Play of the Week

Microsoft Purview’s Insider Risk Management’s latest new alerts feature will help you quickly identify the status of alerts requiring your attention. Purview will spot potential security risks like data leakage, IP theft, and violations. The feature will be rolling out in May 2023.

In Development

Microsoft 365: The new look of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word Web

Excel, PowerPoint, and Word web have a refreshed look that?provides a simpler, more coherent experience that lets you focus more easily on your work.

ID: 87307 Tags: Excel, PowerPoint, Word – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Avatars for Microsoft Teams

Avatars for Microsoft Teams gives you that much-needed camera break, while still allowing you to collaborate effectively. You can add a new layer of choice to your meetings and represent yourself the way you want with customizable avatars and reactions.

ID: 107969 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Intune: Zebra firmware management

Enables cloud management of Zebra over the air firmware updates from Microsoft Intune.

ID: 109553 Tags: Microsoft Intune – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: September CY2023

Microsoft Viva: Microsoft Project data Integration in Viva Goals

Connect Viva Goals OKRs with MS Project. As Project tasks and milestones are completed, the connected OKRs and projects will reflect the latest status.

ID: 117462 Tags: Microsoft Viva, Microsoft Project – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: April CY2023

Azure Active Directory: Authenticator Lite now in Public Preview in Outlook for Android and iOS

If you do not wish for this feature to be enabled on May 19th, move the state to ‘disabled’ or set user include and exclude groups prior to May 19th. Authenticator Lite (in Outlook) is a feature that allows your users to complete multi-factor authentication for their work or school account using the Outlook app on their iOS or Android device. We always recommend having users download Authenticator to complete their sign-ins, where we can offer the most up-to-date security features. However, users that have not downloaded the app to their device can now approve authentication requests and receive TOTP codes in Outlook, bringing the security of Authenticator to a convenient location.

ID: 117564 Tags: Outlook, Azure Active Directory – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: April CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Federated group calling for GCCH and DoD

Easily start a group Teams call with federated colleagues outside your organization, including video and screensharing, all over an internet connection without any PSTN usage charges.

ID: 117566 Tags: Microsoft Teams – DoD, GCC High Release: April CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal: eDiscovery (Premium) – CMK (Customer Managed Keys) encryption support for data at-rest in Review sets

This release of eDiscovery features the implementation of customer-managed key (CMK) options, allowing users to manage their own encryption keys for the data stored in eDiscovery review sets in addition to the default, strong Microsoft-managed encryption already in place.

ID: 117569 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: August CY2023

Outlook: Bookings with me

‘Bookings with me’, is a streamlined personal version of Microsoft Bookings that serves as a personal scheduling page that integrates with the free/busy information from your Outlook calendar. We’ll be removing the “preview” tag and making it generally available. Bookings with me will be available in Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows.

ID: 117571 Tags: Outlook, Bookings – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: April CY2023

Outlook: New Sensitivity Bar in Outlook on the Web

Sensitivity bar provides a more prominent and contextual user experience for viewing and applying sensitivity labels in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Outlook on the web will be rolling out the new sensitivity bar to keep the consistency across Microsoft 365 apps. It will also support the label colors defined by administrators.

ID: 117578 Tags: Outlook – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Outlook: Labeling email from attachments’ label in Outlook on the web

Outlook on the web will match the highest sensitivity label from attachments on email. Admin could configure this either use the cmdlet set-labelpolicy advanced setting or use the Compliance portal to configure the label policy(Roadmap: 100158). Customer will see automatically or recommendations that email gets the higher label from attachments’ label.

ID: 117579 Tags: Outlook – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Mixed grid view in meetings.

Mixed grid eases the transition from video on to video off and places everybody in a 16:9 ratio. Users can also change their grid size by choosing one of the predefined options. As the new version of Gallery, this is the default view users will have upon joining meetings. Users can choose to go back to this view through the view switcher as desired.

ID: 118467 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2023

Microsoft Viva: Viva Topics app in Teams

Teams will include an official Viva Topics app, where users can go to quickly access the Topic Center without leaving their Teams environment. It will include new menus for Viva Suite users to navigate between the Viva tools within Teams.

ID: 118592 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: April CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Virtual Appointments app for GCC

The Virtual Appointments app provides a single location where professionals and administrators can create and manage scheduled and on-demand virtual appointments in Microsoft Teams, view valuable appointment insights and analytics, get real-time status updates in a queue view, and send appointment reminders.

ID: 121360 Tags: Microsoft Teams – GCC Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Automatically view up to 9 videos (3×3) in Teams meetings in Chrome and Edge

Microsoft Teams Meetings currently supports a maximum of 4 videos (2×2) on the screen by default (i.e., Gallery view) on web browsers. With this update, users will be able to automatically see up to 9 videos (3×3) on Chrome and Edge on their screen by default without an explicit action.

ID: 122139 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal : Insider Risk Management – New alerts report (U.S. Government clouds)

The new alerts report summarizes alert status to help you readily identify the number of alerts with “Needs Review” status that still require action. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies to manage security and compliance. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

ID: 122281 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal : Insider Risk Management : Policy management experience updates (U.S. Government clouds)

Policy management experience will include a new policy health warning that prioritizes urgent actions to improve policy health. This update also includes a new entry point to quickly launch the policy wizard. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies to manage security and compliance. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

ID: 122282 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal : Insider Risk Management – Policy wizard enhancements (U.S. Government clouds)

The Insider Risk Management policy wizard will be revised to help simplify configuration of indicators, sequence detection, cumulative exfiltration detection, and risk score boosters. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies to manage security and compliance. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

ID: 122283 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal : Insider Risk Management – Quick Policies enhancements (U.S. Government clouds)

Enhancements to Insider Risk Management quick policies onboarding experience will enable administrators to create a policy with a new one-step process. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies to manage security and compliance. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

ID: 122284 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: May CY2023

Planner : Task Email Notifications for GCC and DoD

Task Email Notifications for GCC and DoD aims at bringing existing Planner email notifications to customers in GCC and DoD. The two main categories of notifications are: Assignment email notifications and Due date digest email.

ID: 122286 Tags: Planner – DoD, GCC Release: April CY2023

Rolling Out

Microsoft Teams: Video Filters in Microsoft Teams Meetings

Video filters allow participants in Teams Meetings to augment their video stream with visual effects. The effects are provided by app developers on Teams Platform.

ID: 86811 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC Release: March CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Teams Admin Center: Simplified navigation

Simplified Left Navigation for TAC feature aims to improve the administrator experience by reducing clutter and simplifying the navigation process. The feature will hide less used left navigation menu items by default and provide an option for administrators to pin them to the default view if they choose. This way the navigation will be tailored to the specific needs of each administrator, making it faster and easier for them to find the information they need.

ID: 98394 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), DoD, GCC, GCC High Release: March CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal: eDiscovery (Premium) – Collections options settings enhancements

Now eDiscovery admins can define default collection settings, enable eDiscovery managers to customize those defaults for each case and collection, and for each collection the eDiscovery manager can choose from a range of options to ensure the right content is collected per the requirements of the case. These options will include collection of cloud attachments, Teams as conversations, partially indexed items, and more.

ID: 109533 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: April CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Join meetings from calendar view on Apple CarPlay

You can now choose to join a meeting from the new calendar view on Apple CarPlay on your iPhone.

ID: 114306 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), DoD, GCC High, GCC Release: March CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Support PSTN dial-in, dial-out, and call-me attendees in meetings to join Breakout Rooms for DoD and GCC High

Enabling dial-in, dial-out and call-me PSTN participants to join breakout rooms and come back to the main room when breakout rooms end.

ID: 115504 Tags: Microsoft Teams – DoD, GCC High Release: March CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Support for Targeted Release

Microsoft Teams will support Targeted Release.  When an admin sets release preferences to one of the Targeted Release options, those users will be first to see the latest updates and help shape the product by providing early feedback. You can choose to have individuals, or the entire organization receive updates early.

ID: 117577 Tags: Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: March CY2023

Launched

Microsoft Viva: Viva connections support for iOS tablet

Microsoft Viva Connections is your gateway to a modern engagement experience designed to keep everyone engaged and informed. This release brings the experience of Viva connections to iPad, thus extending the set of devices you can access it on.

ID: 101167 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: March CY2023

Microsoft Purview | Data loss prevention: Support for complex conditions (U.S. government clouds)

With this update, you will be able to create complex conditions while configuring your Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention policies. You will be able to create conditions with AND/OR combinations with the ability to create groups to achieve condition combinations like A AND (B OR C).

ID: 103620 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – DoD, GCC, GCC High Release: March CY2023

Microsoft Edge: v.111 – Enhanced security mode improvements

Enhanced security mode will support WebAssembly for macOS x64 and Linux x64. Additional cross-platform (ARM64) support is expected in the future.

ID: 117402 Tags: Microsoft Edge – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: March CY2023

Canceled

Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Audit Support for Customer Key

This feature is postponed indefinitely. Given the sensitivity of Audit log data, many organizations want to add additional layers of protection, including encryption. Microsoft Purview Customer Key allows organizations to use their own keys giving them control over their encryption. With this update, admins will have the ability to encrypt their Audit log data using Customer Key.

ID: 98201 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: March CY2023