Play of the Week

Attack simulation and training (AST) in Defender for Office is a risk reduction tool, which allows customers to run realistic attack scenarios, identify vulnerable users and help drive behavior change through an integrated security awareness training program. It will be available in the GCC High environment in July 2023.

In Development

Microsoft Teams: Dynamic caller ID for call queue agents

Call queue agents can now place calls from the Calls app using a call queue phone number as their caller ID. This ensures the call is properly identified by the recipient and that the call back number is the call queue number rather than the agent’s personal line.

ID: 86992 Tags: Microsoft Teams – GCC, GCC High, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), DoD Release: June CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Resources-specific consent apps

Admins will be allowed to pre-approve apps using resource-specific consent (RSC) permissions, so that users can install them even when RSC is otherwise turned off.

ID: 96980 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC Release: July CY2023

Microsoft Intune: Remote Help for Android

Provides cloud-based Android remote assistance connection.

ID: 109554 Tags: Microsoft Intune – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: October CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Hide attendee names in Webinars (Premium)

Organizers can hide the names of attendees from other attendees during a webinar, and only organizers and presenters are able to see the names of attendees.

ID: 119153 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC Release: July CY2023

Microsoft Teams: group chat messages links

Users will be able to share a link to a specific message in a group chat, enabling the group chat members to quickly navigate to a message and find information.

ID: 122522 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: June CY2023

Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Attack Simulation Training for GCCH

Attack simulation and training (AST) in the Microsoft 365 Defender for Office is an intelligent risk reduction tool, which allows customers to run realistic attack scenarios in their organization, identify vulnerable users, and help drive behavior change through an integrated security awareness training program. It is to be made available in the GCC High environment.

ID: 124854 Tags: Microsoft Defender for Office 365 – GCC High Release: July CY2023

Microsoft 365 admin center: new scenarios enabling in Microsoft 365 Monitoring

Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Apps for the web monitoring in Microsoft 365 admin center’s Service Health Dashboard is updated with additional organization level monitoring.

ID: 124855 Tags: Exchange – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Insider Risk Management – Activity explorer export limit increase (U.S. Government clouds)

The activity explorer’s export limit will increase from 10K to 100K records. This update will benefit organizations that prefer exporting user activity insights to a CSV file, as they now can filter, sort, or pivot a bigger data set more conveniently. 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: 124859 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: September CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Information Protection – Configure labels independently on files and emails (U.S. Government clouds)

Admins can scope labels to apply to email or files independently. Configure label policy in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal to be applicable to emails only, files only or both.

ID: 124889 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – GCC High, DoD Release: July CY2023

Whiteboard: Ink Beautification & Straightening

This feature will provide users to ability to beautify & straighten ink handwriting in Whiteboard to improve legibility.

ID: 124897 Tags: Whiteboard – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Communication Compliance – Leverage advanced classification

Communication Compliance policies now support detection of inappropriate sharing of the following sensitive information types: named entities (full names/physical addresses/medical terms), credentials (login credentials/passwords), and exact data match. These new sensitive information types will be accessible to designated administrators during policy configuration. Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance provides the tools to help organizations detect business conduct and regulatory compliance violations (e.g. SEC or FINRA), such as sensitive or confidential information, harassing or threatening language, and sharing of adult content. Built with privacy by design, usernames are pseudonymized by default, role-based access controls are built in, investigators are opted in by an admin, and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

ID: 124898 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: September CY2023

Whiteboard: Ink color picker

Users will be able to enjoy a wide range of colors for inking using the latest color picker feature. In addition to color picker, a slider will also be provided to change opacity level of pens. Recent colors used will also be available on the color palette and the color picker feature, to further enhance user experience with inking in Whiteboard.

ID: 124899 Tags: Whiteboard – GCC, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC High, DoD Release: June CY2023

Whiteboard: App user interface update

This update will change the Microsoft Whiteboard app user interface for laptops, desktops & tablets while simultaneously making whiteboarding tools upfront to improve engagement, discoverability, and ease of whiteboarding.

ID: 124900 Tags: Whiteboard – GCC, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC High, DoD Release: June CY2023

OneDrive: Relocating sync command in OneDrive’s My files view to settings

We are relocating the command for Sync in My Files to the settings gear. All functionality remains the same, but with a new entry point.

ID: 124902 Tags: OneDrive – GCC, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC High, DoD Release: June CY2023

Microsoft Viva: Enhancements to aggregate insights surfaced through the Viva Insights app in Teams

With this release, the aggregate insights surfaced through the Viva Insights app in Teams will display results for all subgroups within the organization. New sorting controls will make it easier to highlight the most important information, and the interactive charts will make navigating the results easier than ever.

ID: 124905 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2023

OneNote: Editor Text Predictions

When you compose or edit content in OneNote, Editor Text Predictions anticipates your writing and suggests a suitable word or phrase inline. This saves time and helps you reduce typos.

ID: 124909 Tags: OneNote – GCC, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC High, DoD Release: June CY2023

Microsoft Stream: Updates to migration tool

The Stream migration tool, which lets you migrate video content from Stream (Classic) to Stream (on SharePoint), will have two new capabilities: 1) partial migration will allow you to migrate specific videos from within a container, and 2) orphan video support will let you migrate videos that have no assigned owner in Stream (Classic).

ID: 124919 Tags: Microsoft Stream – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Insider Risk Management – Ability to assign alerts & cases to an owner

With this update, admins will be able to assign a case or alert to other admins, analysts, and investigators, making it easier for colleagues to know which alerts and cases are being worked on. 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: 124925 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: September CY2023

Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Insider Risk Management – Ability to assign alerts & cases to an owner

With this update, admins will be able to assign a case or alert to other admins, analysts, and investigators, making it easier for colleagues to know which alerts and cases are being worked on. 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: 124927 Tags: Microsoft Purview compliance portal – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: September CY2023

Rolling Out

Outlook: Working hours and location

New working hours and location options in Outlook lets people set more flexible working hours each day and specify the location from where they plan to work.

ID: 88822 Tags: Outlook – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams Zero-touch App Install

Microsoft Teams Zero-touch App Install uses intelligent signals from your users to install and surface the apps that the admin has already allowed for the tenant. An admin can enable it to help users naturally discover and use apps that are highly relevant to their needs within Microsoft Teams.

ID: 100385 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Search: Connected content will be seamlessly integrated into Microsoft Search mainline search results

Connected content will be seamlessly integrated into Microsoft Search mainline search results. This means, the results are shown next to Files, Sites, News, OneDrive for Business and other Microsoft content in the search results. Users can then use pagination to browse through the results, including connected content, or use the LastModified- and FileType-filters to refine their search for connected content. Admins can decide how (interleaved, or Result Cluster) and which connected content will appear in the All-tab. There will be no need any more to map a connection to a custom vertical.

ID: 115489 Tags: Microsoft Search – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Breakout Rooms participant shuffle

Meeting organizers can randomly re-assign participants after initial room creation.

ID: 116532 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC, GCC High, DoD Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Excel Live for GCCH and DoD

Collaborate easily in Teams with our new Excel Live feature. With this feature, you can easily collaborate with all meeting participants on your Excel worksheet during the meeting. Select the file you want to share, grant permissions to meeting participants, and enable all meeting participants to edit the document from the meeting window.

ID: 116897 Tags: Microsoft Teams – GCC High, DoD Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Purview Information Protection in Microsoft 365 Apps | Office Apps on the Web can create PDFs that inherit the source files sensitivity labels

PDFs created from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will inherit their source files sensitivity labels in Office for the Web when the label is unencrypted.

ID: 117594 Tags: PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Microsoft Information Protection – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Track and pause automatic firmware updates for Android-based Teams devices in the Teams Admin Center

With this feature, IT admins can track which firmware is being rolled out through automatic updates via the Teams Admin Center and when. Additionally, automatic updates can be paused temporarily, allowing time to validate scenarios. This feature is applicable for Teams Rooms on Android and Android-based Teams Phones, Panels, and displays.

ID: 119389 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Intelligent Meeting Recap (Premium)

As part of Teams Premium, Intelligent Meeting Recap is a comprehensive AI-powered meeting recap experience that helps users catch-up, recall, and follow-up on hour-long meetings in minutes by providing recording and transcription playback with AI assistance. This allows users to browse the recording by speakers and topics, as well as access AI-generated meeting notes, action Items, and @mentions.

ID: 122529 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Launched

Universal Print: Delegated Admin Support

IT Pros will be able to delegate rights to administrate a select group of printers to another person. This is very useful; in case a branch office team needs the ability to manage the printers at their location.

ID: 93309 Tags: Universal Print, Windows – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Azure Active Directory: Tenant Creation Lockdown

This new capability will provide admins with the ability to lock down tenant creation to decide whether they want their users to create more tenants. We have also created the Tenant Creator role, which will allow users assigned to this role to create new tenants.

ID: 109541 Tags: Azure Active Directory – GCC, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC High, DoD Release: May CY2023

Canceled

Microsoft Search: Azure Cognitive Search results in Microsoft Search

[This item is being postponed indefinitely.] Azure Cognitive Search federation with Microsoft Search provides a cohesive search experience with Azure Cognitive Search to intelligently help business search user find, learn, operate, and navigate information enriched and indexed with Azure Cognitive Search.

ID: 81928 Tags: Microsoft Search – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2023

Microsoft Teams: Collaborative notes

[Updated April 20, 2023: We will not be rolling this feature to customers in GCC at this time. We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed. Thank you for your patience.] Collaborative notes allow meeting attendees to co-create and collaborate on their meeting agenda, notes, and action items.  Since Collaborative notes are a Loop component, it is always in sync regardless of how many places they live in.  Assigned Tasks in Collaborative notes automatically sync with ToDo & Planner.

ID: 101509 Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC Release: June CY2023

Whiteboard: Import ADO/Jira work items

[This feature has been indefinitely postponed.] Import ADO/Jira work items onto whiteboards to collectively brainstorm & ideate with your colleagues. (Note: The initial release will only provide support for work/school accounts & will allow importing existing work items but neither updating them nor creating new ones).

ID: 117395 Tags: Whiteboard – GCC, DoD, GCC High, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: July CY2023

Microsoft Viva: Viva Goals Workplace integration

[This feature has been postponed indefinitely] Users can receive OKRs updates and check-in reminders within Workplace.

ID: 117461 Tags: Microsoft Viva – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: June CY2023