November 7, 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 November (previously late October). 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. MC718553 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Change background while recording on phone Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 380852 Updated November 7, 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 November 2024 (previously early October). 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 November 12, 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 November 2024 (previously late October). 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 MC717969 — (Updated) New Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solution for Microsoft Teams Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 375418 Updated November 19, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. 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. By leveraging the same media engine used in the native Microsoft Teams desktop clients, it offers the following: Advanced meeting capabilities: o Gallery View 3x3 and 7x7 o Background images from My Organization o 1080p o Include Computer sound while screensharing o Hardware acceleration on the endpoint Telephony and voice capabilities o Location Based Routing and Media Bypass o QoS o Human Interface Device (HID) o Noise suppression Better supportability via Teams Admin Center / Call Quality Dashboard It also provides a simpler media engine update experience for users, without requiring frequent upgrades of the VDI infrastructure or VDI clients. This release applies to Microsoft Windows endpoints connecting to Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktops, Microsoft Windows 365, and Citrix VDI environments only. The Remote Desktop client for Windows (1.2.5112) or an upcoming version of the Windows App from the Microsoft Store bundle a new small component (known as Microsoft Teams Plugin) capable of establishing a dynamic virtual channel with Microsoft Teams running on the virtual desktop, subsequently silently downloading the new media engine on the user's device which keeps it up to date without user or admin intervention. For Citrix Workspace app for Windows (2203 Long Term Service Release [LTSR], or 2302 Current Release [CR] or higher), admins can get the Microsoft Teams plugin installed using tools like Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (MECM) without requiring an upgrade. The future 2402 LTSR version of the Workspace app will also present a UI to users to install the plugin or a new command line argument for scripted rollouts. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late June 2024 (previously mid-June) and expect to complete by early August 2024 (previously late June). General Availability: We will begin rolling out in early August 2024 (previously late July) and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously early November). 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. What you need to do to prepare: The new VDI solution requires the new Microsoft Teams client to be deployed. It also requires the client-side plugin component, as described above. MC709270 — (Updated) Mute with Windows Taskbar available in the new Microsoft Teams on Windows Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 191528 Updated November 12, 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 November 2024 (previously late October). 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 November 7, 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 November 2024 (previously late October). 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 November 26, 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-January 2025 (previously early December) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-December). Worldwide will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously mid-January). GCC will begin rolling out early March 2025 (previously January) and expect to complete by mid-March 2025 (previously mid-January). GCC High will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late January). DoD will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously early February. 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 MC937158 — Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: New scenario-based policy templates Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 409966 Coming soon to Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: Two new preconfigured quick policy templates for Crown jewel protection and Email exfiltration. These templates are for admins who want to deploy scenario-specific policy templates with less configuration, to get started faster. The existing quick policies for Data leak and Data theft will continue to be available. You can find all four scenario-based quick policies in Insider Risk Management at Policies > Create Policies. Admins can expect additional turning after deploying these policies to meet individual alert volume needs. When this will happen: Public Preview: We will begin rolling out late November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. How this will affect your organization: Sign in to Insider Risk Management with the admin role permissions Go to the Policiespage at https://purview.microsoft.com/insiderriskmgmt/policiespage Select Create policy Select Quick policies Select either the Crown jewel protectionpolicy or the Email exfiltration policy Configure policy as applicable (add users to scope, optional priority content, and so on) The new policies will be 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. 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: The Quick Policies section in Create and manage insider risk management policies | Microsoft Learn MC933536 — Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention: New Microsoft Exchange Online predicates Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 418131 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 late November 2024. 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 MC917744 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Communication Compliance: Policy template to detect Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422328 Updated November 26, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon to Microsoft Purview | Communication Compliance: A new policy template to analyze all Microsoft 365 Copilot prompts and responses. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late November 2024 (previously mid-November) and expect to complete by early December 2024. How this will affect your organization: The new template will analyze Copilot prompts and responses to help ensure content prohibited by your organizational policies, such as harassing or threatening language, is not being used in Copilot interfaces. Also, administrators can choose to select Copilot chats as a checked location in the policy creation wizard for any new or existing policies. This empowers you to fine-tune your management strategy precisely for your organization’s needs, with a focus on user privacy protection. Whether you set specific conditions or deploy trainable classifiers, this feature provides flexibility and adaptability in compliance management, ensuring your organization's communications remain secure, compliant, and respectful of user privacy. The new policy template will be available by default for admins to configure. Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance provides the tools to help organizations detect business conduct and regulatory compliance violations (e.g. SEC or FINRA), such as sensitive or confidential information, harassing or threatening language, and sharing of adult content. Built with privacy by design, usernames are pseudonymized by default, role-based access controls are built in, investigators are opted in by an admin, and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy. Note: If a policy is configured to monitor Copilot and there's no Copilot messages being sent then no data will come in What you need to do to prepare: To create a policy to detect Copilot, select the Detect Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 interactions policy template, fill in the required information, and submit the policy for creation. You can access the Communication Compliance solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. Learn more Learn about communication compliance | Microsoft Learn Detect channel signals with communication compliance | 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. MC911618 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: Multi-policy settings in Adaptive Protection Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 171735 Updated November 26, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Protection is a feature in Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management that allows organizations to identify risky users and create dynamic policies in Data Loss Prevention, Conditional Access, and Data Lifecycle Management. After this rollout, admins will be able to select multiple Insider Risk Management policies in the Risk levels for Adaptive Protection settings. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-December 2024 (previously mid-November) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, admins can select single Insider Risk Managment policies in the Risk levels for Adaptive Protection settings. This new feature will be on by default and available for admins to configure. What you need to do to prepare: No action is required for this update. To configure user risk level for Adaptive Protection, admins can go to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal > Insider Risk Management > Adaptive Protection (preview) > Risk levels for Adaptive Protection Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy. Learn more: Help dynamically mitigate risks with Adaptive Protection (preview) | Microsoft Learn MC901828 — Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention: Oversharing popups enhancements on classic Microsoft Outlook for Windows Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 416078 Updated November 13, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon: Two new Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Microsoft Exchange support predicates for DLP policy tips and Oversharing popups for Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance customers: Message contains and Attachment contains. Unlike the existing broader Content contains DLP predicate that evaluates the entire email envelope, these new predicates are for client-side evaluation of specific email components only (email body or attachments) and show DLP policy tips and Oversharing popups in classic Microsoft Outlook for Windows. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late October 2024 and expect to complete by mid-November 2024 (previously early November). How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, you can use the new focused Message contains and Attachment contains predicates to create new DLP policies or edit existing policies to include support for policy tips and Oversharing popup features. The new predicates are 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. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You can access the DLP solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. Learn more Create and deploy a data loss prevention policy | Microsoft Learn Data loss prevention policy tip reference for Outlook for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn Get started with oversharing pop ups | Microsoft Learn MC892050 — Microsoft Purview | Compliance Portal: Enrich triage in Communication Compliance within Insider Risk Management context Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415170 Updated November 14, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. This feature update to Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance (CC) introduces a pivotal enhancement that integrates Insider Risk Management (IRM) alerts within CC triage flow, providing a holistic approach to compliance risk assessment. This integration empowers investigators with enriched insights by correlating communication alerts with a user's risk profile and activity history from IRM directly in the CC triage flow. This synergy between IRM and CC facilitates a more nuanced and informed decision-making process during investigations. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late December). How this will affect your organization: The integration of IRM context into CC is a significant stride towards enhancing the efficacy of compliance investigations. This will allow investigators to view a user's risk profile and history alongside communication alerts, enabling a more informed and efficient triage process. The insider risk severity (Low, Medium, or High) determined by activity detected in IRM policies helps admins prioritize and respond to user activity accordingly. A new user activity timeline will show messages and activities from IRM in one screen, simplifying the review process. What you need to do to prepare: To use this feature, please connect with an IRM administrator to enable data sharing from IRM settings. If you don't turn this setting on, you will see “Insider risk activity not available.” MC888873 — (Updated) Microsoft OneDrive web: View PDFs with sensitivity labels Updated November 26, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Microsoft OneDrive users can open PDF files that are protected with Microsoft Purview Information Protection sensitivity labels and read them using OneDrive web in read-only mode. Only authorized users will be able to access these PDF files. When this will happen: Targeted Release: rolling out early December2024 (previously early November) and expect to complete by mid-December 2024 (previously mid-November). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 (previously mid-November) and expect to complete by late January (previously early December). How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, users can open or view PDF files with sensitivity labels in the Microsoft Edge browser. After the rollout, users will be able to follow these steps to view PDF files with sensitivity labels in OneDrive web as follows: When users open the PDF file with a sensitivity label in OneDrive web, a banner at the top of the screen reads, "This file is protected by Microsoft Purview Information Protection. View permissions." To see the permissions related to the PDF file, users can tap View permissions. This feature is on by default, and all OneDrive web users have access to 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. 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. MC883194 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Information Protection: Default sensitivity labels and policies enhancements (GCC) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 408172 Updated December 3, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. When admins activate default labels and policies for Microsoft Purview Information Protection, labels will now be scoped to files, email, and meetings. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out early December (previously late November) 2024 and expect to complete by late December 2024 (previously late November). How this will affect your organization: There is no impact to the organization with the current sensitivity labels. This will only affect organizations that choose to activate default labels. 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. MC833890 — (Updated) Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint: Protect sensitive files with dynamic watermarking Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 400717 Updated November 27, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. 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: 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. Learn more Apply encryption using sensitivity labels | Microsoft Learn (Preview) Dynamic watermarking for sensitivity labels in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - Microsoft Community Hub MC805721 — (Updated) Purview | Insider Risk Management: Adaptive Protection is generally available in GCC, GCCH, and DoD Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 335856 Updated November 26, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon: Adaptive Protection integrates the breadth of intelligence in Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management with the depth of protection in Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention, to continuously and automatically fine-tune policies and protect data where and when it matters the most. The capability is built into the Microsoft platform with no endpoint agents required so organizations can get started using this as soon as it rolls out. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-December (previously mid- November) 2024 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-December). How this will affect your organization: Before the rollout: Admin are not able to configure custom definitions for insider risk levels in Insider risk managements or use insider risk levels as conditions in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to apply dynamic controls to risky users. After the rollout: Adaptive Protection is a capability of Microsoft Purview that enables organizations to dynamically optimize the balance between data protection and productivity. By leveraging the machine learning-driven analysis in Insider Risk Management, Adaptive Protection detects potentially risky user actions that may result in a data security incident and automatically adds the user to a stricter Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy. The protection policies are adaptive based on user context, ensuring low-risk users can maintain productivity and high-risk users have appropriate protection in place. What you need to do to prepare: To begin using this capability, configure risk levels for Adaptive Protection in Insider Risk Management and add a new condition for risk levels for Adaptive Protection in new or existing DLP policies for Exchange, Teams, or Devices. You can also set up Adaptive Protection using the one-click activation option from the home page of Microsoft Purview compliance portal. With one click, Adaptive Protection will create an Insider Risk Management policy based on aggregated risk insights of anonymized user activities in your organization, set your risk levels for Adaptive Protection, and create a DLP policy in test mode. The default state of this feature is off. Get started with Adaptive Protection in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal > Insider risk management > Adaptive Protection References Learn about adaptive protection Learn about insider risk management Learn about data loss prevention Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies to manage security and compliance. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy. 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. MC795079 — Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management - Adaptive Protection - HR resignation date as a condition for risk level Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 124972 and 171748 Updated November 27, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Microsoft Purview: The feature to configure HR resignation date as a condition for risk level in Adaptive Protection will be rolling out to General Availability. We communicated the preview for this feature in MC681240 Adaptive Protection in Microsoft Purview: Public preview of HR resignation date as a condition for risk level (November 2023). When this will happen: General Availability: We will begin rolling out late June 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024 (previously late mid-November). How this will affect your organization: When the HR connector has been configured, admins with appropriate permissions can now select the HR resignation date as a condition to assign a minor, moderate, or elevated risk level. For example, an admin can configure the elevated risk level to be assigned when an HR resignation date is sent via the HR connector. What you need to do to prepare: No action is required for this update. To configure user’s risk level for Adaptive Protection, admins can visit Insider Risk Management > Adaptive Protection (preview) > risk levels for Adaptive Protection. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy. Additional Resources: You can access the Insider Risk Management solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. Home - Microsoft Purview Learn more about adaptive risk mitigation: Help dynamically mitigate risks with Adaptive Protection (preview) | Microsoft Learn MC788980 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: Granular trigger throttling Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 382130 Updated November 13, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon, Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management will be rolling out public preview of granular trigger throttling limits. When this will happen: Public Preview: We will begin rolling out late October 2024 (previously late August) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously late October). General Availability: We will begin rolling out early March 2025 (previously late December) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late January). How this will affect your organization: With this update, we are introducing more granular trigger throttling limits to isolate the impact of a surge in noisy trigger volumes and prevent other policies from being affected. This ensures that organizations can receive critical alerts without being throttled by these limits. By default, these throttling limits will be applied: All sensitive triggers, including HR signals, Azure AD leavers, and custom triggers, will be limited to 15,000 per day per trigger. All other triggers will be limited to 5,000 per day per trigger. Additionally, the policy health warning messages will be enhanced to assist admins with appropriate permissions in effectively identifying and addressing noisy triggers. What you need to do to prepare: No action is needed from you to prepare for this rollout. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy. You can access the Insider Risk Management solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. Learn more: Insider risk management | Microsoft Learn MC683661 — (Updated) Announcing GA of Admin units in Microsoft Purview Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 165027 Updated November 27, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below for DoD. Thank you for your patience. We’re rolling out a new capability in GCC, GCC-H, DoD 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. When this will happen: GCC, GCC-High: rollout will begin in late October 2023 and is expected to be complete by mid-May 2024. DoD: We will begin rolling out late October 2024 and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-November). 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 Investigate user scoped Activities and events in Activity Explorer Note- This Admin Units capability will be extended to Data Loss Prevention alerts in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal and can be tracked as part of the roadmap ID here: 162292 What you need to do to prepare: Get started with Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. Learn more: Permissions in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal Microsoft Outlook MC947045 — Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android: Attach emails while composing an email Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 464206 Coming soon for Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android users: In response to customer requests, we are rolling out the ability to attach emails directly in the compose window. This enhancement allows users to include individual emails as attachments in new messages, facilitating seamless sharing and providing more context for recipients. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025. How this will affect your organization: Before this rollout, users can forward emails as attachments but cannot attach emails while composing. After this rollout, users will notice a new Attach email option when they select the paper clip attachment icon in the compose window. Users can select this option to browse for, choose, and attach individual emails to their new message. This change is available by default. What you need to do to prepare: This change will happen automatically by the specified date. No admin action is required. Please notify your users about this change, update relevant documentation. MC946791 — Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android: Minimize the compose window to multitask in the Outlook app Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470304 Coming soon for Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android: Minimize draft emails and quickly access them again from the message list or calendar view. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025. How this will affect your organization: Outlook will help you compose emails more quickly and efficiently by allowing you to minimize your draft emails and quickly access them again from the message list or calendar view. This means that while composing an email you can easily get information you need from your calendar or other emails and easily get back into the draft you are working on without ever having to go to the Draft folder. To start, select the minimize icon in the upper right corner: This change will be on by default. What you need to do to prepare: This change will happen automatically by the specified date. No admin action is required. Please notify your users about this change and update relevant documentation. MC935641 — New Microsoft Outlook for Windows: Drag and drop to save attachments and emails (GCC) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 429869 Coming soon: Users will be able to download and save attachments and emails from the new Microsoft Outlook for Windows to their desktops or local folders by dragging and dropping them in the desired location. When this will happen: General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out early December 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, users will be able to drag and drop emails or attachments to their desktops or local folders: This feature will be 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 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. #newoutlookforwindows MC934729 — Microsoft Outlook: Reset people suggestions in Outlook search (GCC, GCC High, DoD) Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 467252 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 early December 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024. 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: 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 as appropriate. #newoutlookforwindows MC920306 — (Updated) Categorize single items in conversation view in new Microsoft Outlook for Windows and web Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 416450 Updated November 14, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. An updated feature in new Outlook for Windows and web will allow users to categorize individual emails within the conversation view, enhancing organization and tracking. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early December 2024 and expect to complete by early January 2025. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 (previously mid-November) 2024 and expect to complete by early February 2025 (previously mid-December). General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025. How this will affect your organization: Categories will continue to function as they currently do. This new functionality will allow users to add categories to individual email items when the user is using the conversion view mode, consistent with the functionality from the previous version of Outlook. 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. MC917748 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Outlook: Name pronunciation on the profile card Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 420329 Updated November 13, 2024: We will be shipping to preview without the admin toggle however an admin toggle will be available before general availability. If there are concerns or your organisation wants to opt out, please raise an incident to address this. Coming soon to Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams: A name pronunciation feature on the profile card in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Outlook. This new feature helps promote diversity by giving working colleagues relevant information about each other. Names are a crucial part of a person’s identity. The incorrect pronunciation of a person’s name can lead to anxiety and offense in some cases. Correctly pronouncing a person’s name helps to create an inclusive environment. Pronunciation data is stored in each user's mailbox until the user deletes the recording. Learn more: Data Residency for Exchange Online - Microsoft 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Teams for Mac desktop, new Outlook for Windows desktop, and new Outlook for web. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025. How this will affect your organization: After this rollout, users can record and share the correct pronunciation of their name on their profile card. With a click, users can play and listen to name pronunciations recorded by their colleagues. To open a profile card in Outlook, double-click a name in the To or From field in any sent or received email. To open your profile card in Teams, select your profile photo in the upper right corner of the screen, and then select your name. To listen to a colleague's recorded pronunciation, select the speaker icon on their profile card. To record the pronunciation of a name, open your profile card in Outlook or Teams, and select the microphone icon. What you need to do to prepare: This feature is off by default. As an admin, you can enable the feature in Microsoft Graph using these instructions: namePronunciationSettings resource type - Microsoft Graph beta | Microsoft Learn Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation. #newoutlookforwindows MC799635 — (Updated) Microsoft Outlook: Add shared folders to Favorites Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 388913 Updated November 19, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Coming soon for new Microsoft Outlook for Windows and Outlook for web: Users will be able to add shared folders to their Favorites list in the top left corner of the screen. This message does not apply to Outlook for Mac or Outlook for mobile devices. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early January 2025 (previously early November) and expect to complete by early February 2025 (previously early December). General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously early December) How this will affect your organization: This new functionality will enable users to add shared folders and individual folders from shared mailboxes to their Favorites. This means that users can easily access important folders from shared resources or individual colleagues, directly from their Favorites. Users can share calendars, or folders that contain mail, contacts, tasks, or notes. 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 as appropriate. Learn more: Open and use a shared mailbox in Outlook - Microsoft Support MC695487 — (Updated) Contact Unification across Outlook and Teams Updated November 12, 2024: We have updated the content and rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Today, users can see Outlook contacts created with their Entra ID (AAD) account in Teams, but contacts created in Teams are not available in Outlook. To provide a consistent experience we are making changes to allow Teams contacts, created with a user's Entra ID (AAD) account, to be visible in Outlook as well. Upcoming changes to contacts in Teams and Outlook: Currently, Teams and Outlook maintain separate contact lists for enterprise users. Based on your feedback, we plan to introduce a unified contact experience, ensuring a consistent contacts experience across Outlook and Teams. In future, changes to contacts in users’ organization (Entra ID) account in Teams will reflect in Outlook and vice versa. What's Happened so far: We have completed one round of migration of all Teams contacts to Outlook in January 2024. As a result, users may see more contacts in Outlook, namely those created in Teams and potentially Skype for Business contacts (if enabled). Existing Outlook contacts may also be enriched with additional details from corresponding Teams contacts. Teams users can see Outlook contacts but cannot edit them inside Teams. What's Coming: Users will gradually upgrade to the new unified experience from December 2024. The new experience will be enabled for each user across all endpoints (Desktop, Mobile, Devices etc.) simultaneously. Once the new experience is enabled for a user, they will see same set of contacts in Outlook and Teams. Any change in Outlook will reflect in Teams and vice versa. All Teams contact changes (creations and edits) made since January will be included in the unified store. During creations, a small set of users may see duplicate contacts in the unified store. To help users navigate the transition, category label ‘Teams Conflict’ will be applied to duplicate contacts. This label will help users see any conflicts (duplicates or inconsistencies) that need their attention. When this will happen: This activity is expected to be completed for all active users by April 2025 tentatively. Once this activity is complete, users will work with a single contact list across Teams and Outlook. How this will affect your organization: Once this change is complete, users will be able to see created contacts across both Outlook and Teams and vice versa. What you need to do to prepare: Action Required: Update your organisation documentation and training materials to reflect the upcoming changes for the new unified contact experience. You may consider updating your training and documentation as appropriate. If users wish to retain a snapshot of their existing contacts in Outlook, please encourage users to back-up their existing contacts using the export capability in Outlook. Exchange Online MC910986 — (Updated) Microsoft Exchange Online: Optional Help file parameter in Microsoft PowerShell will change Updated November 19, 2024: We have updated the timeline below. Thank you for your patience. In Exchange Online PowerShell (EXO) V3.0, we introduced the Connect-ExchangeOnline cmdlet to connect to the Microsoft Exchange Online environment through Microsoft PowerShell, which loads the help file by default. This help file is required for running the Get-Help cmdlet. However, not many customers used the Get-Help cmdlet. In EXO V3.3, we added the -SkipLoadingCmdletHelp parameter. When -SkipLoadingCmdletHelp is used with Connect-ExchangeOnline, help files do not load the on the customer system, which saves resources. However, starting with EXO V3.7, we are changing this default behavior. The Help file will not be loaded by default, and a new parameter -LoadCmdletHelp will be required to load the cmdlet help and use the Get-Help cmdlet. To avoid breaking existing scripts, the -SkipLoadingCmdletHelp parameter will continue exist, but will not function. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide): The changes will be available in EXO V3.7 (the next release of our EXO V3 module) in late November 2024 (previously early November). How this will affect your organization: Starting with EXO V3.7, if you want to use the Get-Help cmdlet, you will have to use the parameter -LoadCmdletHelp along with Connect-ExchangeOnline. What you need to do to prepare: This message only applies to customers who upgrade their EXO module version to 3.7.0. Earlier versions will not be affected by these changes. 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. Learn more Connect-ExchangeOnline (ExchangePowerShell) | Microsoft Learn(will be updated before rollout) Get-Help (Microsoft.PowerShell.Core) - PowerShell | Microsoft Learn Download an EXO module from PowerShell Gallery | ExchangeOnlineManagement 3.6.0. MC886603 — (Updated) Reject multiple From addresses (P2 From headers) without a Sender header Updated November 6, 2024: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. Starting February 3 (previously December 1), we're going to start gradually dropping messages that have multiple From addresses (also known as P2 From headers) without a Sender header from being sent via Exchange Online. If we see significant traffic exhibiting multiple From addresses (P2 From headers) without a Sender header in your tenant in the month of September, we will send you a Message Center Post by October 15th alerting you and providing some sample message IDs. We are doing this to comply with RFC 5322 (https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5322#section-3.6.2) which mandates the Sender header to be present and contain a single address if the From header has more than one address. Noncompliance with this could be exploited by attackers, allowing them to impersonate a sender address by misleading the client into using the From header to determine the sender instead of the Sender header. When this will happen: February 3, 2025 (previously December 1st) We are delaying the rollout start date from December to February 3rd 2025 in order to provide more time to customers for investigating messages exhibiting multiple P2 From Addresses without a Sender Address. Most of the traffic exhibiting multiple P2 From Addresses without a Sender Address will be inbound spam destined for your tenant sent by malicious spammers on the internet. Some customers are sending legitimate emails with this malformed header configuration. On October 15, we sent a targeted MC post to customers showing high volumes of messages exhibiting multiple P2 From Addresses without a Sender Address as they may be impacted by this change. For investigating if you will be impacted by this change, focus your investigation on messages sent using On Premises Inbound Connectors to Exchange Online. Authenticated mail submission is not impacted because submitting messages like this using those submissions are not allowed (Graph, Outlook clients, SMTP AUTH Client Submission). How this affects your organization: If email clients including devices and applications that you use to send messages, do so using multiple From addresses but without a Sender address header after December 1st, you will get an NDR error code 550 5.1.20 “Multiple From addresses are not allowed without Sender address’”. What you can do to prepare: When this change is in effect, if you need to send a message that has more than one email address in the From field, make sure that you have a single email address in the Sender header. If you expect this change to cause any issues for your organization, please share that feedback. MC787382 — (Updated) Exchange Online to introduce External Recipient Rate Limit Updated November 15, 2024: 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 MC923419 — (Updated) Microsoft Loop: Configure guest sharing for tenants with sensitivity labels Updated November 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 early January 2025 (previously early December). 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: 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. MC922626 — (Updated) Microsoft Forms: New streamlined and modernized experience Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 400715 Updated November 19, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Microsoft Forms is updating the end-to-end experience with a new appearance for the portal page, form creation, and response analysis. Users can toggle between upgraded templates as they create their form and then view insights and suggested actions when the responses come in. When this will happen: General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late October 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously early November). How this will affect your organization: Employees who use Microsoft Forms will get the new UI experience after release. In the portal page, templates are organized into four categories – Feedback, Registration, Research, and Quiz. As users enter the design page, they'll find a wide selection of templates displayed in the left-side pane. They can browse and switch between different types/topics. In the right-hand pane, from the Style button, the users can select a style from our suggestions or personalize their own. Additionally, they can choose the layout for the cover page of the invitation. The results page has also has a new design. Users can now quickly analyze responses with charts and graphs, making the data easier to interpret for more effective analysis. This new feature is available by default. Learn more: Revamped Forms experience is now available for commercial users. 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. MC889526 — Microsoft Project for the Web rollout in GCCH Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 416299 Updated November 26, 2024: The toggle to enable or disable Microsoft Project for the web in your organization is available now, please review the Turn Project for the web or Roadmap on or off for users in your organization. Beginning on mid-December 2024 (previously mid-October), Project for the web and Roadmap will be rolling out to Project Plan 3 and Project Plan 5 subscribers. After the roll out completes, these subscribers will have the new Project for the web app and Roadmap capability along with the existing Project Online service and Project Online desktop client. Please note that this rollout does not include the new Planner app. New service plans to support Home, Roadmap and Project for the web. Two new service plans will be appearing in your tenant: Project P3 (PROJECT_P3_USGOV) Data integration for Project with Power Automate for GCC High (FLOW_FOR_PROJECT_USGOV_GCCHIGH) Note: Common Data Service for Project (DYN365_CDS_FOR_PROJECT_OFFICE) was previously deployed is required for these services to function. These plans provision the services that directly support the infrastructure to run Roadmap and Project for the web. Project for the web: The roll out of this modern, reenergized project management experience gives you and your teams a simple, yet powerful tool to manage work – from quick projects to more complex initiatives. Designed for collaboration, Project makes it easy for anyone to contribute to a project and share updates across the team. And because Project is now built on the Microsoft Power Platform, you have the flexibility to customize and extend your solution that best suits your business needs. Roadmap: The rollout of this capability will give users in your organization a cross-functional, big picture view of all projects underway. With Roadmap, you can create timeline views of multiple projects—complete with key dates and milestones—so that all the work is visible in one place. When this will happen: On or after October 16, 2024: New service plans will deploy and Admins will have the option to enable or disable Project for the Web. On or after November 16, 2024: The service rollout begins and will complete by December 2024. How this affects your organization: New service plans to support Roadmap and Project for the web. On or after October 16, 2024, the service plans will be “on” by default for active Project Plan 3 and Project Plan 5 subscribers. Additionally, the new Project-specific version of Power Automate will enable the features in Roadmap and Project for the web. Project for the web. On or after November 16, 2024, the new Project for the web service will roll out to active Project Plan 3 and Project Plan 5 subscribers. Once the Project app tile within the Microsoft 365 app launcher is clicked, your users automatically will be directed to Project Home where they can work on either Project Online or Project for the web projects. To get started with Project for the web, within Project “Home,” click the “New blank project” button at the top of the page to build your new project plan in Project for the web! What you can do to prepare: New service plans to support Roadmap and Project for the web. There are no actions for you to take or costs to incur associated with this update. Project for the web and Roadmap. As referenced above, the service plans that enable Project for the web and Roadmap are “on” by default. Please review the Turn Project for the web or Roadmap on or off for users in your organization article to help you determine if the toggles should be "on" or "off" for your organization before November 16, 2024. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Project for the web get started guide for administrators Handling data for Project Project blog on Tech Communityfor the latest news Go to the Project Service Descriptionto understand what Project for the web includes. We welcome your feedback so please provide either by clicking on the black “Feedback” button in the lower right-hand corner of the canvas. Documentation - Office 365 IP Address and URL web service October 31, 2024 - GCC September 30, 2024 - GCC High September 30, 2024 - DOD
