This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

 









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:


rm.gif


 


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



 



 



 



 









Be a Learn-it-All



 


March Webinars & Remote Work Resources


February Edition Sections:



  • Highlighted 

  • Microsoft Teams – IT Admins & Planning

  • Microsoft Teams – End Users & Champions

  • Security & Compliance

  • Device Management

  • Ignite 2021

  • Blogs & Articles of Interest


Microsoft Teams for US Government Adoption Guide


 


Jesse_Tedoff_3-1615529396450.png


 









Newsworthy Highlights



 


Microsoft Teams Meetings for Government video series available now – Microsoft Tech Community


In January 2021, the Microsoft CSM (Customer Success Manager) team representing State & Local Government customers came together in a two-day event to deliver 11 live sessions on the topic of Meetings in Microsoft Teams.


 


Microsoft Expands Support for the DIB – Announcing Support for DFARS in Azure Commercial – Microsoft Tech Community


Microsoft is furthering its commitment to U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contractors and the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) by announcing support for Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) requirements for Azure Commercial cloud services. This extends the existing commitment to support DFARS in the Azure Government cloud services.


 


Innovation without Authority – M365 for Government February User Group – Microsoft Tech Community


The stereotypes of burdensome bureaucratic processes and legacy mindsets are self-fulfilling prophecies robbing municipalities and institutions of the change-makers we need to effect positive change at scale.


 


Basic Authentication and Exchange Online – February 2021 Update – Microsoft Tech Community


We previously announced we would begin to disable Basic Auth for five Exchange Online protocols in the second half of 2021. Due to the pandemic and the effect it has on priorities and work patterns, we are announcing some important changes to our plan to disable Basic Auth in Exchange Online. Please read this post carefully, as there’s a lot of detail.


 


Keep your Federation Trust up-to-date – Microsoft Tech Community


Microsoft periodically refreshes certificates in Office 365 as part of our effort to maintain a highly available and secure environment. From Jan 23rd, 2021, we are making a certificate change on our Microsoft Federation Gateway every six weeks that could affect some customers as detailed in this knowledge base article. The good news is you can easily avoid any disruption.


 


 


Release News


 


Teams meetings scheduled with Outlook for Windows can now be created as online meetings by default – allowing users to have Teams meeting join information automatically added to their meetings


 


Deprecation of AD-RMS for Exchange Online – GCC


 


Mailbox Receiving Limit enforcement – Hot Recipient Throttling


 


Office LTSC 2021 and Office 2021 for Mac Commercial Preview announcement


 


Ability to choose up to 25 colored labels per task in Planner and Tasks in Teams


 


Office app for iOS optimized for the iPad


 


Extended Offline Access for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise


 


Office 365 Video will be retired on March 1, 2021 and content will be automatically migrated to Microsoft Stream


 


Teams meeting recordings saved to OneDrive and SharePoint instead of Stream


 


KFM is a feature that helps users move Documents, Desktop, and Pictures folders to OneDrive, enabling to access stuff from anywhere while protecting all their content


 


TLS 1.0 and 1.1 support is being deprecated by Microsoft. Customers should remove their dependencies on TLS 1.0 and 1.1 and upgrade to TLS 1.2 as soon as possible


 


Transfer an ongoing VoIP, PSTN, or group call between Teams devices – or add a second device to the same call


 


Contact Center integrations for Microsoft Teams provide daily collaborative customer connection, tailored and integrated with business tools and processes – GCC


 


Live event presenters will soon be able to present from their iPad to the audience – GCC


 


iOS Files App Integration to OneDrive Temporarily Entering Read Only mode


 









Message Center Highlights



 


MC240613 – Feature Update: Modern comments in Word (Mac)


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 76166


 


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, March


o   Current Channel, May


·        Roll-out: User-level


·        Action: review and assess  


 


How this will affect your organization?


When this has rolled out to your users, they will see the modern comments experience, which allows them to @mention and post comments without worrying that co-authors will see their comments before they are complete.


 


Modern comments provides a consistent commenting experience across Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Users will be able to respond to comments directly from an email notification. The new design provides a focused view of comments as well as an optional all comments view via the Comments pane. With the new post model, Ctrl+Enter is a keyboard shortcut for posting comments.


 


MC240609 – Feature Update: Modern comments in Word (Windows)


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 76186


 


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, February


o   Current Channel, April


·        Roll-out: User-level


·        Action: review and assess  


 


How this will affect your organization?


When this has rolled out to your users, they will see the modern comments experience, which allows them to @mention and post comments without worrying that co-authors will see their comments before they are complete.


 


Modern comments provides a consistent commenting experience across Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Users will be able to respond to comments directly from an email notification. The new design provides a focused view of comments as well as an optional all comments view via the Comments pane. With the new post model, Ctrl+Enter is a keyboard shortcut for posting comments.


 


MC240467 – Updated service plan names for data classification analytics


As previously announced in MC224879 (October 2020) and MC231124 (December 2020), Microsoft 365 data classification analytics are enabled in your tenant via the Content Explorer service plan.


 


We are updating the service plan name. You will soon see two service plans that enable both standard and premium functionality in your tenant: Information Protection and Governance Analytics – Standard and Information Protection and Governance Analytics – Premium.


 


Key points:


·        Timing: mid-March 2021


·        Roll-out: tenant level


·        Control type: admin control


·        Action: review and assess


 


How this will affect your organization?


The service plan name change will have no impact on functionality. This is an administrative update to ensure we continue to enable the right level of access to data classification analytics capabilities (including Content Explorer and Activity Explorer) for your tenant license(s).


 


MC240466 – Data loss prevention for Microsoft Teams coming to GCC-High


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 67098


 


Data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities for Microsoft 365 GCC-High tenants will soon be extend to Microsoft Teams. These capabilities will be enabled by a new service plan, Communications DLP.


 


Key points:


·        Timing: late March through the end of April 2021


·        Roll-out: tenant level


·        Control type: admin control


·        Action: review and assess


 


How this will affect your organization?


We are extending DLP capabilities for Microsoft 365 GCC-High tenants to include Microsoft Teams chat and channel messages, including private channel messages. If your organization has DLP, you can now define policies that prevent people from sharing sensitive information in a Microsoft Teams channel or chat session.


 


MC240393 – OneDrive admin center settings are coming to the SharePoint admin center


This feature is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 65911


 


The OneDrive and SharePoint admin centers are converging into one, providing you with holistic control as we streamline the admin experience.


 


When this will happen?


·        Phase 1 is rolling out from mid-February through early March 2021, beginning with Targeted release (organization) tenants.


·        Phase 2 is rolling out from mid- through late March 2021, beginning with Targeted release (organization) tenants.


How this will affect your organization?
In Phase 1, we’re adding OneDrive Sync, Storage, and Notifications settings to the Settings page in the SharePoint admin center. You can identify
them by the OneDrive icon and name. In this phase, there are no changes in the OneDrive admin center.


In Phase 2, we will add a link from the OneDrive admin center [https://admin.onedrive.com] to the converged SharePoint admin center. In addition, we will add a banner in the OneDrive admin center announcing the new access point.


 


You will have access to OneDrive settings in both locations until late spring. We will communicate with you again before this retirement timeline is finalized.


 


MC240165 – Announcing new service plan for Microsoft 365 data classification analytics


Data classification analytics capabilities will soon be available within your Microsoft 365 compliance center experience under a new service plan: Information Protection and Governance Analytics – Standard.


Key points:


·        Timing: mid-March 2021


·        Roll-out: tenant level


·        Control type: admin control


·        Action: review and assess (or other)


 


How this will affect your organization?


Data classification capabilities in Microsoft 365 compliance center help provide a holistic understanding of the sensitive data in your digital estate and related user activities.


·        Overview shows you the locations of your digital content and most common sensitive information types and labels present.


·        Content Explorer provides visibility into amount and types of sensitive data, and allows you to filter by label or sensitivity type to get a detailed view of locations where the sensitive data is stored.


 


MC240161 – Introducing a change in access behavior for public groups in Microsoft Forms


We are introducing a change in public groups that affects Microsoft Forms users.


 


Key points:


·        Timing: mid- through late March 2021.


·        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.


 


MC240160 – Reminder: Disabling TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 in Microsoft 365


This message post is a reminder of the ongoing progress of retiring TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 protocols in Microsoft 365.


 


As previously communicated (MC126199 in Dec 2017, MC128929 in Feb 2018, MC186827 in July 2019, and MC218794 in July 2020), we are moving all our online services to Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2+ to provide best in class encryption, and to ensure our services is more secure by default. The changes to enforce TLS1.2+ in our service started on October 15, 2020 and will continue to propagate through all Microsoft 365 environments for the next few months. If you have not taken steps to prepare for this change, your connectivity to Microsoft 365 might be impacted.


 


Note: If your organization has already taken steps to migrate from TLS 1.0 and 1.1, you can safely disregard this message


 


Key Points:


·        Major: Retirement of TLS1.0/1.1 protocols. All requests with TLS1.0/1.1 to Microsoft 365 will no longer work.


·        Timing: Started October 15, 2020


·        Action: update or replace client devices as appropriate


 


MC239262 – Enforcing mailbox receiving limits


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


 


How this will affect your organization?


Rollout will begin for all tenants at the same time, and we will enforce limits incrementally by starting with a higher throttling threshold, then gradually lowering the threshold until we reach the established limit. This gives you time to reach out to users that are exceeding the limit, which you’ll be able to monitor in the Exchange Admin Center through a new “Mailboxes exceeding receiving limits” insight and report.


 


MC238894 – Retirement of remediation action “Delete attachment”


Note: we are publishing this message again to ensure visibility for all impacted tenants. We apologize for any inconvenience.


 


We are retiring the ability to delete attachments as a response action in Microsoft Defender for Office 365. Instead admins can continue to take remediation actions on emails, which includes any attachments related to those emails.


 


Key points:


·        Timing: February 15, 2021


·        Roll-out: tenant level


·        Action: review and assess 


 


MC238796 – 1:1 Call recording policy introduction


Updated February 18, 2021: We have made corrections to the content for readability. Thank you for your patience.


 


In mid-March 2021, 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 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.


 


MC237969 – Recommended Files on Office.com


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70597


 


We are adding a new section to office.com. The new “Recommended” section helps you quickly find, work on, and collaborate on the files that matter most to you​. We will be rolling this out in early March and expect to be complete by early April.


 


How this will affect your organization?


Once available, when users visit office.com, they will see a new section of files called “Recommended” and the current section of Files will have a new design.


 


MC237900 – NEW DETAILS: Microsoft Edge Legacy support to end on March 9, 2021


As communicated in MC220490 (August ’20), Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop application support will end on March 9, 2021. After support ends, Microsoft Edge Legacy will not receive new security updates.


 


With March 9, 2021 only a month away, we strongly recommend that you build a transition plan to ensure that you have an up-to-date browser.


 


*NEW* To replace this out of support application, we are announcing that the new Microsoft Edge will be available as part of an upcoming Windows 10 cumulative monthly security update. When you apply this update to your devices, the new Microsoft Edge will be installed and the out of support Microsoft Edge Legacy will be removed.


 


Additionally, 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.


 


Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop application


·        Timing: End of support for the Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop app will occur on March 9, 2021.


·        Action:


o   To continue using a supported browser, transition to the new Microsoft Edge.


o   To avoid disruption to your kiosk scenarios, you must additionally set up kiosk mode in the new Microsoft Edge.


o   If you are already using the new Microsoft Edge (and have set up any needed kiosk scenarios), no action is required.


 


MC237741 – Basic Authentication and Exchange Online – February 2021 Update


In response to the unprecedented situation we are in and knowing that priorities have changed for many of our customers we are suspending until further notice the disabling of Basic Authentication for any protocols that your tenant is using. This was previously communicated in Exchange Online (MC204828 and MC208814). When we resume this program, we will provide a minimum of twelve months’ notice before we block the use of Basic Auth on any protocol being used.


 


We will continue with our plan to disable Basic Auth for protocols that your tenant is not using. Many customers don’t know that unneeded legacy protocols remain enabled in their tenant. We plan to disable these unused protocols to prevent potential mis-use. We will do this based on examining recorded usage of these protocols by your tenant, and we will send Message Center posts providing 30 days’ notice of any changes to your tenant. This work will begin in a few months.


 


Please click Additional Information to learn more.


 


MC237388 – (Updated) Retirement of remediation action “Delete attachment”


Updated February 19, 2021: We have updated this message to ensure visibility. No changes have been made to the content below. Thank you for your patience.


 


We are retiring the ability to delete attachments as a response action in Microsoft Defender for Office 365. Instead admins can continue to take remediation actions on emails, which includes any attachments related to those emails. We apologize for the shorter notice, and we are working to ensure we provide appropriate notice in the future.


Key points:


·        Timing: February 15, 2021


·        Roll-out: tenant level


·        Action: review and assess 


 


MC237363 – Important Information about your Microsoft Power Apps service – GCCH


We have detected that Sovereign cloud region iOS users leveraging the 3.21014.31 version of the Power Apps Mobile application are experiencing crashes when attempting to login to their account via non-global logins. This is following an update to the iOS Power Apps to version 3.21014.31. We are in the process of rolling back this version from the Apple store to the prior build within the next 24 hours.

Action Needed:
Please refrain from updating your iOS Power Apps application version to build version 3.21014.31.

Please contact Microsoft Support and reference ticket 225873063 if you need further assistance.


 


MC237350 – Retiring and updating columns in the advanced hunting EmailEvents and EmailAttachmentInfo tables – GCCH


We’ve streamlined our threat detection information better, replacing four separate columns for malware and phishing verdict information with three new columns that can accommodate spam and other threat types. This change widens our ability to give you more information about the type of email threat beyond malware and phishing.


 


Key Points:


·        Timing: 


o   New columns are available now


o   Old columns to be retired on March 1st 2021


·        Action: Review/update existing queries and rules


 


MC237349 – Service reminder: Skype for Business Online retires in 6 months


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.


 


MC236526 – (Updated) Exchange Online support for Active Directory Rights Management Service (AD RMS) retiring


Updated February 08, 2021: We have updated this message to ensure readability. The content has not changed. Thank you for your patience.


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


 


MC235242 – (Updated) We have renamed 10 Azure Active Directory roles


Updated February 09, 2021: We have updated this post to extend it’s visibility. The message content has not changed.


 


In July 2020 and August 2020, (MC218295) we advised you that we would be renaming 10 Azure Active Directory (AD) built-in roles names to make them consistent with those that appear in Microsoft 365 admin center, the Azure AD portal, and Microsoft Graph. After a delay, we are pleased to announce that the rollout is complete.


 


Key points:


·        Timing: available now


·        Roll-out: tenant level


·        Control type: admin UI


 


MC230505 – (Updated) Block Download Permissions for Teams Meeting Recordings on OneDrive


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70543


 


As part of the New Stream experience, new Teams meeting recordings will be stored in your OneDrive for Business and SharePoint. Based on customer feedback we are enhancing the feature so that these recordings are not downloadable by those with view-only permissions, and that those permissions be set by default.


 


The New Stream experience was originally communicated in MC222640 (Standard) and MC229363 (GCC) also see this documentation for more details on the timing and experience. 


 


Key Points:


·        Timing: The rollout of this change will begin in early February and it expect to complete by the end April.


·        Action: Review and assess impact on your organization.


 


How this will affect your organization?


When this change is implemented:


 


1.      All new Teams meeting recordings uploaded to OneDrive and SharePoint will get the same permissions as outlined here, except that everyone who would normally receive view-only permissions will now also be blocked from being able to download the recording by default for non-channel meetings (i.e. the ones going to the recorder’s OneDrive). We will update that documentation to reflect the added block download restrictions once the feature is deployed. This change that will block downloadability of Teams meeting recordings will apply only to non-Channel meetings (aka “adhoc” meetings). Meeting recordings from meetings hosted in a Teams channel are uploaded to the doclib on the SharePoint team site backing that Teams channel. As such, it inherits the permissions from that team site to maintain its collaborative nature. It is recommended that you do not use Channel meetings for sensitive topics where you do not want members to have full access. A separate post and roadmap item will be created for the channel meeting recording solution in the future.


2.      Any time the recording is shared with someone else, block download permissions will continue to be set by default. Only the recording edit owners will have the ability to explicitly override that setting and re-share with download permissions if they choose to do so. That will be an explicit action, so the owners will not be at risk of accidentally oversharing.


 


The enhanced security and privacy permissions setting will happen by default and cannot be overridden.


 


Note: This only applies new recordings created after you are enrolled in the new OneDrive and SharePoint experience.


 


MC229363 – (Updated) Microsoft Teams: meeting recording saved to OneDrive and SharePoint


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 76074


 


Updated February 16, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline 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


 


MC240391 – Announcing built-in auto and recommended labeling for Office and Outlook on Mac


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68849


 


You will soon be able to automatically apply sensitivity labels in Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook on Mac as part of the Microsoft Information Protection framework.


 


When this will happen?


Rollout will begin in mid-February and is expected to be complete by late March.


 


How this will affect your organization?


With this update, we are enabling the automatic and recommended labeling in both Office and Outlook on Mac.


 


If you have defined sensitivity labels and protection policies in the Microsoft 365 compliance center, you can automatically assign that label to files and emails when it matches conditions that you specify.


 


MC240209 – Updates available for Microsoft 365 Apps for Current Channel


We’ve released updates to the following update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps:


·        Current Channel


 


When this will happen?


We’ll be gradually rolling out these updates of Microsoft 365 Apps to users on that update channel starting February 16th, 2021 (PST).


 


How this will affect your organization?


If your Microsoft 365 Apps clients are configured to automatically update from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN), then no action is required.


 


If you manage updates directly you can now download these latest updates and begin deployment.


 


MC240169 – Teams meetings to support view-only attendees


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 65952


 


Microsoft Teams will soon support up to 20,000 meeting attendees as view-only participants when the attendee is accessing a meeting via a Teams desktop application (Windows or Mac), Teams on the web, or Teams mobile (Android and iOS). This feature applies to those with E5, E3, A5, or A3 licenses.


 


When this will happen?


·        Phase 1, a temporary increase to 20,000 view-only participants runs from late February through the end of June


·        Phase 2, view-only participant capacity will revert to 10,000 view-only participants the first of July 


 


How this will affect your organization?


Currently, Teams meetings are limited to 300 users. If someone tries to join a meeting after it reaches capacity, they are unable to do so. With this update, meeting organizers who are assigned an appropriate license will be able to host a Teams meeting that has overflow capacity.


·        Up to 20,000 view-only attendees may join a meeting from late February through the end of June


·        Up to 10,000 view-only attendees may join a meeting after July 1, 2021


 


Similar to Teams Live Events limit increases, during this peak remote work time, we have temporarily increased attendee limits.


 


Meeting organizers will not see view-only participants in attendee counts or reports; this feature does not support the e-discovery of data. Organizers cannot remove view-only attendees from a meeting.


 


When a meeting organizer enables this overflow feature:


·        After a meeting reaches capacity (300 users), people will be able to join as view-only attendees, with the maximum number limited by the phase


·        View-only attendees will not impact the normal interaction available for regular attendees (those who joined before the meeting reached capacity).


·        Once the view-only attendee limit is reached, no additional view-only attendees will be able to join.


 


View-only attendees do not need a special SKU to join the meeting in a view-only capacity. However, they do need permission to bypass the Lobby based on set Lobby Policies or Options.


·        View-only attendees will follow all lobby and security policy mechanisms.


·        View-only attendees will have limited access to meeting features. For example, view-only attendees will be able to listen to all audio and view a screen or window shared during the meeting. However, they will be unable to share audio or video, and they will be unable to see chat or other applications that are shared during the meeting.


 


What you need to do to prepare?


This feature is OFF by default for your users.


 


You may use PowerShell to enable this feature for your entire tenant while you prepare to assign the licenses.


·        Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity Global -StreamingAttendeeMode Enabled


 


Note: The view-only attendance feature is provided using Teams live events streaming services.


 


Learn more


·        Meeting policy settings – Participants & guests


·        Teams view-only meeting experience


 


MC240167 – Allowing anonymous presenters in Teams Live Events


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70599


 


With this update, meeting organizers will be able to allow anonymous presenters in a Microsoft Teams live event.


 


When this will happen?


Rollout is late March through early April 2021.


 


How this will affect your organization?


Your meeting organizers will now be able to schedule an anonymous presenter for a Teams live event when using the Teams desktop app.


 


Meeting organizers will indicate when scheduling the live event that they expect an anonymous presenter. This must be managed when scheduling the meeting.


 


The anonymous presenter must also use the Teams desktop app.


 


MC240066 – Introducing a SharePoint app bar that features global navigation


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70576


 


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  


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


 


How this affects your organization?


Users access the SharePoint app bar from the upper left-hand side of the browser on the SharePoint start page and throughout modern SharePoint sites. The SharePoint app bar improves global wayfinding and dynamically displays personalized content for sites, news, and files


 


MC239092 – New lists will have versioning enabled by default


Your users will soon be able to track and manage SharePoint list information over time with list versioning.


 


When this will happen?


This feature rolls out mid-February 2021.


 


How this will affect your organization?


After this feature rolls out, when a user creates a new list in SharePoint, that list will have versioning enabled by default. End users will be able to view and recover previous versions from the list item history.


 


By default, new lists will retain the 50 most recent major versions. Users can change how many versions are retained or disable versioning on any list they manage.


 


MC238895 – Remediate malicious email delivered in Office 365


Note: we are publishing this message again to ensure visibility for all impacted tenants. We apologize for any inconvenience.


 


We are updating the remediation capability in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to improve customer experience and efficiency.



This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70554.



When this will happen?


We will begin rolling out at the end of January and complete by mid-February.



How this will affect your organization?
We are making these improvements to the experience and remediation efficiency:


·        Increasing the export limit of records from Action center > Remediation > Mail submission or action log to 100,000. 


·        Adding the network message ID column in Action center > Remediation > Action log details.  


·        Adding “Already in destination” column in Action center > Remediation > Action logs. Until this update, records submitted for remediation were remediated based on their original delivery location. So if a soft delete action was taken on a message for the second time (when it had been part of another query), the deletion attempt was based on the original location. With this update, we will reduce submissions by identifying messages which are already in destination.


 


MC238850 – 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 February 9th, 2021 (PST).


 


MC238780 – Adding taxonomy columns for modern SharePoint library views


This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70609


 


This new feature gives users the ability to add taxonomy columns directly to library views in modern SharePoint libraries. Previously, users had to create managed metadata columns from within More options in the Add column experience.


 


When this will happen?


·       Targeted Release: Rolling out from mid-February through early March 2021.


·       Standard Release: Rolling out from early March through the end of March 2021.


 


How this will affect your organization?


Users will see a new Managed metadata option as a column type within the Add column menu in SharePoint lists and libraries. By selecting the Managed metadata option, users will be able to specify column information such as name and description as well as choose their organization’s desired term set or term, to associate the column with.


 


MC238651 – Announcing Microsoft 365 Audit retention dashboard


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70627


 


The Microsoft 365 compliance center will soon include a new dashboard experience specific to Audit retention activity.


 


When this will happen?


Rollout will begin in mid-March and is expected to be complete by end of April.


 


How this will affect your organization?


With the new Audit retention dashboard, you can create and manage audit log retention policies in a centralized location within the Microsoft 365 compliance center.


 


MC238650 – (Updated) Increasing team membership to 25,000 members pre team


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68723


 


Updated February 09, 2021: We have updated this post for clarity. Thank you for your patience.


 


This release increases the number of members that can be added to a team from 5,000 to 25,000. This feature will allow users greater collaboration in the following scenarios:


·        Department-wide collaboration


·        Collaboration in employee resource groups


·        Collaboration between internal and external members


 


When this will happen?
This will rollout beginning in late Feb 2021 and be complete by end of March 2021.


 


MC237990 – Announcing availability of AIP client and scanner audit logs in Microsoft 365 Audit


This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70600


 


Azure Information Protection (AIP) users will soon be able to access data in Microsoft 365 compliance center Audit logs, in addition to the AIP Analytics (Preview) portal.


 


When this will happen?


Rollout begins mid-February and is expected to be complete
by the end of March 2021.


 


How this will affect your organization?


AIP users have been accessing this logged data in the AIP Analytics (Preview) portal.


With this update, data logged via the AIP client and the AIP scanner flowing into AIP log analytics will also be available in Microsoft 365 Audit logs. Consequently, end users will be able to see this information when they access Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) data sets.


 


MC237985 – Announcing built-in manual sensitivity labeling for Office and Outlook for government clouds


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 63662 and 76504.


 


You will soon be able to apply sensitivity labels natively in Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook as part of the Microsoft Information Protection framework.


 


When this will happen?


Rollout began in mid-January and is expected to be complete by late March 2021.


 


How this will affect your organization?


With this update, we are enabling the built-in sensitivity labeling client in both Office and Outlook. This update applies to manual labeling for desktop (Windows, Mac), Web, and mobile (iOS, Android).


 


MC237825 – Microsoft Information Protection adding support for double-byte character set languages


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68711


 


Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) will soon be able to detect double-byte language characters found in East Asian languages. Initial languages supported are Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, and Korean. 


 


When this will happen?


Rollout will begin mid-February and is expected to be complete by the end of February 2021.


 


MC237807 – Introducing a registration page for Microsoft Teams meetings


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 66586


 


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 March and expect it to be complete early April.


 


MC237669 – Forms is getting a new start page


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80044


 


Updated February 18, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below.


 


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: early April (previously early March) through mid-April (previously mid-March)


·        Roll-out: tenant level


·        Action: review and assess


 


MC237666 – New security capabilities for EMS G5 GCC Customers


You will soon see two new service plans, Microsoft Cloud App Security and Microsoft Defender for Identity, available as part of your Microsoft 365 Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) G5 for GCC license.


 


Key points:


·        Timing: early March 2021


·        Action: review and assess


 


How this affects your organization?


Microsoft Cloud App Security is a cloud access security broker (CASB) that provides multifunction visibility, control over data travel and sophisticated analytics.


Microsoft Defender for Identity helps customers protect on-premises identities and correlate signals with Microsoft 365.


 


MC237645 – (Updated) Blocking ULRs and Files with Tenant Allow/Block list


This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 61352


 


Updated February 09, 2021: We have updated the post for additional clarity. Thank you for your feedback.


 


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 March 2021.


 


How this will affect your organization?


Sometimes, a good message might be marked as bad (a false positive) or a bad message might be allowed through (a false negative). The first step is to report the message to Microsoft, preferably via the Admin Submissions portal. But if there is still a disagreement, tenants need to put in some kind of override, usually in the form of an Exchange Transport Rule (ETR). Although ETRs are robust enough to handle almost all scenarios, it is a complex manual process.


 


We are adding a Tenant Allow/Block List which EOP will use during mail flow and at the time of user clicks for files and URLs.


 


MC237611 – Important information about your Microsoft Apps service (MC237363)


This message is related to MC237363:

An issue was identified with Sovereign cloud iOS users leveraging the 3.21014.31 version of the Power Apps Mobile application. This issue resulted in the Power Apps Mobile app to experience crashes when users attempted to login via non-global logins. We have released an updated Power Apps Mobile version to the iOS app store (version 3.21014.32) which has corrected this issue.


 


MC237394 – Secure by default is Retiring the Move message to Junk Email folder policy option for high confidence phishing emails


We are retiring the Move message to Junk Email folder policy option for high confidence phishing emails in Exchange Online Protection (EOP) anti-spam policies. Existing policies that rely on the Move message to Junk Email folder option will automatically switch to the Quarantine message option. The Redirect message to email address option is unchanged.


If you are not using the Move message to Junk Email folder option for high confidence phishing emails, there is no impact for your organization.


 


Key points:


·        Timing: beginning of March 2021 through mid-March 2021


·        Roll-out: tenant level


·        Action: review and assess


 


MC237384 – Microsoft Office app is now optimized for iPad


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 60685


 


If your organization is not using iPads you can safely disregard.


 


With this release, we are bringing the Microsoft Office app to the iPad, combining the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps you know, plus additional tools to keep you more productive than ever. Optimized for iPadOS, users can now also use keyboard, mouse, and trackpad to create and collaborate on documents, sign PDFs, jot down notes, or create using your camera, and more from within the Office app. On iPhone and iPad, Microsoft Office is designed to be the go-to app for getting work done.


 


MC237377 – (Updated) OneDrive/SharePoint Send link to Outlook sharing option is being retired


Updated February 19, 2021: We have updated the message for additional clarity. Thank you for your feedback.


 


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: early through late March 2021


·        Action: review and assess


 


MC237369 – Announcing general availability of Microsoft 365 data classification analytics (GCC-High & DoD)


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70666


 


Updated February 16, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below and added additional details for clarity. Thank you for your patience.


New data classification analytics capabilities will soon be available within your Microsoft 365 compliance center experience in two new service plans, Information Protection and Governance Analytics – Premium and Information Protection and Governance Analytics – Standard.


Key points:


·        Timing:


o   New service plans: mid-March (previously early March)


o   Feature available: from mid-March 2021


·        Roll-out: tenant level


·        Control type: admin UI


·        Action: review and assess


How this will affect your organization?


Data classification capabilities in Microsoft 365 compliance center help you get a holistic understanding of the sensitive data in your digital estate and related user activities.


·        Activity Explorer shows activities related to your sensitive data and labels, such as label downgrades or external sharing that could expose your content to risk.


·        Content Explorer provides visibility into amount and types of sensitive data, and allows you to filter by label or sensitivity type to get a detailed view of locations where the sensitive data is stored. 


·        Overview shows you the locations of your digital content and most common sensitive information types and labels present.


 


MC237348 – Updates to Threat Explorer and Real-time detections


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70544


 


We are updating Threat Explorer and Real-time detections within Microsoft Defender for Office 365. There are three sets of changes: improving export limits, introducing Alert ID, and improving our trial experiences. 


 


When this will happen?


We will begin rollout in early February and expect it to be complete in late March 2021.


 


MC235180 – (Updated) Teams desktop app for Mac: Include computer sound in a meeting


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 67168 and 67169.


 


Updated February 18, 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 late March (previously late January) and should be complete in early April (previously February).


·        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 February 05, 2021: We have updated the images to more accurately reflect the experience.


 


Microsoft Teams desktop users on Windows and Mac will soon have a revised share experience while in meetings.


 


MC233466 – (Updated) New Teams meeting lobby settings – only invited users join directly


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68730


 


Updated February 16, 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 in early March (previously early February) and will be complete by mid-March (previously mid-February).


 


How this will affect your organization?


Meeting organizers will be able to ensure that only Calendar meeting invited users can bypass the lobby after they schedule a new meeting. They do this by changing the meeting option Who can bypass the lobby to People I invite. Anyone else with the meeting invitation will be sent to the lobby.


 


MC233463 – (Updated) Start Meet Now from Outlook desktop client (Windows)


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68838


 


Updated February 11, 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 in late February (previously mid-February).


 


MC229945 – (Updated) Introducing an enhanced Teams Calling experience


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68771


 


Updated February 11, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.


 


We are simplifying the calling experience in the Teams desktop app (Windows and Mac) by providing a streamlined view that combines contacts, voicemail, and calling history.


 


Key points:


·        Timing: end of February (previously mid-February) through mid-March (previously late February)


·        Roll-out: user level roll-out v tenant level


·        Action: review and assess 


 


MC229081 – (Updated) Dark mode on OneDrive for web


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68868


 


Updated February 04, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.


We are introducing dark mode for OneDrive for web.


 


When this will happen?


We will begin rolling out dark mode in early February (previously January).


 


How this will affect your organization?


Dark mode is intended to reduce eye strain. Users will be able to enable and disable dark mode for OneDrive for web under Settings (the gear icon) in the Microsoft 365 OneDrive suite header.


 


MC228897 – (Updated) Text formatting (bold, italic, underline) available in Microsoft Forms


This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68894.


 


Updated February 19, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.


 


Text formatting (bold, italics, and underline) is coming to Microsoft Forms to help survey and quiz designers differentiate and emphasize content.


 


When this will happen?


·        We will begin rolling out to production tenants in later February and expect to be complete in March (previously early February).


·        We will begin rolling out to government tenants in later March February (previously early February) and expect to be complete in April (previously early March).


 


MC228044 – (Updated) Announcing Advanced Audit: up to one year log retention for gov clouds


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68878


 


Updated February 18, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.


 


Advanced Audit will now retain all Exchange, SharePoint, and Azure Active Directory audit records for one year, by default.


 


When this will happen?


Rollout will begin in end of February (previously late January) and is expected to be complete by end of March (previously end of February).


 


How this will affect your organization?


Advanced Audit in Microsoft 365 is applicable to licensed Advanced Audit users, and will now retain all Exchange, SharePoint, and Azure Active Directory audit records for such users for one year, by default. For other Microsoft 365 services, you can create custom audit retention policies within the Microsoft 365 compliance center to change retention period for up to a year. These features can help you meet investigation requirements and allow you to customize retention policies per your organization’s requirements


 


MC227507 – (Updated) Multi Window Meetings rolling out to GCC-High and DoD


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68892


 


Updated February 05, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. This has been rolled out and is available for GCC-High. We are finalizing the feature for DoD and expect to make it available by late February. Thank you for your patience.


 


We’re pleased to share that we will be making several of the new features previously announced in Reimagining virtual collaboration for the future of work and learning available to users of Teams in GCC-High and DoD.


 


We’ll start rolling the features out for Teams desktop app on Windows and Mac (VDI environments are not yet supported). You’ll have the option to turn the New Meetings Experience on through Teams settings. To learn how to turn on the settings, please visit New Meeting and Calling Experience in Microsoft Teams in GCC.


 


When this will happen?


·        Available for GCC-High now.


·        Available for DoD in late February.


A few weeks after this rollout, we will make these as default behavior but still allow users to turn them off if they like. Eventually in early 2021, the option to turn these experiences off will be removed. This timeline is subject to change and we will provide appropriate notice for each phase through Message Center as we proceed.


 


MC227447 – (Updated) List rules make it easy to set up notifications of changes


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 64163


 


Updated February 09, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.


 


With this update, SharePoint users with edit permissions on a list can create simple if/then rules, based on changes to list information, to set reminders and send notifications.


 


When this will happen?


·        Targeted release (organization): gradual roll out in late November; expect to be complete in mid-December 2020.


·        Standard release: gradual roll out mid-January; expect to be complete by the end of February (previously January)


 


MC223082 – (Updated) Microsoft To Do web app available for GCC


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 67144


 


Updated February 16, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.


 


The Microsoft To Do web app will soon be available for GCC customers.


 


Key points:


·        Timing: Beginning at the end of March (previously February) and complete in mid-April (previously March).


·        Roll-out: tenant level


·        Action: review and assess  


 


How this will affect your organization?


Microsoft To Do is a personal task management app that empowers users to track and focus on the things they need to get done. Your users with Exchange Online accounts will now be able to manage tasks through the To Do web app or in Outlook.


 


MC220415 – (Updated) Admin setting for PSTN participant phone number masking in Teams meetings


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 67091


 


Updated February 16, 2021: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.


 


With MC209349 (April 2020) and MC217648 (July 2020), we added a level of privacy for participants who call in to a Teams meeting via audio conferencing (PSTN) by automatically masking any PSTN participant phone number to users from outside of your organization who might be on the call.


 


We are now adding an admin control for this feature.


 


When this will happen?


We will be rolling this out this out in early March (previously early February).


 









Microsoft 365 IP and URL Endpoint Updates



 


Documentation – Office 365 IP Address and URL web service


 


3 March 2021 – GCC


28 January 2021 – GCC High


28 January 2021 – DOD

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.