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References and Information Resources |
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”.
New to filtering the roadmap for GCC specific changes? Try this:
Stay on top of Office 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
- Compliance (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- Enterprise Mobility & Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (GCC, GCCH)
- Microsoft Cloud App Security (GCCH)
- Microsoft Defender for Identity Security (GCCH)
- Azure Information Protection Premium
- Exchange Online (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- SharePoint (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- OneDrive (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- Teams (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- Office ProPlus (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- PowerApps (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- Power Automate US Government (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- Power BI (GCC, GCCH)
- Planner (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- Outlook Mobile (GCC, GCCH, DoD)
- My Analytics (GCCH, DoD)
- Dynamics 365 US Government
Be a Learn-it-All |
April Webinars & Remote Work Resources
April Edition Sections:
- Highlighted
- Microsoft Teams – IT Admins & Planning
- Microsoft Teams – End Users & Champions
- Security & Compliance
- Device Management
- Blogs & Articles of Interest
Microsoft Teams for US Government Adoption Guide
Newsworthy Highlights |
What’s New in Microsoft Teams | February and March 2021
Features currently available to Microsoft’s commercial customers in multi-tenant cloud environments are now rolling out to our customers in US Government Community Cloud (GCC), US Government Community Cloud High (GCC-High), and/or United States Department of Defense (DoD).
Information Governance and Records Management is generally available to GCC, GCC High, and DoD
We are excited to announce the general availability of Microsoft 365 Information Governance and Records Management for the Government Community Cloud (GCC), GCC High, and Department of Defense (DoD) customers. These capabilities provide government organizations with significantly greater depth in governing critical data.
Microsoft Federal Collaboration and Cybersecurity Summit
A FREE half-day virtual event designed to advance U.S. Federal agencies collaboration and cybersecurity initiatives. Our theme this year is “Transforming Intergovernmental Collaboration and Cybersecurity.”
Power-up Microsoft 365 with the Power Platform
Some of Microsoft 365’s greatest business impact can be achieved using the Power Platform family of technologies. PowerApps, Power Automate, and PowerBI are a core part of the Microsoft 365 experience and empower both citizen developers and IT to meet the mission needs of the organization.
Using SharePoint Look Book in your GCC High Tenant (New PNP)
This article replaces the previous article, which used the – now legacy – version of PnP PowerShell.
Microsoft Intune in GCC and GCC High Overview + CMMC Applications
Microsoft Intune is now part of Microsoft Endpoint Manager, a suite that includes Intune and Configuration Manager.
Planner in Message center, more labels are coming for all government cloud customers
We’re excited to announce that both Planner in Message center and the 25 color-coded labels are coming to all Microsoft 365 and Office 365 government cloud offerings, including GCC, GCC High, and DoD.
Modernizing Security for Government Datacenters
Hear how we enable resource constrained government customers to meet security challenges with Microsoft Cloud Security tools powered by Azure.
Reimagining Government Services with Digital Identity
In this session learn how governments are deploying secure technology solutions for authenticating citizen requests and program delivery, via business methods that are not dependent on presenting documents
Release News
When users share files and folders, they can decide whether to let people edit or just view them. With this change, users have the ability to change permissions more easily from the OneDrive/SharePoint share controls.
Users will soon be able to use Microsoft Teams to schedule their out of office message
Block BCC Messages to Distribution Groups
Customers now have the ability to prevent specific Distribution Lists from being BCC’d
Group Membership Management (GMM) tool is available on GitHub
The Group Membership Management (GMM) tool is a .NET service that generates a parent group membership roster by regularly synchronizing it with memberships from specified Security or Microsoft 365 groups
Customers have a new button available allowing them to see analytics for a page
The new SharePoint Page Analytics feature will introduce analytics for SharePoint pages and news posts. Users will be able to see the number of viewers on all SharePoint pages in addition to seeing information about how users interact with the page or news post.
Microsoft is working with key partners to allow customers to create electronic signature approval using Adobe Sign, DocuSign and other third-party providers natively within the Approval app. By simply choosing the electronic signature provider and adding the details, signers are notified with an email and can easily review and sign. The Approvals app will keep track of the entire workflow right in context within Teams. This feature will start rolling out in April.
As part of updating the command bar at the top of Microsoft Lists, we are introducing a new top-level menu item: ‘Integrate.’ This is the home for features that help extend list experiences. To start, existing command buttons for Power Apps and Power Automate will move into Integrate, as they are integrated technologies and experiences.
Organizations with diverse users may benefit by having content in their intranet sites available in multiple languages. With this new feature, site owners can set up a multilingual experience on modern Communication sites.
Microsoft is changing how 1:1 call recording is enabled. 1:1 call recording was previously controlled by setting the -AllowCloudRecording parameter in -CsTeamsMeetingPolicy. This is changing to allow 1:1 call recording to be controlled by its own policy.
Updated layouts for meetings on Android
We’re improving the Teams experience on Android devices with a new presentation mode, the ability to see more participants, and the ability to see shared content and a spotlighted participant concurrently.
Meeting organizers can customize the experience for meeting attendees using the ‘Meeting options’ setting in Microsoft Teams or Microsoft Outlook. Clicking the link, the organizer will be shown the options that can be configured for that meeting. Meeting options are currently configured via a web browser.
Microsoft Forms is adding the ability for responders to receive a copy of their responses
Once this feature is enabled, anonymous users will be able to download/print a copy of their responses after submitting the form. Non-anonymous users will be able to chose whether they receive an email receipt of their responses and also will be able to print/download a copy of their responses after submitting a form.
The ability to print a blank form or quiz in Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms is adding the ability for form designer to print a blank form or quiz for any respondent who is unable to complete the form online due to the respondent being in an area with no Internet or computer or perhaps the respondent has an injury as a few examples.
Currently the 32-bit version of OneDrive is automatically installed on all Windows 10 devices. The 64-bit version of OneDrive will be available as a public preview soon and it will be the right choice if users plan to use large files, a lot of files and if they have a computer that’s running a 64-bit version of Windows.
Message Center Highlights |
MC246710 – New experience of the Participant roster – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80385
We are changing how the Participant list is displayed for the Lobby, In meeting, Presenters, and Attendees participant sections in a Microsoft Teams meeting (desktop clients and Teams on the web).
When this will happen?
This change is rolling out late March 2021 through mid-April.
How this will affect your organization?
A maximum of 20 participants for each of the sections will be displayed in the initial view, with an option to drill in and view all participants within that section. In the lobby view, meeting organizers can review the full list before admitting all into the meeting.
· The roster will display details of up to 260 of the most active participants in the meeting arranged in alphabetical order.
· There are no changes to the participants action menu.
MC246708 – Improved search experience in the participant roster – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80421
We are expanding the search experience for Teams meeting attendees who wish to examine the participant roster when using Teams desktop or Teams on the web. This feature update does not apply to Teams mobile.
When this will happen?
Rollout will begin in late March and should be complete in mid-April 2021.
How this will affect your organization?
From the search box in the roster, users can now search in meeting participants and take action on them. They can continue to search for participants outside the meeting and request that they join the meeting.
MC246706 – Updating Teams live event “Always Record” recording policy
We are changing the behavior of the ‘Never record’ recording policy for Microsoft Teams live events.
Key points:
· Timing: late April
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Control type: user control and admin control
· Action: review and assess by April 26, 2021
How this will affect your organization?
Before this update, the Teams live events organizer could enable attendee recordings despite your having set the Teams live event Recording policy to ‘Never record.’
With this change, when the Teams Live Event Recording policy is set to ‘Never record’, all live events will have the recordings disabled for everyone: the presenter, organizer, and attendees.
There are now three policy settings:
· Always record
· Never record
· Organizer can record or not
What you need to do to prepare?
In the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to Meetings > Live events policies.
· Set the recording policy to ‘Organizer can record or not’ if you wish to grant Teams Live Event organizers the ability choose whether or not to record a live event.
· If you do not wish to grant organizers that autonomy, then use the ‘Never record’ policy.
You can also manage these policies using Windows PowerShell.
Learn more: Teams Live Event Recording policies.
MC246704 – Improvements in managing attendee audio in Microsoft Teams Meetings
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80261
Teams meeting organizers and presenters who use the attendee audio management feature will have greater flexibility to determine when attendees can use their microphone.
These updates apply to Teams desktop apps, Teams mobile apps, and Teams on the web.
When this will happen?
· Rollout will begin with production and GCC tenants in early April and should be complete by late April.
· Rollout will begin to GCCH and DOD tenants in early May and should be complete by late May.
How this will affect your organization?
After scheduling a meeting and sending invitations, the meeting organizer can prevent attendees from unmuting during the meeting. With this setting enabled, all attendees (but not presenters) will be muted when they join the meeting and they won’t be able to unmute themselves.
In the current state, attendees must raise their hand to request to speak before a meeting organizer or presenter can allow the attendee to unmute.
· With this update, an organizer or presenter can enable the mic of an attendee by selecting “Allow to unmute” for an attendee who can’t unmute, whether or not that person has raised their hand.
In the current state, in order to prevent an individual attendee from unmuting (thereby disabling the attendee’s mic), a meeting organizer or presenter must prevent all attendees from unmuting.
· With this update, the organizer or presenter can disable an individual attendee’s ability to use their microphone by selecting “Don’t allow to unmute” for that attendee. Later, they may enable the microphone for that attendee by selecting “Allow to unmute” on the attendee.
Organizers and presenters cannot prevent attendees who dial in to a meeting using the phone number provided in the meeting details from unmuting. This functionality is in development. Further, organizers and presenters joining from Teams meeting room devices still cannot modify attendee ability to use their microphone.
MC246703 – Supervised Chat for Teams private chats – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 81359
To prevent inappropriate messaging behavior, many institutions have had to disable private chat in Microsoft Teams. Now, we’re excited to bring this new release of Teams Supervised Chat that will block restricted users from starting new chats unless an appropriate supervisor is present. This will roll out across Microsoft Teams Desktop, Web and Mobile.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out in mid-April and expect to complete rollout by early May 2021.
How this will affect your organization?
Supervised Chat blocks restricted users from starting new chats unless an appropriate supervisor is present. When chat supervision is enabled, supervisors aren’t allowed to leave chats and other participants aren’t allowed to remove them ensuring that all chats are properly supervised.
This feature can be enabled in any environment, but it is ideal for educational institutions who want to ensure that students can only chat when an educator is present. To get the most from supervised chat, each user in your environment needs to be assigned a specific chat permission role.
Note:
· These limitations are only applied to new private chats that are created after supervised chat has been fully enabled.
· They do not apply to existing private chats, meetings chats nor channels.
What you need to do to prepare?
Supervised chat is default off. Supervised chat can be enabled through Teams policies or using a PowerShell cmdlet.
MC246446 – Outlook – Suggested replies available for GCC subscriptions
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70719
Outlook on the web, iOS, and Android are rolling out suggested replies to customers with government licenses in GCC in the following languages: Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
When this will happen?
· Outlook mobile will begin rollout in early April 2021 and be completed by mid-June 2021.
· Outlook on the web will begin rollout in early April 2021 and be completed by mid-April 2021.
How this will affect your organization?
When this feature rolls out to your tenant, your users will see three options for suggested replies if people are having an email conversation in Outlook on the web, iOS or Android in any of the supported languages.
· Chinese (Simplified)
· English
· French
· German
· Italian
· Portuguese
· Spanish.
Users can select a suggested reply and still have the option to keep editing until they click or tap on “send”.
MC246442 – Announcing mandatory labeling policy in Office apps for Gov clouds
This feature is associated with Microsoft Roadmap ID 70789 and will be supported on all platforms (Windows/Mac/iOS/Android/Web) for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Microsoft Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) will soon support the enforcement of the Microsoft Information Protection policy setting, Require users to apply a label, before they can save documents or send emails.
When this will happen?
Rollout will begin in late March and is expected to be complete by end of May 2021.
How this will affect your organization?
The following enhancements will soon be available to your organization:
· Office apps will enforce the existing policy setting to ‘Require users to apply a label to their emails or documents’ in the Microsoft 365 compliance center under Information protection > Label policies.
· Office apps will display a new dialog to enforce users to select a label before they can save unlabeled documents or send mail.
What you need to do to prepare?
This feature will not be enabled by default.
· Admins must enable the policy setting Require users to apply a label to their emails or documents in the Microsoft 365 compliance center (Information protection > Label policies).
· For admins that already have this policy enabled in their tenant, this feature will be enabled as soon rollout is completed.
Learn more about label policies and sensitivity labels.
MC246415 – Final Reminder: Regional Discovery Service retiring beginning on April 21, 2021
This impacts exclusively public and sovereign deployments of the Regional Discovery Service (RDS). The on-premises Discovery Service continues to be fully supported.
Microsoft announced the deprecation and the retirement of the regional Discovery Service on March 2, 2020. It is replaced by a single global Discovery Service accessed through the existing ‘discovery’ OData V4 RESTful endpoint.
Why are we making this change?
Microsoft has replaced the service with a new improved Global Discovery Service (GDS) based on a modern software architecture designed to provide a single place to efficiently discover business organization instances without knowledge of user’s region.
With Global Discovery service you can take advantage of Microsoft’s future investments in the performance, reliability, and capabilities.
· Get all the organization instances given a tenant Id
· Get all the organization instances that a given a user Id has access to
· Additionally, the global Discovery Service exposes additional properties about your business organization instances such as TenantId, Purpose, LastUpdated, etc.
MC246403 – RBAC for External Admins in Microsoft Cloud App Security is changing
Microsoft Cloud App Security is aligning with other Microsoft Security products that use Azure AD B2B when working with external admins. Using Azure AD B2B allows your organization to improve its security in accordance with best practices and apply governance policies to external administrators.
Key points:
· Timing: We will roll out this change at the end of April and expect to complete by the mid-May.
· Action: review and assess the impact for your organization. If your organization is directly impacted by this change you will receive a notification via Message center.
If you do not receive a targeted message stating your tenant is affected, please take note of this process for any future implementations of external admins for your environment.
How does this affect your organization?
After the change, external admin will be configured through Azure AD B2B as opposed to MCAS.
MC246221 – Multiple Spotlights coming to Teams meetings – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80425
This release of Multiple spotlights in Teams meetings will allow organizers and presenters to spotlight up to 7 participants simultaneously for everyone to see during meetings and will roll out across Microsoft Teams Desktop, and on the Web.
When this will happen?
This feature will rollout from mid-April through the end of April.
How this will affect your organization?
Users, when they are the meeting presenters or organizers, can now spotlight more participants in Team meetings than ever before. The spotlighting of selected participants will be maintained on their videos or avatars for everyone to see until turned off by the presenter or organizer.
Presenters/organizers can now:
· Start spotlight on multiple participants by accessing their context menu from the participant roster or from the stage
· Stop individual spotlights or stop all spotlights in bulk from the roster
· Spotlight a maximum of 7 participants simultaneously in a meeting
MC246220 – Expanded emoji picker in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 81403
The expanded emoji update brings users the fun and expressiveness they love into their Teams messages, along with a wider range of diverse emojis, a necessity for our diverse and widespread user base. This expansion is available for Teams desktop apps (Windows and Mac), Teams mobile (Android and iOS), and Teams on the web.
When this will happen?
Roll out begins late April and should be complete late May.
MC246000 – Microsoft Teams to allow only organization participants to bypass the meeting lobby – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 81376
We are updating the Microsoft Teams Meeting lobby settings to enable organization participants to skip the lobby while holding guests in the lobby until they are admitted. This feature is applicable to Teams desktop apps, Teams mobile apps, and Teams on the web.
When this will happen?
Rollout begins late March and should be complete early-April.
How this will affect your organization?
Currently, meeting organizers can choose to allow all or selected users to bypass the meeting lobby.
MC245998 – Microsoft Teams: Call Merge – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 66054
Call Merge gives end users the capability to merge their active unheld 1:1 call into another 1:1 call or another group call. This applies to Teams VOIP calls and PSTN calls.
When this will happen?
This feature will start rolling out in late March and will complete rollout by mid-April.
MC245996 – Prevent/Fix Reminder: Modern Lifecycle Policy and Teams Desktop Client
As announced in MC193099, October 2019, we will be advising users to update to the latest version of Teams to ensure that users have the latest capabilities, performance enhancements, security features, and service reliability. Users who are on old versions of Teams will receive in-app notifications to encourage them to update to the latest version of Teams. In the near future, users with Teams desktop clients that are more than 3 months old will encounter a redirect page notifying them to update now or continue to Teams on the web.
In preparation for this, we have been progressively rolling out these in-app notifications in phases and as announced in MC224524, October 2020, users who are on the following versions would receive a banner notifying them to update for a grace period of 28 days, followed by a re-direct page:
· Windows: 1.3.00.19173 and below
· Mac: 1.3.00.18164 and below
Following this phase our servicing agreement will be placed in full effect.
Teams desktop clients on Government Clouds or those with VDI installations currently have an exception to this servicing agreement until further notice.
MC245995 – Expanding access to My Day from Outlook on the web to Office.com
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 72174
We are expanding access to My Day from Outlook on the web to Office.com.
When this will happen?
· Targeted release: late March
· Standard release: ending in early May
How this will affect your organization?
My Day is a summary panel that currently provides quick access to calendar events and tasks while using Outlook on the web. With this update, end users will also be able to access this information across Office.com.
MC245847 – Microsoft Lists: new Integrate drop-down menu, powered by SharePoint
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 64869
As part of updating the command bar at the top of Microsoft Lists, we are introducing a new top-level menu item: Integrate. This is the home for features that help extend list experiences.
When this will happen?
· Targeted Release (organization) rollout begins late March; Standard Release rollout should be complete mid-April.
MC245826 – Teams desktop: Date/time format matches Mac and Windows OS language settings – GCC
With this update, date/time formats in Teams will match the Mac and Windows OS regional settings on desktop. Previously, Teams would only show date/time in the format corresponding to the application language.
When this will happen?
Standard and GCC: Rollout starts mid-April, and completes in late April.
How this will affect your organization?
If users in your organization have regional settings set to a language different than the application language, their date and time formatting will now reflect the appropriate date/time format for your OS regional setting.
Note: Only the Gregorian calendar is supported, regardless of the OS calendar setting.
MC245824 – Customizable Praise for Microsoft Teams – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80913
The Praise app in Microsoft Teams is designed to help recognize the effort that goes into the wide range of work that Teams users do.
With this update, we have added Praise settings to the Microsoft Teams admin center.
When this will happen?
Rollout is expected in late April 2021.
How this will affect your organization?
Nothing in Praise will change until you take action. With this change, you can upload up to 25 custom Praise badges and disable the current default Praise badges.
This update includes a set of Praise badges designed for educators and educator organizations. If you would like to use them in your organization, enable them in the Teams admin center.
MC245819 – Updated: Outlook for iOS and Android – Sync additional contact folders as category labels
Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs 69139 and 71507
As we announced in December 2019 (MC232127), users who have set up additional contact folders in Outlook on the web, or in Outlook for Windows or Mac, see those folders as a new category in Outlook mobile (iOS and Android). The category label corresponds to the folder name in Outlook on the web or Outlook for Windows or Mac.
The rollout has been delayed to ensure a quality experience for our customers; we apologize for any inconvenience. In addition, we would like to provide updated information about this feature.
Key points:
· Timing: end of January through the end of April (was February)
· Roll-out: device level
· Action: review and assess
How this will affect your organization?
Users who have set up additional contact folders in Outlook on the web, or Outlook for Windows or Mac, will see those folders as a new categories in Outlook Mobile.
The category label will correspond to the folder name. As part of the synchronization, each category is assigned a color.
· If a user has created a single additional contact folder, we will create a category and assign it a category color.
· If a user has created multiple folders, we will create a category for each folder and assign it to the associated contacts. Users will have the option to upgrade those categories and assign them a color if needed.
· Changes to category labels in Outlook mobile will not affect folders in the other Outlook experiences.
Users will see changes to the Contact list by navigating to Search > People (iOS) or by navigating to Contacts (Android).
MC245302 – PowerPoint Live in Teams: Slide Translation
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80601
This new slide translation feature in Microsoft Teams (desktop) will enable all meeting attendees to translate presentation content, presented via PowerPoint Live in a Teams meeting, into a language of their choice while in private view.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out in early April and expect to complete rollout by late April.
How this will affect your organization?
Meeting attendees will see the slide translation feature when the presenter uses PowerPoint Live in a Teams meeting. Each meeting attendee will be able to convert the slide show content into one of nineteen languages of their preference. This unique experience will only occur for the user requesting slide translation without interrupting the presenter or any other attendees in the meeting.
PowerPoint slide translation available in nineteen languages.
MC245301 – Microsoft Teams: Supporting outgoing video in Safari – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 81381
Disclaimer: Only for users of MacOS and Safari 14 or higher.
Previously, some of the Microsoft Teams web app calling and meeting features were not supported on Safari. Users could not use their camera.
We’re excited that this new Microsoft Teams web app feature release will allow MacOS users to now be able to use their camera during meetings in Safari, enabling other meeting participants to see their video.
When this will happen?
We will begin and complete rollout in late March.
MC245144 – Updates available for Microsoft 365 Apps for Current Channel
We’ve released updates to the following update channel for Microsoft 365 Apps:
· Current Channel
When this will happen?
We’ll be gradually rolling out this update of Microsoft 365 Apps to users on that update channel starting March 19th, 2021 (PST).
MC245020 – Prevent attendees from sharing video feed in Microsoft Teams Meetings – GCCH
Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs 80221 and 80224
Meeting organizers and presenters will be able to prevent meeting attendees from turning their camera on to share video during a meeting. Currently meeting organizers and presenters have no control over whether meeting attendees can share video.
When this will happen?
Rollout begins mid-May and should complete in late May.
How this will affect your organization?
By default, meeting attendees will be able to turn their camera on or off to share video, which is the current experience.
There are three ways that meeting organizers or presenters may manage the attendees’ camera.
Before a meeting, the meeting organizer can set Enable camera for attendees to Off from the Meeting Options web page. By default this is on, which means that attendees can turn share their video feed. Note that this change does not mean attendees will be forced to share video.
MC245019 – New predictive coding module in Advanced eDiscovery – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70805
eDiscovery managers will soon have access to an enhanced predictive coding module without moving data outside the Microsoft 365 security and compliance boundary. They will be able to create and train models within Advanced eDiscovery using as few as 50 documents.
When this will happen?
Timing: available as preview release in mid-April
How this will affect your organization?
As part of this preview release, eDiscovery managers can organize content for review faster by using as few as 50 items in their initial training round of relevant and non-relevant content.
· eDiscovery managers who already have access to a review set will have additional access to this new predictive coding module when it is available in public preview.
· These admins can create and train relevance models to prioritize review of documents starting with the most responsive/relevance items.
MC244912 – Focus mode for Modern SharePoint pages – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70800
We’re excited to share that this coming release will enable SharePoint page authors and viewers to focus on a greater amount of page content by hiding the site header, site navigation, and global navigation bar with one click.
When this will happen?
Rollout begins with targeted release (select user and organization) in late March and will be complete in late April.
GA begins rolling out in early May and will be complete by late May.
How this will affect your organization?
Your SharePoint page authors and viewers will now be able to clean their field of vision and focus on page content by clicking the Expand content button on the command bar to hide the site header, site navigation, and global navigation bar.
This larger content viewing pane in Focus mode will continue as viewers navigate and select other links to open pages within the same site.
MC244887 – Excel for the Web Usability Enhancements
Delighting our customers with faster, smoother, and richer experiences in Excel for the web is an uncompromised goal across our Excel team. We recently added performance improvements to Excel for the Web scenarios (see MC239095) and today we’re announcing several features to help customers better navigate and manipulate Excel for the web files in a browser.
In response to customer feedback, this represents the next set of improvements targeting Navigational and Usability enhancements in Excel for the web. This communication is meant to highlight the changes our customers are asking for, and to reaffirm our commitment and ongoing investment in Excel for the web rich end user experiences.
Microsoft is on a pathway to add smoother and richer navigational experiences to Excel for the web starting with these scenarios: easier worksheet navigation, multiple range selection, zooming in / out, enabling Excel keyboard shortcuts by default, enabling Version history, and managing Regional settings.
How this will affect your organization?
When using Excel for the web, the following scenarios have been optimized for usability and navigational experiences:
· Easier worksheet navigation: When opening an Excel workbook with multiple worksheets, users can now jump directly to the worksheet they want. Simply click on the new All Sheets button in the lower left corner and then select the desired worksheet.
· Multiple range selection: Users can now select multiple ranges which are not adjacent to each other, and fill color (or copy-and paste). Holding the Ctrl key now enables selecting multiple ranges.
· Zoom in/out: Excel for the web now supports multiple ways to zoom in/out. Zoom in for a close-up view of your data or zoom out for an overview of the worksheet. New Zoom methods include: Pinch/stretch to zoom on touch screen or trackpad, Ctrl + mouse wheel, Ctrl Alt +/- key, Click the +/- button or selecting a predefined zoom level from 25% to 200% in the bottom right corner of the screen
· Excel keyboard shortcuts by default: Excel for the web now supports keyboard shortcuts by default (e.g. Keyboard shortcuts like Alt, Ctrl-1, Ctrl-Shift-A, etc., now go to Excel for the web and not the browser). To see the list of Excel keyboard shortcuts, click on the Help tab and select Keyboard Shortcuts. Note: The Override browser shortcuts setting is checked by default.
· Version history: Users can now view and restore previous versions of Excel files using version history. Users can track activities in the workbook by others, collaborate with others and revert to a previous version as needed.
· Regional settings: Users can now change regional settings in Excel for the web to set their date/time, number, and currency formats.
MC244885 – (Updated) Adding Quick Permissions to the OneDrive/SharePoint Share Control
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70806
Updated March 25, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
This new feature will enable OneDrive/SharePoint share control users to more easily change permissions when sharing links.
When this will happen?
Targeted release (entire org): Begin rolling out in late March and expect to complete rollout by early April.
GA: Begin rolling out in late March (previously early April and expect to complete rollout by early April (previously mid-April).
How this will affect your organization?
This will impact any user who interact with the OneDrive/SharePoint share control.
MC244748 – Updates to Microsoft Defender for Office events in Office 365 Management API
We have been working to meet the extensibility requirements of our customers who are using our detection information within custom tools. As part of this effort, we are enhancing the information around email detections within the Office 365 Management API.
When this will happen?
Feature rollout is from the end of March through mid-May.
How this will affect your organization?
We are introducing new fields within email message events for Defender for Office 365 (RecordType 28). These new fields are:
· Delivery Action (original delivery action) – This would help you identify what was the original delivery action on the email.
· Original Delivery Location – This would help you identify the original delivery location of the email.
· Latest Delivery location – This would help you identify the latest delivery location of the email for an event. For best
· Directionality of an email – This would help you identify if an email was inbound, outbound or an intra-org message.
· ThreatsAndDetectionTech – This would help you identify the threats and the corresponding detection technologies. This field will expose all the threats on an email, including our latest addition on spam verdict. An example of this would be : [“Phish: Spoof DMARC“,”Spam: URL malicious reputation“]
These details already exist within our hunting experiences like Threat Explorer and Email entity page, and we are extending them to the API.
MC244747 – Forms response receipt – MVP2 support for GCC/GCC-High/DoD
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70803
With this update, forms designers can provide two ways respondents can make a copy of their responses to a form.
When this will happen?
Rollout is in late March.
How this will affect your organization?
When a Forms designer turns on confirmation emails in settings, Forms will send a confirmation email to in-tenant respondents who have completed a form. That email contains a link which allows the respondent to print a copy of their responses.
MC244746 – Forms Design Page Printing – Support for GCC/GCCH/DoD
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70804
With this update, a Forms owner will be able to print a blank form for any respondent who is unable to complete the form online.
When this will happen?
Rollout is in late March.
How this will affect your organization?
The Forms owner can print any form or quiz on paper or as a PDF if they choose PDF printer using the browser print dialog. Form owners can then distribute the printed version as needed. Perhaps they need to administer the form in an area with no computers/internet or to a student who can’t use a computer for some reason.
MC244745 – Prevent attendees from sharing video feed in Microsoft Teams Meetings – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs 70620 and 70621
Meeting organizers and presenters will be able to prevent meeting attendees from turning their camera on to share video during a meeting. Currently meeting organizers and presenters have no control over whether meeting attendees can share video.
When this will happen?
Rollout begins mid-April and should complete in late April.
How this will affect your organization?
By default, meeting attendees will be able to turn their camera on or off to share video, which is the current experience.
There are three ways that meeting organizers or presenters may manage the attendees’ camera.
Before a meeting, the meeting organizer can set Enable camera for attendees to Off from the Meeting Options web page. By default this is on, which means that attendees can turn share their video feed. Note that this change does not mean attendees will be forced to share video.
MC244742 – License check for Advanced eDiscovery
Starting April 16, 2021, all customers using Advanced eDiscovery must have the appropriate licensing in order to continue creating new cases in the solution.
Note: If your organization maintains an Advanced Compliance or E5 license you can safely disregard this message.
Key points:
· Timing: We will begin rolling this April 16, 2021
· Action: review and ensure you have the appropriate licensing
MC244740 – Announcing teams PowerShell Module 2.0
We are excited to announce Version 2.0.0 of Teams PowerShell Module. The release is available at PowerShell Gallery | Microsoft Teams 2.0.
When will this happen?
Version 2.0.0 of Teams PowerShell Module is available now for download: PowerShell Gallery | Microsoft Teams 2.0
How this affects your organization?
The release has many new features, fixes and breaking changes. The main ones are:
1. We have simplified the administrator experience by having Connect-MicrosoftTeams as the single command to login and manage all aspects of Teams and Skype for Business online. This means New-CsOnlineSession is no longer required to login and manage Skype for Business Online.
2. New-CsOnlineSession has been replaced with Connect-MicrosoftTeams. This will require a minor update from your side and make changes as documented here.
3. Long running scripts are supported natively in the module. Administrators don’t have to explicitly call Enable-CsOnlineSessionForReconnection to run long running scripts.
MC244739 – Service Health email notifications for specific incidents and advisories – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68717
As was previously announced in MC225596, the service health dashboard in Microsoft 365 admin center will soon support the ability to opt in to email notifications for a specific incident or advisory. This feature will allow you to input up to two email addresses to receive status updates for a specific issue including notification when the issue is resolved.
When this will happen?
This feature has started rolling out to customers and is expected to be available for all customers by the end of March.
MC244733 – Customization of quarantine notification
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 64781
We are making it possible for you to customize quarantine notifications with your organization logo, custom display name, and a custom disclaimer.
When this will happen?
· We will begin rolling this out in to standard release customers in early April and we expect to be complete by end of June.
· We will begin rolling this out to government customers in early June and we expect to be complete in end of June.
MC244732 – Request/Release workflow for quarantined messages
Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs 62449 and 62450
With this new quarantine policy, tenant admins will be able to configure end user access to messages quarantined by the Exchange Online Protection (EOP) anti-spam, Microsoft defender for office 365 (MDO) anti-phishing, anti-malware and Microsoft defender for office 365 (MDO) safe attachment policies. End users will also now have a process to request message release.
When this will happen:
· We will be gradually rolling this out to standard release customers at the early April. We expect the rollout to be complete by end of June.
· We will be gradually rolling this out to government clouds beginning in early June, and we expect to be complete in end of June.
How this will affect your organization?
The EOP anti-spam, anti-phishing, anti-malware and safe attachments will now allow for more granular control of recipient actions. As part of these new granular controls end users will be able to request the release of a message. These granular controls are set up by admin.
Previously, admins were unable to alter end user access for messages quarantined by the default policies.
Before this new end user release workflow, end users who had access to preview a quarantined message had no direct way to request that the message be released. Instead, they had to manually ask an admin to release messages.
Note: these policy changes will not impact existing end user access controls. Changes will be managed by the Admin.
MC244610 – Advanced eDiscovery Search is now Collections with improved work flow – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68914
Advanced eDiscovery Search will now be known as Collections. In addition, the process to estimate content and collect it into a review set has been updated to reduce both the time and steps required to obtain relevant content prepared for review.
Key points:
· Timing:
o Targeted release (organization) begins mid-March
o Standard release rolls out mid-April through mid-May
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Control type: admin UI
· Action: review and assess
MC244600 – SharePoint: Simplified editing of user interface elements in multilingual communication sites
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 79847
In 2020 we rolled out the multilingual communication site feature which allowed a site owner to enable multiple languages for page and news publishing in a SharePoint communication site.
With this update, a user with appropriate edit permissions can update selected multilingual user interface (MUI) elements in all the languages enabled in a multilingual communication site in the same editing session. MUI elements enable users to see and use SharePoint site interfaces in the language they prefer, instead of the default language that was selected when the site was created.
When this will happen?
· Targeted Release (entire organization): rollout begins late March 2021
· Standard Release: rollout complete by late May 2021
How this will affect your organization?
These are the MUI elements that are supported in this update:
1. Site name and description
2. Site and hub navigation
3. Footer name and navigation.
MC244599 – De-identify personally identifiable information in Teams admin usage reports – GCC, GCCH
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70774
Usage reports in Teams admin center currently exposes user identifiable information like AAD Id, User name, email etc. in various reports (like Teams user activity, device usage reports )
Currently, M365 admin center Teams usage report has capability to de-identify personal information which is present in usage reports available in M365 admin center (see more). However, these settings don’t apply to usage reports available in Teams admin center.
We are introducing a capability where Global admin can de-identify PII information in Teams usage reports based on Anonymization setting available in M365 admin center. This will help global administrators to hide Personally identifiable information of users in your organization.
Key points:
· Timing: roll out to begin in early April and expect to complete by mid-April
· Action: review and assess impact for your organization and updating settings as appropriate
MC244591 – Microsoft Forms: Poll in Teams meeting for GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70727
By integrating Teams and the Forms app, we are creating a new way for meeting presenters to poll attendees.
Key points:
· Timing: mid-April
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Control type: user control and admin control
· Action: review and assess by April 14, 2021
How this will affect your organization?
This feature is available on Teams desktop (Windows and Mac, version 1.3.00.30829) and Teams on the web.
MC244484 – Manage Teams Meeting Options – GCCH
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 72168
With this release, organizers will soon be able to modify the user experience across Desktop, Mobile and Web by customizing the safety and security settings for their Microsoft Teams meetings by using our new Meeting Options feature.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out in mid-April and expect to complete rollout by mid-May.
MC244318 – Microsoft Information Governance – Update to retention polices for SharePoint site collections
We’re updating the behavior of SharePoint sites which have been released from a retention policy. Today as documented, sites which are removed from a retention policy continue to retain data and prevent any deletion of the site for 30 days to prevent inadvertent data loss. Going forward, when a site is removed from a policy or the policy is disabled or deleted, the site will be allowed to be deleted and moved to the recycle bin, however all other behaviors for data preservation will remain the same, all data preserved in the Preservation Hold Library continue to stay there and any files deleted will be continued to be preserved for the 30 days following this change. This will enable scenarios where the site no longer needs to be under policy and needs to be disposed of immediately.
When this will happen?
This change will begin rolling out in mid-April and expect to be complete by mid-May.
How this will affect your organization?
Going forward you will be able to delete site collections which have just been released from a retention policy if you choose to do so.
MC244306 – SharePoint Page Analytics
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70635
This new SharePoint Page Analytics feature will introduce analytics for SharePoint pages and news posts. You’ll be able to see the number of viewers on all SharePoint pages in addition to seeing information about how users interact with your page or news post.
When this will happen?
Targeted release (entire org): mid-March through mid-April.
Standard release: early April early April through late April.
How this will affect your organization?
Users will now be able to see analytics for SharePoint pages including;
· Page viewers
· Page views
· Average time spent per user
MC244305 – Threat protection status report URL updates
We’ve detected a problem that allows Admins to access the previous version of the Threat protection status report due to the previous version of the URL still being accessible in the production environment.
Key points:
· Timing: April 12, 2021,
· Action: review and update bookmarked URLs
How this will affect your organization?
We will be removing the previous URL versions of the Threat protection status report from the production environment and customers will not be able to access the old versions of the URLs any longer.
What you need to do to prepare?
Either navigate directly to the Threat protection status report (not through an old bookmarked link) in the protection.office.com portal
or by navigating to the updated link versions:
· Microsoft Defender for Office 365
· EOP
Click Additional Information to find out more about the Threat protection status report.
MC244302 – Reminder: Retirement of Site Mailboxes in SharePoint Online in April 2021
As originally announced in MC224531 (October ’20) and MC233437 (January ’21), we will be retiring site mailboxes in SharePoint Online beginning April 2021. Instead we recommend the utilization of Microsoft 365 Groups, which is where we will continue to invest.
Key Points:
· Major: Retirement
· Timing: April 2021
· Action: Review and assess
MC244295 – New eCDN Ramp available for Microsoft Teams – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80825
Note: This was originally posted as MC242584 that was removed prematurely. Thank you for your patience.
Soon you will be able to use a new Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN), Ramp, should you need a CDN for live events in Microsoft Teams.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out in late March and expect the rollout to be complete by late March to early April.
How this will affect your organization?
Ramp, the industry standard for video content delivery within the enterprise, will soon support Microsoft Teams customers (already supported in Microsoft Stream). With this support you will be able to deliver secure, reliable, high-quality video, at scale throughout your enterprise.
This change brings the familiar Ramp eCDN options to Teams Live Events in your tenant. Your current selection should not be impacted by this addition.
What you need to do to prepare?
Ramp will be an option in the Microsoft Teams admin center or you can select it via PowerShell:
· Set-CsTeamsMeetingBroadcastConfiguration -AllowSdnProviderForBroadcastMeeting $True -SdnProviderName ramp -SdnRuntimeConfiguration “{config provided by RAMP}”
MC244073 – Critical updates required for your on-premises Microsoft Exchange Servers
As a follow up to MC244043, you are receiving this notice because we believe you may be running Microsoft Exchange Server in your on-premises environment. If you have already applied the required patches and remediated as recommended you may safely ignore this message.
On March 2, we released a set of security updates for Exchange Server to address multiple vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited by several criminals seeking to do harm. The vulnerabilities exist in the on-premises versions of Exchange Server 2013, 2016, and 2019. Exchange Server 2010 is not affected by these vulnerabilities, but we have released a recommended update that addresses a potential vulnerability that is not known to be actively exploited.
These updates only apply to Exchange Servers running in your environment, the Microsoft Exchange Online service is not affected.
We strongly recommend that you update and patch your Exchange Servers immediately. Steps to get your Exchange Servers up to date are detailed on our Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog. We also recommend that your security/IT team or support partner evaluate whether the vulnerabilities were exploited in your environment by using the techniques published on the MSRC blog.
Microsoft is committed to working with you on this issue. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us via your standard support channels.
More information
You can find more information about these attacks in these articles:
· March 2021 Exchange Server Security Updates – Microsoft Tech Community
· Microsoft On the Issues blog: New nation-state cyberattacks
· Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center blog: Hafnium targeting Exchange Servers with 0-day exploits
If you have issues during the update process, please see:
Repair failed installations of Exchange Cumulative and Security updates.
MC244069 – (Updated) Task publishing feature for frontline organizations now available in Microsoft Teams – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68950 and 68951
Updated March 19, 2021: We have updated this post to ensure visibility. The content below has not changed. Thank you for your patience.
We are introducing task publishing and reporting features within the Tasks app in Teams. This allows an organization to define the tasks that need to be completed across their frontline locations, choose which locations need to complete those tasks, and track the progress of the work. Frontline managers and workers can use the desktop or mobile Tasks in Teams experience to see the tasks they need to complete, all in one place.
When this will happen?
Rollout is expected in late April 2021
How this will affect your organization?
Task publishing lets companies create tasks centrally at the corporate level and publish those tasks to different frontline locations like stores, factories, and clinics. You can publish to all teams or choose specific locations based on customizable characteristics like size or layout.
MC244067 – Add up to 25 task labels and colors in Planner and Tasks in Teams
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80456
With this update, end users can choose up to 25 colored labels per task in Planner and Tasks in Teams (desktop, web and mobile).
When this will happen?
Rollout is set to begin in mid-March and should be complete by late March.
How this will affect your organization?
More labels allows for greater flexibility when organizing tasks. Use labels to flag risks, signal delays, help fine tune task prioritization, clarify accountabilities, or categorize tasks around a theme spanning multiple buckets.
MC244065 – Dictation coming to Word for Web
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 79599
This feature update will improve the end-user experience by bringing the Dictate (microphone) button to the Home tab in Word for the web, enabling more accessible content creation using voice.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out in mid-March and expect to complete rollout by mid-May.
How this will affect your organization?
The new Dictate (microphone) button in the toolbar will make it easier for users to create, edit content by using speech-to-text to author content in Word for the web. With a microphone and reliable internet connection, it’s a quick and easy way to get their thoughts out, create drafts or outlines, and capture notes.
MC244064 – Dictation coming to Word and Outlook Desktop
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 79600
This feature update will improve the end-user experience by bringing the Dictate (microphone) button to the Home tab in Word and Outlook for Windows and Mac, enabling more accessible content creation using voice.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out in mid-March and expect to complete rollout by mid-May.
How this will affect your organization?
The new Dictate button in the toolbar will make it easier for users to create and edit content by using speech-to-text to author content in Word Windows, Word Mac and Outlook. With a microphone and reliable internet connection, it’s a quick and easy way to compose emails, get their thoughts out, create drafts or outlines, and capture notes.
MC244063 – Dictation coming to Word mobile
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 79606
This feature update will improve the end-user experience by bringing the Dictate (microphone) button to Word and Office Mobile for iPhone and Android Phone apps, enabling more accessible content creation using voice.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out in mid-March and expect to complete rollout by mid-May.
How this will affect your organization?
The new Dictate button will make it easier for users to create content by using speech-to-text to author content in Word and Office Mobile. It’s a quick and easy way to get their thoughts out, create drafts or outlines, and capture notes.
MC244060 – Improved Person columns in Microsoft Lists
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70751
We are improving the behavior of Person columns in lists by making the suggestions that appear when you type more relevant.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out in mid-March 2021and expect to complete rollout by late April 2021.
How this will affect your organization?
When you type in the people picker, the autofill suggestions will come from Microsoft Graph. This makes it the people picker more personalized and relevant based on who you work with most often.
MC244059 – Microsoft Teams: Mobile optimized network data usage
This feature update will allow users to select an option to reduce the bandwidth used in video calls and meetings. In a user’s call Settings on iOS and Android they can now select if they’d like to reduce the data used in the following circumstances:
· Never – default
· Cellular
· Always
This message is not associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70786.
When this will happen?
This will begin rolling out and be complete by mid-March.
How this will affect your organization?
With this feature enabled, we will deliver the best quality experience for the given meeting complexity (number of video participants, variety of bandwidth conditions, multiple modalities, etc.) limited to 500 kbps on average.
MC244043 – Awareness of Exchange Server Vulnerability for On-Premises servers
We are sending this notification to raise awareness for customers who may be running Exchange servers in either hybrid or on-premises environments. If you are not in either of those scenarios, you may safely ignore this message.
Please note that the online services included in your Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription are not impacted by the announced vulnerabilities.
How this will affect your organization?
If you are running Exchange servers in hybrid or on-premises, we recommend you take immediate action to address the potential vulnerabilities that are affecting Exchange Server 2013, 2016 and 2019.
What you need to do?
Steps to get your Exchange Servers up to date are detailed on our Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog. We also recommend that your security/IT team or support partner evaluate whether the vulnerabilities were exploited in your environment by using the techniques published on the MSRC blog.
MC243945 – SharePoint Events web part will display event images
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70791
The Events web part on SharePoint pages and news posts will have an option to show images.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling out to Targeted release (select user and organization) in late March and expect to complete for Standard release in late June.
How this will affect your organization?
SharePoint page authors who use the Events web part can enable an option to show event images within the web part. When enabled, each Event shown in the web part will display the image used in the title area of the Event page.
MC243943 – New Azure AD built-in roles to reduce Global administrator dependency
We’ve created two new roles, Authentication policy administrator and Domain name administrator, to help reduce the number of Global Administrators in your organization.
When this will happen?
These roles are available now.
How this will affect your organization?
We recommend the following:
· Assign Authentication policy administrator instead of Global Administrator to configure the authentication methods policy, tenant-wide multi-factor authentication settings, and the password protection policy.
· Assign Domain name administrator instead of Global Administrator to manage (read, add, verify, update, and delete) domain names.
What you need to do to prepare?
Because Global administrator accounts are powerful and vulnerable to attack, we recommend that you have fewer than five Global Administrators.
Learn more:
· Authentication policy administrator
MC243888 – Updates available for Microsoft 365 Apps for all channels
We’ve released updates to the following update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps:
· Current Channel
· Monthly Enterprise Channel
· Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview)
· Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel
When this will happen?
We’ll be gradually rolling out these updates of Microsoft 365 Apps to users on those update channels starting March 9th, 2021 (PST).
MC243845 – *Retirement Milestone* Microsoft Edge Legacy support ending today
As communicated in MC220490 (August ’20), Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop application support ended March 9, 2021. Microsoft Edge Legacy will no longer be supported and will not receive new security updates.
Additionally, we announced in MC237900 (February ’21) that we will remove the now out of support Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop application and replace it with the new Microsoft Edge when you apply April’s Windows 10 cumulative monthly security update. This update will be available starting April 13, 2021.
For customers using kiosk mode in Microsoft Edge Legacy: to continue using kiosk mode and avoid disruption to your kiosk scenarios, you will need to set up kiosk mode in the new Microsoft Edge.
MC243733 – (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Policy packages assignment to groups
Updated March 09, 2021: We have updated this post for clarity. Thank you for your patience.
This release of policy package assignment to groups will allow you to assign multiple policies to a group of users, such as a security group or distribution list.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out and be complete in mid-March.
How this will affect your organization?
Teams admins will now be able to assign a set of package based policies, based on the role of the users, to a dynamic group of users. Custom policies that you create and assign let you tailor policy settings to different sets of users based on those needs. To easily manage policies in your organization, there are several ways to assign policies to users. Assign a policy directly to users, either individually or at scale through a batch assignment, or to a group that the users are members of.
MC243212 – Announcing enhanced audit and upload notifications for Exact Data Match (EDM)
Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs 68876 and 68882
We’re releasing a set of updates for Exact Data Match (EDM) that will give you better visibility over EDM events and enable you to receive notifications on EDM data upload status.
When this will happen?
Rollout will begin in early March and is expected to be complete by end of March 2021.
How this will affect your organization?
Admins can now search the Microsoft 365 audit log for events related to Exact Data Match (EDM) schema and rule package updates, as well as EDM data uploads, to understand who modified, deleted, or created each EDM component and when.
Admins will also be able to configure protection alert policies for EDM Upload Agent notifications, enabling them to receive alerts both via email and in the alerts dashboard for data upload audit events, such as when a data upload has successfully completed.
MC243207 – Important update: Microsoft Dataverse Backfill for Office GCC and GCC-High SKUs
We are reaching out to provide an update to admins about the availability of Microsoft Dataverse.
Key points:
· Timing: April 2021
· Action: review and assess for your organization
How this will affect your organization?
Once available in your organization, licensed users will be able to utilize Microsoft Dataverse.
These capabilities will be enabled by the following new service plans: Common Data Service for Teams and Common Data Service – O365
What you need to do to prepare?
You may want to update your training and documentation as appropriate.
Learn more about Microsoft Power Apps US Government
MC243206 – Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Service Health and Message center communications
To provide greater clarity in Service health and Message center, we are consolidating communications for Microsoft 365 Defender services under the service listing ‘Microsoft 365 Defender’. Once this change is in place, the service listing for ‘Microsoft Defender for Endpoint’ will be removed, and future communications related to the service will appear under ‘Microsoft 365 Defender’.
When this will happen?
This will be rolled out to Service health and Message center in mid-March and expect to complete by the end of March.
MC243204 – (Updated) We are listening – Microsoft 365 Customer Experience Quarterly CPE Pulse Update Available
Updated March 11, 2021: We have updated the below. Thank you for your feedback.
The Microsoft 365 team is pleased to announce the latest release of the Microsoft 365 CXP Quarterly Pulse Update. This release also highlights key announcements made at Ignite which are related to Pulse feedback.
The Quarterly report is available to Premier Microsoft 365 customers to view and download. From within your tenant, go to https://aka.ms/O365QuarterlyPulseReport and sign-in with your account id.
How this affects your organization?
This resource is provided to Premier Microsoft 365 customers to illustrate how your feedback has shaped the service and closes the loop on important topics. The deck summarizes the top feedback we’ve received from Premier customers during the quarter, along with critical updates and improvements that have been delivered as a direct result of that feedback.
Your feedback is important; please continue to provide it in order for us to drive the improvements you care about. Talk to your CSAM if you are not currently participating in the Pulse.
MC243041 – Announcing Conglomerate branding for global admins
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70551
Conglomerate branding provides you the ability to define multiple themes within your organization, from the Microsoft 365 global admin center, using Microsoft 365 Groups. Each theme can be further customized by specifying mobile-specific and alternate dark mode logo experiences.
Key points:
· Timing:
o Targeted release: we will begin rolling this out in early April and expect to complete rollout by mid-April 2021.
o Standard release: we will begin rolling this out in late April and expect to complete rollout by mid-June 2021.
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Control type: admin control
· Action: review and assess
How this will affect your organization?
Previously, you could only set a default theme which applied to everyone within your organization. Conglomerate branding gives you the ability to create up to five custom themes for your tenant where each theme can be assigned to a specific Microsoft 365 group. Additionally conglomerate branding introduces support for:
· Specifying mobile-specific company logo(s) optimized for smaller screens
· Enabling alternate logo(s) for dark mode
Users will continue to have the same theme experience as before if you make no further changes. If an organizational theme has already been defined, it will now show up as the default theme. Editing the default theme or adding a new custom theme now provides the capability to specify up to four separate logos optimized for alternate and mobile scenarios.
Note: It is important to remember that the navigation bar background image will be retired and the ability to upload a new background image will no longer be supported. Upon saving any modifications made to a new custom theme, the background image will be permanently removed and users will no longer be able to see it.
MC242838 – New Service: Data-at-rest encryption for Microsoft 365 – GCC
This feature is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68869
Microsoft 365 provides baseline, volume-level encryption through BitLocker. Service Encryption provides an added layer of data-at-rest encryption at the application level. Customer Key allows you to control your organization’s encryption keys.
As an application level encryption service, Customer Key support exists today for Exchange Online, Skype for Business, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business workloads in Microsoft’s data centers. We are extending Customer Key support to provide a tenant level encryption support through a new service called Data-at-rest encryption for Microsoft 365.
When this will happen?
Rollout is late March through late April.
How this will affect your organization?
Data-at-rest encryption for Microsoft 365 gives you the ability to create and apply a tenant level data encryption policy that will encrypt data across the following workloads using customer managed keys:
· Exchange Online (all data)
· Microsoft Teams (new data)
o Teams call and meeting recordings stored in Teams storage
o Teams chat messages (1:1 chats, group chats, meeting chats and channel conversations)
o Teams chat notifications
o Teams chat suggestions by Cortana
o Teams media messages (images, code snippets, videos messages, audio messages, wiki images)
o Teams presence status messages
If you opt for this service, there is no impact to your organization or your data as long you maintain the health and accessibility of the keys.
What you need to do to prepare?
To access the service, Data-at-rest Encryption for Microsoft 365, reach out to Microsoft at m365-ck@service.microsoft.com with your onboarding request.
Please review Public Preview documentation to understand how the service works. Specific documentation for Data-at-Rest Encryption for Microsoft 365 will be available once the service is rolled out.
MC242827 – (Updated) OneDrive Android – Bookmarks feature for PDF viewing
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70547
Updated March 17, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
We are adding a bookmark that makes it easier for users of OneDrive mobile app for Android to return to a specific page in a PDF document and pick up where they left off.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out to the Google Play Store in early April (previously mid-March) and expect to be complete by mid-April (previously late March).
How this will affect your organization?
This bookmark feature allows end users to add or remove bookmarks using the bookmark icon.
MC242825 – Teams: Transfer calls between devices – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68776
This new Teams release will expand support and allow calling participants to transfer an ongoing VoIP, PSTN or Group call between Teams devices. Users will be able to transfer a call from one device to another or even add a second device to the same call.
When this will happen?
This feature will roll out to GA and GCC in late March 2021.
How this will affect your organization?
After joining a Teams call on one device, users will be able to join the same call on a second device. For example; going from desktop to a mobile device or even to another desktop. Additionally, they will be able to transfer a call from one device to a second device, in the same call, if there is a need to share content from the second device.
MC242824 – (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Dynamic View – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 65943
Updated March 17, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
Microsoft Teams is excited to introduce Dynamic view, a redesigned and optimized meeting stage that will optimize your experience of consuming shared content and engaging with video and audio participants.
When this will happen?
This feature will rollout in mid-April (previously mid-March) through the end of April (previously end of March).
How this will affect your organization?
All users will get a new optimized visual experience in Teams Meetings.
Dynamic view will enable:
· Video and audio participants to be shown separately, with audio participants appearing as smaller circles
· Shared content to appear larger, with more participants being visible
· Users to pin or spotlight particular people in the meeting and make them appear larger than other participants
· You to view Together Mode alongside content
· Users to dock the participant gallery to the top of their screen
MC242588 – Advanced eDiscovery: UX changes to review sets for cases
We are updating the Advanced eDiscovery user interface (UI) for review sets in early April.
Key points:
· Timing: early April
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Action: review and assess
How this will affect your organization?
With this release, user controls have been built on top of a new UI framework. Changes include enhancements in the workflow for filter and querying as well as an update in general layout of controls.
This new UI supports all existing functionality within the review set and does not add major features.
MC242587 – (Updated) Increasing interactive meeting participants and chat from 300 to 1000 – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 65951 and 68844
Updated March 19, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
Currently, we allow only 300 users to be added to interactive meetings. We are going to increase the meeting participant and chat size from 300 to 1000.
When will this happen?
We will start rollout early April (previously end of March) and expect to complete by the end of April (previously mid-April).
MC242586 – Planner’s New Roster Containers
This release of a new type of container in Planner will allow plans to be created independent of an M365 group. This will be enabled by Roster containers, which is a simple list of members stored in Planner that can contain any user with a valid AAD ID in that tenant. We are calling plans contained by Rosters “Roster plans”.
This message is not associated with a Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID:
· Upcoming follow-on features, taking advantage of this new Plan type, will be released on the Roadmap.
When this will happen?
The APIs for Roster plans will be enabled on Graph for all tenants starting on April 5, 2021.
MC242574 – Outlook Mobile – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
We have a brand new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) experience in app to give you easier, faster access to top answers about Outlook. These FAQs are accessible in the Outlook Mobile app through Settings > Help & Feedback > FAQs.
When this will happen?
This is available now on the latest version of the Outlook Mobile app.
How this will affect your organization?
We released a brand new version of our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) experience on February 25th, 2021.
MC242516 – Updates available for Microsoft 365 Apps for Current Channel
We’ve released updates to the following update channel for Microsoft 365 Apps:
· Current Channel
When this will happen?
We’ll be gradually rolling out this update of Microsoft 365 Apps to users on that update channel starting March 2nd, 2021 (PST).
MC242486 – Retiring Delve mobile for iOS and Android
We will retire Delve mobile for iOS and Android on June 1, 2021. We recommend Outlook Mobile instead, which has similar features available. You’ll find profile information and files on the profile cards, and recommended documents on the Search tab. We’ll continue to invest development resources to improve the functionality in Outlook Mobile.
Key Points:
· Remove Delve mobile apps from App Store and Google Play: March 1, 2021
· Stop serving requests from Delve mobile apps: June 1, 2021
· Action: Review and educate users as appropriate
MC242340 – Enabling page rotation for Android to view OneDrive PDF files
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70548
You will soon be able to rotate page orientation while viewing PDF documents in the Microsoft OneDrive Android app. Any changes made are saved to OneDrive.
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out to the Google Play Store in mid-March 2021 and expect it to be complete by late March 2021.
MC242335 – Reminder: Skype for Business Online retires July 31, 2021
Originally announced in MC219641 (July ’20), as Microsoft Teams has become the core communications client for Microsoft 365, this is a reminder the Skype for Business Online service will retire July 31, 2021. At that point, access to the service will end.
Please note:
· Neither the Skype consumer service nor Skype for Business Server products are affected by the retirement of the Skype for Business Online service. Current Skype for Business Online customers will experience no change in service up to the retirement date.
· Support for the integration of third-party party Audio Conferencing Providers (ACP) into Skype for Business Online will end along with the Skype for Business Online service on July 31, 2021.
How this will affect your organization?
While your organization will no longer be able to use Skype for Business Online once the service retires, July 31, 2021, you may continue to use Microsoft Teams as part of your existing licensing agreement.
What you need to do to prepare?
We encourage customers using Skype for Business Online to plan and begin the upgrade to Teams today. To help, Microsoft offers comprehensive transition resources including a proven upgrade framework, guidance for technical and organizational readiness, free upgrade planning workshops, and FastTrack onboarding assistance for eligible subscriptions.
Please click Additional Information to learn more.
MC242310 – Update your configuration to support Extension Mechanisms for DNS (EDNS)
We’re making some changes to the Domain Name System (DNS) for Exchange Online (EXO) and Exchange Online Protection (EOP) that require your attention. We are enabling Extension mechanisms for DNS (EDNS) on DNS Servers used by Exchange Online and Exchange Online Protection for outbound MX resolution. EDNS provides a mechanism to send DNS data in larger packets over UDP which is a pre-requisite for DNSSEC. DNSSEC will provide the ability to authenticate DNS response data between signed zones thereby enabling secure communication.
Key points:
· Timing: After March 22nd, 2021 we’ll enable Extension mechanisms for DNS (EDNS) on our DNS servers used by EXO and EOP for outbound MX resolution.
· Control type: admin control
· Action: review and assess by March 22, 2021
What you need to do to prepare?
Before this change takes effect, you need to ensure that the DNS records for all FQDNs used in your outbound connectors (in SmartHosts property) in Office 365 are configured properly and in compliance with the relevant Internet Society’s Request for Comments (RFC) documents for DNS (especially 1034, 2181, and 2308).
On Jan 4th 2021, we completed a preliminary scan of all Office 365 outbound connector data. We have already notified customers with identified problematic FQDNs in a previous Message Center. However, if you have made changes or created new outbound connectors since then, you should test your FQDNs using the Smart host EDNS Test in Remote Connectivity Analyzer. It may still be a good idea to validate your FQDNs against our EDNS resolvers in any case and before our planned EDNS enablement.
When EDNS is enabled for the EXO and EOP services, mail exchanger (MX) resolution can fail when your DNS records are misconfigured, typically with a “ServerFailure” error. A common misconfiguration that can result in this error is the following: A sub-domain is delegated through name server (NS) records at the domain registrar but the targeted server actually hosts only the parent domain (i.e. no Start of Authority (SOA) record is present for the sub-domain). For any of your domains or sub-domains configured as a separate DNS zone, each DNS zone should have an NS record and an SOA record for that zone, as stated in the RFC (see especially RFC 1034 section 4.2.1, and RFC 2308 section 3). You can also find this info in this documentation.
MC242207 – (Updated) Retirement of support for external XSLT files in DataFormWebPart and its subclasses
Updated March 16, 2021: We have updated this post to ensure visibility. No changes have been made to the content below. Thank you for your patience.
To enhance data integrity and improve the overall reliability of the service, we are retiring support for external XSLT file references for the DataFormWebParts and its sub-classes (e.g. XsltListFormWebPart, XsltListViewWebPart).
This retirement affects only classic SharePoint pages.
Key points:
· Timing: mid-March
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Action: review and assess before March 15, 2021
MC240613 – (Updated) Feature Update: Modern comments in Word (Mac)
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 76166
Updated March 19, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
We’re rolling out a new comments experience in Word with improved keyboard shortcuts as well as improved @mentions and notifications. This experience unifies how comments work across Word, Excel, and PPT.
Key points:
· Timing:
o Current Channel Preview, April (previously March)
o Current Channel, June (previously May)
· Roll-out: User-level
· Action: review and assess
MC240161 – (Updated) Introducing a change in access behavior for public groups in Microsoft Forms
Updated March 17, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
We are introducing a change in public groups that affects Microsoft Forms users.
Key points:
· Timing: mid-March through mid-April (previously late March).
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Action: review and assess
How this affects your organization?
Currently, all users in an organization can access a shared form in a public group (Microsoft Office 365 Group marked as public). All users can edit the form and view response data without first joining the public group.
After this change, users will need to join and become a member of a public group in order to access shared forms within the group.
MC240066 – (Updated) Introducing a SharePoint app bar that features global navigation – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70576
Updated March 02, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
Your SharePoint modern communication and team sites will soon feature the SharePoint app bar which provides quick access to customizable global navigation as well as other intranet resources. The SharePoint app bar makes important content and resources easily accessible for users on these sites, regardless of where they might be in SharePoint.
Key points:
· Timing:
o Targeted release (organization): early March through mid-March
o Targeted release (special user): early March through mid-March
o Standard release: mid-March through mid-April
· Roll-out: tenant and user level
· Action: review and assess
MC239262 – (Updated) Enforcing mailbox receiving limits
Updated March 04, 2021: We have updated the content below for clarity. Thank you for your feedback.
We are updating the way we enforce our receiving limits in Exchange. Starting in April 2021, we will be more strictly enforcing limits across all mailboxes to protect the health of our systems and ensure optimal mail flow performance for all customers.
Mailboxes that receive high message volume in a short time can cause mail flow delays, both for individual recipients and across your organization.
With these changes, emails will be throttled for recipients that exceed our published and established threshold of 3600 messages per hour. While this is not a new limit, it has been a soft limit before – we’ve ensured up to 3600 but in some cases supported higher volume. We are now making this a hard limit.
Key Points:
· Timing: April 2021
· Action: review and assess
MC238796 – (Updated) 1:1 Call recording policy introduction
Updated March 09, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
We are changing how 1:1 Call recording is enabled by creating its own policy.
Key Points:
· Control: via PowerShell
· Action: Review settings and make changes by April 12, 2021 (previously March 11, 2021)
How this will affect your organization?
Currently, 1:1 Call recording is controlled by the -CsTeamsMeetingPolicy / AllowCloudRecording attribute. After this change, it will be controlled by the -CsTeamsCallingPolicy / allowCloudRecordingForCalls attribute.
By default this new policy attribute will be set to false, so 1:1 call recording will not work unless you change this attribute to true.
MC237807 – (Updated) Introducing a registration page for Microsoft Teams meetings – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 66586
Updated March 19, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
Microsoft Teams meeting organizers will be soon be able to create a custom registration page for any meeting, although the feature is designed for webinars. The feature is available for meeting organizers using Teams desktop applications (Win/Mac) and Teams on the web.
When this will happen?
We will roll this out early April (previously late March) and expect it to be complete at the early May (previously end of April).
MC237669 – (Updated) Forms is getting a new start page
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80044
Updated March 23, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
We are replacing the existing Forms portal page at forms.office.com with a new Forms start page at Office.com (Office.com > Forms).
Key points:
· Timing: mid-April (previously early April) through the end of April (previously mid-April)
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Action: review and assess
MC237645 – (Updated) Blocking URLs and Files with Tenant Allow/Block List
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 61352
Updated March 09, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
We understand that, from time to time, you might disagree with an Exchange Online Protection (EOP) filtering verdict. With this update, you will be able to manually override Microsoft 365 filtering verdicts using the Tenant Allow/Block List (TABL) in the Security & Compliance Center.
When this will happen?
We will roll this out from late February through early April (previously early March).
MC237392 – (Updated) Get a Meet now meeting link in Teams – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70602
Updated March 02, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
We’ve made it easier for a user to create meetings and get a meeting link using the Meet now button in the Teams calendar. This feature is available for Teams desktop (Mac and Windows) as well as web.
When this will happen?
· Rollout begins mid-March (previously late February) and should be complete in early April (previously mid-March)
MC237377 – (Updated) OneDrive/SharePoint Send link to Outlook sharing option is being retired
Updated March 16, 2021: Based on learning’s from our early rings and your feedback we have made the decision to not proceed as outlined below. The Send link to Outlook sharing option will remain until further notice. Thank you for your feedback.
Note: These changes do not apply to the OneDrive mobile app on iOS or Android.
Previously we had rolled out this change and disabled the ability to share a link via the Outlook Share Target. We have restored the functionality to ensure customers have time to educate and prepare their users as appropriate. We will be moving forward with this change as outlined below. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Users will soon be unable to share a link directly via the Outlook Share Target in OneDrive and SharePoint. Customers can still share a link via e-mail by typing an e-mail address and clicking send, as well as the ability to copy a link to their clipboard. This change only removes the option to automatically open an Outlook compose window with a sharing link pasted in.
Key points:
· Timing: we are not moving forward at this time
· Action: review and assess
MC236526 – (Updated) Exchange Online support for Active Directory Rights Management Service (AD RMS) retiring
Updated Tuesday, March 2, 2021: We are providing additional information and instruction to help organizations’ determine if they would be impacted by this change and if remediation is required. Please navigate to https://support.microsoft.com/help/5001237
We are retiring Active Directory Rights Management Service (AD RMS) support in Exchange Online as of February 28, 2021. Moving forward, we recommend the utilization of Azure Rights Management Service (Azure RMS).
Key Points:
· Timing: February 28, 2021
· Action: review and assess impact for your organization
MC235978 – (Updated) Limiting the maximum supported value for StartRow to 50,000
Updated March 02, 2021: We have updated this post to ensure visibility. No changes have been made to the content below. Thank you for your patience.
We’re making some changes to SharePoint Online Search. To continue to provide a high performance search experience, we’re limiting the maximum supported value StartRow to 50,000.
Key Points:
· Timing: Starting late February 2021 through late May 2021
· Action: review and assess for your organization
How this will affect your organization?
As part of this configuration change, users who run queries using the StartRow parameter (at rest API) with values exceeding 50,000 will be throttled. All queries using StartRow (< 50,000) – will not be impacted.
MC235513 – (Updated) Announcing Teams location picker support for security groups and distribution lists – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70587
Updated March 09, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
Data loss prevention (DLP) for Microsoft Teams will soon support security groups (SGs) and distribution lists (DLs) as part of the Teams location picker.
When this will happen?
Rollout will begin in mid-February and is expected to be complete by mid-April (previously mid-March).
MC235180 – (Updated) Teams desktop app for Mac: Include computer sound in a meeting
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 67168 and 67169
Updated March 25, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
The Microsoft Teams desktop app for MacOS will soon allow users include their computer’s sound when sharing either their desktop or a window in a meeting.
When this will happen?
· Rollout for production and GCC tenants begins in early April (previously late March) and should be complete in late April (previously early April).
· Rollout for GCCH and DoD tenants begins in late April (previously mid-February) and should be complete by early May (previously late February).
MC235111 – (Updated) Microsoft Teams Revised In-Meeting Share Experience
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70560
Updated March 17, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
Microsoft Teams desktop users on Windows and Mac will soon have a revised share experience while in meetings.
Key points:
· Timing: mid-April (previously end of March) through the end of April (previously mid-March)
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Control type: user control
· Action: review and assess
MC234590 – Reminder: Office 365 ATP External email forwarding controls and policy change
As a reminder the Auto-Forwarding Policy will be enforced for all tenants by the end of January 2021. Tenants who have configured their policy to “On” or “Off” need not take any action at this time as these configurations are being honored. For tenants that have made no changes and left the policy setting as “Automatic” the behavior will default to “Off” and automatic forwarding will be disabled for all users in your tenant.
Tenants would have been notified in previous Message Center Posts MC221113 (August ’20) or MC221119 (August ’20), as well as updates to these posts.
This change was originally announced in MC218984 (July ’20) automated external email forwarding is a tactic attackers use to exfiltrate data out of an organization. To counter that, we have updated our outbound anti-spam policies. First, we are providing a control to easily enable automatic external forwarding for select people in your organization. Second, we will change the “Automatic” setting to block automatic external forwarding. Internal automatic forwarding of messages is not impacted by this change.
NOTE: Tenants who have left their Automatic Forwarding Policy set to “Automatic” and want to allow users to forward mail externally need to take action as soon as possible to avoid any potential disruption of service.
Key points:
· Timing: end of January
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Control type: admin control
· Action: review and make changes as appropriate
MC233466 – (Updated) New Teams meeting lobby settings – only invited users join directly – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68730
Updated March 02, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
Teams meeting organizers can have greater control over their meetings by enabling a new lobby setting where only Calendar meeting invited users will be able to join directly.
When this will happen?
· For Production and GCC environments: roll out will start at the end of March (previously early March) and will be complete by mid-April (previously mid-March).
MC233463 – (Updated) Start Meet Now from Outlook desktop client (Windows)
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68838
Updated March 17, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
We’ve made it easier than ever to start a Teams meeting through the addition of the Meet Now button in Outlook.
When this will happen?
· Rollout for production and GCC tenants begins in late January and should be complete at the end of March (previously late February).
How this will affect your organization?
Users who
1. Have both the Teams desktop client and Outlook desktop client installed on a Windows machine, and
2. Also have the Teams add-in enabled in Outlook
will see a new Meet Now button in the ribbon of the Calendar Tab in the Outlook.
Clicking on the Meet Now button will launch the meeting in Teams client.
MC230680 – (Updated) Meeting Reactions in Teams Meetings
Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs 65946 and 68905.
Updated March 09, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
The Meeting Reactions feature allows users to react to participants during a meeting. Reactions will be available on Teams Desktop and Teams Mobile apps.
When this will happen?
· Production and GCC environments: will start rolling out in early February (previously late January) and will be complete by mid-February (previously early February). Complete
· GCCH and DOD tenants: start rolling out in mid-April (previously early March) and will be complete by the end of April (previously mid-March).
MC229363 – (Updated) Microsoft Teams: meeting recording saved to OneDrive and SharePoint – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 76074
Updated March 02, 2021: We have updated this notification to ensure visibility. No changes have been made to the content below. Thank you for your patience.
We’re changing the storage location for new Teams meeting recordings. They will be stored on, and served from, OneDrive and SharePoint (ODSP) instead of Microsoft Stream (Classic).
Key points:
· Timing:
o January 11 2021: Unless you delay this change, all new Teams meeting recordings will be saved to ODSP. Complete
o Rolling out incrementally beginning July 7, 2021: All meeting recordings will be saved to ODSP.
· Rollout: Tenant level
· Control: Admin via PowerShell
MC229331 – (Updated) Presenter View in Teams Presentation Sharing
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68903
Updated March 09, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
The presenter, in control, can now see a presenter view during Teams Presentation Sharing in a meeting.
Key Points:
· Timing:
o Standard release tenants: start rolling out in mid-January and complete by the end of January Complete
o GCC, GCC-High and DoD tenants: start rolling out at the end of March (previously February) and complete by early April (previously mid-February)
· Action: Review and assess
MC224590 – Reminder: Office 365 ATP External email forwarding controls and policy change
As a reminder the Auto-Forwarding Policy will be enforced for all tenants by the end of January 2021. Tenants who have configured their policy to “On” or “Off” need not take any action at this time as these configurations are being honored. For tenants that have made no changes and left the policy setting as “Automatic” the behavior will default to “Off” and automatic forwarding will be disabled for all users in your tenant.
Tenants would have been notified in previous Message Center Posts MC221113 (August ’20) or MC221119 (August ’20), as well as updates to these posts.
This change was originally announced in MC218984 (July ’20) automated external email forwarding is a tactic attackers use to exfiltrate data out of an organization. To counter that, we have updated our outbound anti-spam policies. First, we are providing a control to easily enable automatic external forwarding for select people in your organization. Second, we will change the “Automatic” setting to block automatic external forwarding. Internal automatic forwarding of messages is not impacted by this change.
NOTE: Tenants who have left their Automatic Forwarding Policy set to “Automatic” and want to allow users to forward mail externally need to take action as soon as possible to avoid any potential disruption of service.
Key points:
· Timing: end of January
· Roll-out: tenant level
· Control type: admin control
· Action: review and make changes as appropriate
MC222745 – (Updated) Introducing live transcription in Microsoft Teams meetings – GCC
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 65967
Updated March 02, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
Live transcripts in Microsoft Teams meetings will provide another way to both follow and review meeting conversations. Note: Live transcription currently supports only spoken English (English-US).
When this will happen?
We will begin rolling this out in early March (previously mid-February and expect the rollout to be complete at the end of March (previously end of February).
MC222156 – (Updated) Introducing macOS native notifications in Teams
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 66743
Updated March 11, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below.
With this update, your users will be able to choose their preferred means of Teams notifications delivery, either via the Teams built-in notification system or via their native OS notification system.
When this will happen?
· MacOS 10.14 and greater native notifications: late March (previously early March) through mid-April (previously late March)
Microsoft 365 IP and URL Endpoint Updates |
Documentation – Office 365 IP Address and URL web service
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
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