Play of the Week

Microsoft Planner is releasing an exciting new feature that allows users to set reoccurring tasks. You can use this feature for your weekly or monthly reports. This feature will be released in November 2021.

In Development

Microsoft Teams: Chat preview notification settings, Government Clouds

Users can change settings and manage previews for their chat notification toasts.

ID: 65362 Tags: Microsoft Teams – GCC Release: June CY2021

Whiteboard: Inking improvements

New improvements and capabilities have been added to the inking experience win Whiteboard for the web. Users can now: Change pen colors, change pen thickness, use highlighter, intelligently convert their ink shapes, use keyboard shortcuts to switch between tools.

ID: 68351 Tags: Whiteboard – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2021

OneDrive: Sync admin reports macOS support

New dashboard to check sync app versions, sync status, top sync errors on individual macOS devices and monitor deployment progress of Known Folder Move.

ID: 81982 Tags: OneDrive – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: August CY2021

Outlook: Meetings online by default

Whether you’re working from home or meeting with people in other locations, all your meetings will automatically be online so everyone can attend. This setting can be disabled by users from Outlook, or by admins from PowerShell. In its initial release, only Teams and Skype will be supported, and 3rd party online meeting add-ins will not be included.

ID: 81995 Tags: Outlook, Exchange – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: August CY2021

Microsoft Planner: Recurring tasks

Configure your tasks to occur on a regular cadence in Planner.

ID: 82028 Tags: Planner – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: November CY2021

OneDrive: Known Folder Move for macOS

You’ll be able to roll out Known Folder Move (KFM) for your macOS users and redirect their Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders to OneDrive.

ID: 82032 Tags: OneDrive – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC, DoD, GCC High Release: November CY2021

OneDrive: Files On-Demand refresh for macOS

We’ve revamped the OneDrive sync experience in macOS based on Apple’s new File Provider platform to improve the Finder experience for OneDrive. We are updating the Files On-Demand experience to a more native look and feel, for the latest version of macOS.

ID: 82033 Tags: OneDrive – GCC High, DoD, GCC, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: November CY2021

OneDrive: Sync client support for Apple Silicon

We will be updating OneDrive for Mac to be a universal app that will run natively on Macs with M1.

ID: 82035 Tags: OneDrive – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC, DoD, GCC High Release: November CY2021

Microsoft Cloud App Security: Cloud Access Security Broker for GCC

The Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS) offering for GCC is built on the Microsoft Azure Government Cloud and is designed to inter-operate with the Microsoft 365 GCC environment. Microsoft Cloud App Security is a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) that secures SaaS and multi-cloud solutions. It provides rich visibility, control over data travel, and sophisticated analytics to identify and combat cyberthreats across all your cloud services.

ID: 82037 Tags: Microsoft Cloud App Security – GCC Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Stream: Updated Web player for video & audio files across Microsoft 365

The web player for audio and video files that are stored in OneDrive and SharePoint (including when those files are embedded in Teams, Yammer, and SharePoint), is updated with a new user look and feel, and adheres to greater levels of accessibility for keyboard navigation and screen readers.

ID: 82039 Tags: Microsoft Stream, SharePoint, Yammer, OneDrive – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: September CY2021

OneDrive for Business: Progressive Web App (PWA)

You can now install the web version of OneDrive for Business as a Progressive Web App (PWA) in Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Firefox, or other browser that supports Progressive Web Apps. After you install the web version of OneDrive for Business as a Progressive Web App, you can launch it from your desktop, and it will work the same way as it does in your web browser.

ID: 82040 Tags: OneDrive – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), Germany, GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Lists: Support for Progressive Web App (PWA)

You can now install the web version of Microsoft Lists as a Progressive Web App (PWA) in Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Firefox or other browser that supports Progressive Web Apps. After you install the web version of Microsoft Lists as a Progressive Web App, it will work similarly to any stand-alone desktop application.

ID: 82041 Tags: SharePoint – DoD, GCC High, GCC, Germany, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Viva: Refinements to related sites displayed on topic pages

Differentiate between sites that have been pinned by a person, and those that have been suggested for the Topic.

ID: 82042 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2021

Microsoft Viva: Sort topics in web part

In the Topics web part, add the ability to sort topics where you have confirmed your connection.

ID: 82043 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2021

Microsoft Viva: Updates to multi-geo support

We can process content that is in all regions and query from all regions. We support region moves. We keep the data in the corresponding regions according to data sovereignty.

ID: 82044 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2021

Microsoft Viva: Accelerated publishing for topic curation

Edits on topics or new, manually added topics will appear in Manage Topics view and for end users to discover within minutes.

ID: 82045 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: August CY2021

Microsoft Viva: Integrate Microsoft Search bookmarks with topic cards and pages

Many organizations have already used bookmarks in search results to direct users to authoritative content for query results.  With this new feature, you’ll be able to integrate the search bookmarks into topic cards and pages – allowing users to continue to find those sources augmented with the topical content on the page or card.

ID: 82046 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: September CY2021

Microsoft Viva: Exclude content from topic discovery based off applied sensitivity labels

Use Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) sensitivity labels to control which files should not be included in topic discovery.

ID: 82047 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Viva: Use Syntex taxonomy to generate topics

Select terms from the taxonomy service to initiate creation of Viva topics, using the term definitions and tagged files.

ID: 82049 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: August CY2021

Microsoft Search: Sync your non-Azure Active Directory users and groups to support search permissions

Microsoft Graph connectors for Microsoft Search now supports syncing of non-Azure Active Directory users/groups from your external data source with your Azure Active Directory users/groups so that your end users can see search results permissioned to them.

ID: 82051 Tags: Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Microsoft Search, Office 365 – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Defender for Office 365: First contact safety tip

First contact safety tips notify recipients the first time they get a message from a sender or if they don’t often get messages from the sender. This capability adds an extra layer of security protection against potential impersonation attacks. Previously the first contact safety tip was available via PowerShell cmdlet, and with this release will now be available for configuration in the anti-phishing policy.

ID: 82052 Tags: Microsoft Defender for Office 365 – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2021

Microsoft Stream: Block downloads for channel meeting recordings saved to SharePoint

There is a new admin setting for channel meeting recordings saved to SharePoint that determines if the recordings are saved to the channel in the “Recordings” folder (as they are today) or to a “Recordings\View only” folder. The new option for the “View only” folder will restrict the editing and download of the channel meeting recordings by team & channel members. Only team & channel owners will have full control over the files with this new option.

ID: 82053 Tags: Microsoft Stream – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Teams: Music on Hold for Consult/Transfer

Music on Hold for Consult/Transfer scenarios ensures that users placed on hold will hear music while consultation and transfer occurs, ensuring that the caller knows that the call is still active.

ID: 82957 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Teams: New default for Teams notification style

Teams notification style will be defaulted to native notifications for new users. Currently the default style is Teams purple, with this change to native notifications the user will benefit from support for assist mode, action center, accessibility and more.

ID: 83062 Tags: Microsoft Teams – GCC, DoD, GCC High Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Teams: Shared channels now supports tabs for third-party/custom apps

Microsoft Teams Connect shared channels now support tabs built by 3P/custom apps. Developers will be able to configure their apps to support this capability in advance of the public rollout of Teams Connect, which is slated for release later this year.

ID: 83131 Tags: Microsoft Teams – GCC, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Teams: Teams Webinars integrate with Dynamics 365 Marketing to enable lead nurturing

With this feature, webinar organizers can drive post event engagement with registrants by leveraging Dynamics 365 Marketing. The attendee engagement data syncs with Dynamics 365 Marketing org and enabled automated user journeys. This is only available for users who also have Dynamics 365 Marketing SKU.

ID: 83143 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2021

Microsoft Teams: Sharing device audio on iOS and Android

Include device audio when sharing on iPhones/iPads and Android devices.

ID: 83353 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC, DoD, GCC High Release: June CY2021

Microsoft Teams: Assign the Presenter Role in Meetings for GCC – High

Organizers can now assign one or more Presenters in their meetings with the “Who can present?” meeting option.

ID: 83396 Tags: Microsoft Teams – GCC High Release: June CY2021

Microsoft Teams: Cortana now available for EDU customers

Cortana voice assistance in the Teams mobile app is now available for EDU customers in en-US to help you streamline communication, collaboration, and class-related tasks in school using spoken natural language. With Cortana voice assistance, you can call someone or perform class-related tasks, you can message someone or send message to your class. Also, you can find and share files, and search or navigate within the Teams mobile app.

ID: 83484 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management data appears in Activity Explorer

Activity explorer provides risk investigators and analysts with a comprehensive tool that surfaces detailed information about alerts to enhance the alert triage experience.

ID: 83952 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management data appears in Activity Explorer

Activity explorer provides risk investigators and analysts with a comprehensive tool that surfaces detailed information about alerts to enhance the alert triage experience.

ID: 83953 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management recognizes device indicators

Policy indicators are now available to capture signals from Windows 10 endpoints to deliver new insights related to obfuscation, exfiltration, and infiltration of sensitive information.

ID: 83954 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management integration with Teams and Power Automate

Insider Risk Management integration with Microsoft Teams allows for richer collaboration across an organization. Additionally, integration with Power Automate allows organizations to configure Power Automate flows to automate tasks for Insider Risk Management cases and users.

ID: 83955 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – GCC High, GCC Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management: Define priority user groups and detect data leaks by priority users

Define users in your organization that need closer inspection based on factors such as their position, level of access to sensitive information, or risk history. Once created, these groups can be included in certain policy templates, such as detecting data leaks by users included in a priority user group.

ID: 83956 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Enhanced policy creation wizard, policy customization, and policy health check for Insider Risk Management

We’re improving the experience of Insider Risk Management policy creation, including enhanced guard rails to enforce proper policy configuration and ability to customize policy templates to meet the unique needs of your organization. Additionally, Insider Risk Management will now surface policy status to identify misconfigured policies which could impact detections.

ID: 83957 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management: Intelligent detections – Domain settings

Intelligent detection domain settings help you define risk levels for activities to specific domains. By specifying domains in these settings, you can increase or decrease the risk scoring for activity that takes place with these domains.

ID: 83958 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management: Data leaks by disgruntled users

Detects data leaks by users near a stressor event.

ID: 83959 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: September CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management integration with Teams and Power Automate

Insider Risk Management integration with Microsoft Teams allows for richer collaboration across an organization. Additionally, integration with Power Automate allows organizations to configure Power Automate flows to automate tasks for Insider Risk Management cases and users.

ID: 83960 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – DoD Release: September CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management: General Security Policy Violations

Detects general security violations by users. Includes activity generated by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint alerts, which detect possible security violations performed on devices onboarded to your organization.

ID: 83961 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: December CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management: Security policy violations by priority users

Detects security violations by users included in a priority user group. Includes activity generated by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint alerts, which detect possible security violations performed on devices on devices onboarded to your organization.

ID: 83962 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: December CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management: Security policy violations by departing users

Detects security violations by departing users near their resignation or termination date. Includes activity generated by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint alerts, which detect possible security violations performed on devices onboarded to your organization.

ID: 83963 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: December CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management: Security policy violations by disgruntled users

Detects security violations by users near a stressor event. Includes activity generated by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint alerts, which detect possible security violations performed on devices on devices onboarded to your organization.

ID: 83964 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: December CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Insider Risk Management: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint alerts

Enables you to import indicators from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint related to unapproved or malicious software installation or bypassing security controls.

ID: 83965 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: December CY2021

Microsoft Compliance center: Increased set of first-party indicators for Insider Risk Management

The Microsoft 365 Insider Risk Management solution will now recognize an increase set of first party indicators, including Endpoint (Windows 10), Microsoft Teams, Azure Active Directory, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Cloud Access Security.

ID: 83966 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: December CY2021

Microsoft Teams: Increasing Chat Size from 300 to 1000 Participants for GCC-High and DoD

Currently, 300 meeting participants can be part of the meeting chat; this feature update will allow 1000 participants to participate in the meeting chat.

ID: 84178 Tags: Microsoft Teams – DoD, GCC High Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Teams: Large meeting support for GCC-High and DoD

Hold interactive meetings and webinars with more attendees—up to 1,000.

ID: 84179 Tags: Microsoft Teams – GCC High, DoD Release: July CY2021

Microsoft Edge v.95: Publish and update extensions to the Microsoft Edge Add-ons store using API’s

Once available, you can integrate these API’s directly into your continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline, and publish extension package updates to the Microsoft Edge Add-on store without using the partner center.

ID: 84182 Tags: Microsoft Edge – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: October CY2021

Microsoft Edge v.94: Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET)

Microsoft Edge will begin supporting an even safer browsing mode that uses hardware-dependent control flow for browser processes on supported hardware (Intel 11th Gen. or AMD Zen 3). You can disable CET by manipulating Image File Execution Options (IFEO) using group policy.

ID: 84183 Tags: Microsoft Edge – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: September CY2021

Rolling Out

Word, Excel, PowerPoint for Business: Recommended files in Office

Microsoft Office displays a list of recommended files on the File tab, or start page, of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint on Windows. This list allows you to keep track of work around you and quickly access files with activity you value most such as edits, mentions, comments by people you interact with. This feature uses machine learning to predict which files you’re most likely to want to work on next and presents those as a set of cards you can choose from. Only files that you have access to in OneDrive or SharePoint are suggested. For each recommended file you’ll see a card with a thumbnail of the file, information about what kind of activity has been happening with that file, and when that activity occurred.

ID: 72233 Tags: Excel, PowerPoint, Word – DoD, GCC High, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC Release: June CY2021

Outlook: Intelligent Translation

Translation is coming to Outlook Desktop for GCC and GCC-H customers.

ID: 81921 Tags: Outlook – GCC, DoD, GCC High Release: June CY2021

Exchange: Scheduler for Microsoft 365

Scheduler is a service that enables a digital assistant to schedule your meetings through email.

ID: 81948 Tags: Exchange – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2021

Microsoft Teams and PowerPoint for Business: Annotation support in PowerPoint Live in Teams and Slideshow

We are introducing virtual laser pointer and ink annotations so presenters can engage more with their audience by drawing attention or clarifying certain sections of the PowerPoint deck. Just as you would use a physical laser point in a room, PowerPoint Live allows you to effectively point at different places in the presentation so the audience can easily follow along what’s on the slide.

ID: 81966 Tags: PowerPoint, Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2021

Microsoft Edge v.92: MHTML files will default to opening in Internet Explorer mode

Starting in Microsoft Edge version 92, MHTML file types will automatically open in Internet Explorer mode on Microsoft Edge instead of the Internet Explorer (IE11) application. This is most commonly observed while trying to view Outlook emails in a browser. This change will occur only if IE11 is the default handler for this file type.

ID: 84190 Tags: Microsoft Edge – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: July CY2021

Launched

Microsoft Teams: 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.

ID: 68835 Tags: Microsoft Teams – GCC, GCC High, DoD, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: March CY2021

Microsoft Graph: New privacy controls for Microsoft Graph-based insights

For administrators who wish to enable granular control over where intelligent insights are available to their employees, we’re introducing new controls that provide you the ability to configure the visibility of Graph-derived insights, between users and other items in the Graph (such as documents or sites) across apps and services in Microsoft 365.

ID: 68863 Tags: Microsoft Graph – GCC Release: June CY2021

Microsoft 365 compliance center: Third-party data connectors

Use data connectors to import and archive third-party data from social media platforms, instant messaging platforms, document collaboration platforms and more, to mailboxes in your Microsoft 365 organization where you can then apply various Microsoft 365 compliance solutions to the imported data. This helps you ensure that your organization’s non-Microsoft data is in compliance with the regulations and standards that affect your organization.

ID: 68896 Tags: Microsoft Compliance center – GCC Release: May CY2021

Microsoft Project: Import Project desktop files to Project for the web

Use a button on the Project Home to import your .mpp files into Project for the web.

ID: 72195 Tags: Microsoft Project – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2021

Outlook: Dictate emails on iPhone and iPad

Use speech-to-text to dictate email messages, available starting in EN-US.

ID: 81951 Tags: Outlook – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2021

SharePoint: Integration of Power Automate and Power Apps for DoD tenants

Power Automate and Power Apps will be available for SharePoint DoD customers. Users can automate common tasks, customize forms, create apps from lists, and use the Power Apps web part.

ID: 81985 Tags: SharePoint, Power Automate, PowerApps – DoD Release: June CY2021

Microsoft 365 Admin center: Translator service for the Service Health Dashboard

The new translator toggle in the service health dashboard page translates the content of Incidents and advisories to the language selected by user.

ID: 82267 Tags: Microsoft 365 Admin Center – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: May CY2021

Microsoft Teams: Network planner tool updates

Network planner tool will be updated to reflect the latest bandwidth requirements of Teams client. This will help IT administrators better estimate and plan their office bandwidth needs.

ID: 82737 Tags: Microsoft Teams – GCC, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2021

Canceled