Play of the Week

Tasks for Information Workers in Teams Tasks gives you a new unified view of your personal and assigned tasks within Teams. It consolidates your tasks across Microsoft To Do, Teams channels, Planner and Outlook.

In Development

Add to OneDrive

Add to OneDrive is the capability for customers to add shared folders alongside their own content which means that, instead of finding shared content based on who shared it and how someone shared it with them, users will be able to access the files they care about directly within their OneDrive.

ID:56384    Tags: OneDrive for Business – All environments   Release: Q4 CY2020

Tasks in Teams

Tasks for Information Workers in Teams Tasks in Teams gives you a new unified view of your personal and assigned tasks within Teams. It consolidates your tasks across Microsoft To Do, Teams channels, Planner and Outlook. Users have smart views including tasks assigned to you, priority as well as the start or due date. Users can choose the view that works the best for them – list, boards, charts, schedules – to get things done. Tasks for HQ and Firstline Workers in Teams – Tasks targeting, publishing and reporting With the new Tasks experience in Teams, we are delivering several capabilities that will support new levels of team collaboration. Tasks targeting, publishing and reporting in Teams allows corporate and regional leadership to send task lists targeted to the relevant locations, such as specific retail stores, and track their progress through automatic real-time reports. Managers have tools to easily direct activities within their stores, and Firstline Workers have a simple prioritized list available via their personal or company-issued mobile device showing them exactly what to do next.

ID:57213    Tags: O365, Microsoft Teams – All environments   Release: June CY2020

SharePoint: Saved for later web part

New web part to display a user’s saved for later items. Can be added to any page or news post in SharePoint

ID:57810    Tags: SharePoint – All environments Release: May CY2020

Outlook for Windows: Store settings in the cloud

A new option found under General Cloud storage options that allows users to choose if they would like to store their Outlook settings in the cloud. This will enable a number of capabilities such as Privacy Settings and Focus Inbox to be consistent if they use Outlook on multiple computers and eventually Outlook on the web and mobile.

ID:63037    Tags: Outlook – Education, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: May CY2020

New reviewer experience for Access Review (Public Preview)

We are introducing the public preview of this updated experience for reviewers who currently use Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Access Review.

ID:63573    Tags: Azure Active Directory  Release: Q4 CY2020

SharePoint site header updates

New options will become available to customize the branding of modern SharePoint sites. Site creators will be able to choose to show or hide the site title and will have additional configuration options for site logo – a square site logo thumbnail or a non-square site logo. Both changes will be reflected in the Site settings Change the look panel.

ID:63776    Tags: SharePoint – All environments   Release: May CY2020

Fluent design coherence updates for SharePoint

Microsoft uses the Fluent design system to ensure a cohesive and accessible design for all Microsoft product users. Fluent will be applied to modern SharePoint which will result in some visual changes. You will notice larger and bolder typefaces, increased opacity for drop shadows, and rounded corners for square graphical elements.

ID:63777    Tags: SharePoint – All environments   Release: May CY2020

Office 365 ATP: External Email Forwarding Controls

External forwarding of email is a tactic used by attackers to exfiltrate data out of an organization and controlling that process is difficult. With this new feature we are adding support for more granular controls that allow the Office 365 administrators to easily enable external forwarding for the right people in the organization through the outbound spam policy. We are also moving to disable external forwarding by default so organizations are secure by default.

ID:63831    Tags: O365, Microsoft Information Protection – GCC, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), All environments, GCC High, DoD   Release: Q4 CY2020

Microsoft Teams: Enable organizers to change lobby settings for PSTN meeting participants for GCC customers

Any user who schedules a Microsoft Teams meeting will now see a separate setting to control the lobby for PSTN participants in the Meeting Options page of a given meeting.

ID:63833    Tags: Microsoft Teams, O365 – GCC Release: May CY2020

Microsoft Teams: Announce when PSTN participants join/leave the meeting for GCC customers

Any user who schedules a Teams meeting will now see a new setting in Meeting Options page of a meeting to control the announcement sound when a PSTN/dial-in participant joins or leaves the meeting.

ID:63834    Tags: O365, Microsoft Teams – GCC  Release: May CY2020

Rolling Out

SharePoint: Home sites

A Home site is the top of your intranet – the landing page that reflects your branding and brings your organization together with rich experiences. Microsoft is helping you build and launch a successful home site, built on the familiar communication sites platform, with great looking and highly functional out-of-box experiences. This SharePoint home sites feature lets you designate a communication site as the “home site” for your intranet. This site will then be more the SharePoint mobile app. It will also automatically be set up for organization-wide search and as a source of authoritative news.

ID: 26842    Tags: SharePoint – Education, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2020

Outlook for iOS: Top results

The best 3 results from your keyword search is presented on the top of Search in Outlook in addition to results in chronological order.

ID: 53120    Tags: Outlook – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC, Education Release: May CY2020

Outlook for Android: Top results

The best 3 results from your keyword search is presented on the top of Search in Outlook in addition to results in chronological order.

ID: 53299    Tags: Outlook – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2020

Outlook for iOS: Suggested people and actionable search results

Searching for something specific about a contact will provide an actionable result such as “John’s phone number”. Search for a specific contact will use Microsoft Search services to provide relevant results rather than keywords from information from your email and calendar.

ID: 53714    Tags: Outlook – Education, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2020

Outlook for iOS: Natural language Search

Outlook will support Microsoft Search that recognizes search queries using language you use every day to filter and narrow search results through either typing or speaking via a new microphone option in the Search bar.

ID: 56821    Tags: Outlook – Education, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: May CY2020

Outlook for Android: Natural language search

Outlook will support Microsoft Search that recognizes search queries using language you use every day to filter and narrow search results through either typing or speaking via a new microphone option in the Search bar

ID: 56822    Tags: Outlook – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), Education Release: May CY2020

SharePoint: Updated Yammer Conversations web part for SharePoint

We are updating the Yammer Conversations web part for SharePoint that contains the new Yammer experience. SharePoint Sites that use the Yammer Conversations web part will start displaying the new Yammer Conversations web part experience.

ID: 63385    Tags: SharePoint – All environments Release: May CY2020

Outlook for Android: Availability in Office 365 operated by 21Vianet

Outlook for Android will be available to customers in China through certain app stores and the services and support of Office 365 operated by 21Vianet.

ID: 63432    Tags: Outlook  Release: May CY2020

Launched

Outlook on the web – suggested replies

For messages that can be addressed with a short response, Outlook suggests three related responses so you can reply with just a couple of clicks. This feature is available only in North America for customers who have their subscriptions in English.

ID: 27315    Tags: Exchange – Education, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q3 CY2018

Differential sync for all file types in OneDrive for Business

OneDrive will synchronize large files significantly faster and considerably reduce network utilization for all file types

ID: 33412    Tags: OneDrive for Business – All environments   Release: Q2 CY2020

Microsoft Teams – Priority notifications

Share urgent messages and time-sensitive information more effectively with Teams. Priority notifications alert a recipient of an urgent message on their mobile and desktop devices until a response is received, every two minutes for up to 20 minutes. Note: For a limited time, unlimited Priority Notifications in Microsoft Teams will be made available for all customers. This promotion will run from July 2019 until December 31, 2019 and during this time all Teams users will be able to send unlimited Priority Notifications. Starting on January 1, 2020, licensed users will be able to send Priority Notifications according to the terms of their subscription. IT Admins will be given reporting on priority notification usage to support appropriate user licensing.

ID: 51448    Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), Education   Release: Q3 CY2019

Planner: Export to Excel

Export the tasks in a Planner plan to an Excel file.

ID: 52585    Tags: O365, Planner – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q2 CY2019

Public Preview of Fluid Framework for Office 365 customers

We announced Fluid Framework, a new technology and set of experiences that will make collaboration seamless by breaking down the barriers between apps. Over time, we expect these capabilities to light up in experiences across Microsoft 365, including within chat in Teams, mail in Outlook, portals in SharePoint, notes in OneNote, and documents in Office. In the coming weeks, check out the public preview of the Fluid Framework’s end user experience rolling out in your commercial tenant. To access simply login with your org-ID. Available in English (US) in worldwide environments only.

ID: 56781    Tags: Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: Q1 CY2020

Users can pin apps to the Teams left rail

Teams users can now customize what apps appear on their left rail in Teams, allowing them to quickly access the apps that they use on a daily basis. This is an improvement over the current experience now that apps relevant to users are right where they need them. Users will be able to fully customize their app bar including apps that were pre-pinned for users using the app setup policy. IT admins can disable the ability to customize their app bar using an additional control we will provide in the app setup policy

ID: 56783    Tags: O365, Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q1 CY2020

Auto classification with sensitivity labels in SPO, EXO, OneDrive (public preview)

We’re excited to announce the Public Preview of Auto Classification with sensitivity labels in OneDrive, SharePoint Online, and Exchange Online. As you may already know sensitivity labels are central to Microsoft Information Protection. You can apply a sensitivity label to important documents and associate it with protection policies and actions like encryption and visual marking. You can already use sensitivity labels by allowing users to manually classify emails and documents by applying these labels based on their assessment of the content and their interpretation of the organizational guidelines. However, users can sometimes forget to apply labels or apply them inaccurately. With this preview, you can start using sensitivity labels at scale for documents stored on OneDrive and SharePoint Online, and for emails in transit in Exchange Online automatically without manual user input.

ID: 57312    Tags: SharePoint, O365 – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q2 CY2020

Outlook for iOS: Privacy controls

Outlook for iOS will follow the same privacy controls for the level of diagnostic and related data that Office sends to Microsoft established in other Office 365 apps.

ID: 58135    Tags: Outlook – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), Education   Release: Q1 CY2020

Outlook for Android: Discover relevant files in Search

In Search, find a feed of Office 365 files that are connected to you based on ongoing collaboration activity within your company.

ID: 58733    Tags: Outlook – Education, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q1 CY2020

Outlook on the web – room feature card

You will be able to see room features and details in the room card in Outlook on the web. This feature uses the same data used for room filters in Set-Place which admins can set in PowerShell.

ID: 59430    Tags: Exchange – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), Education   Release: Q4 CY2019

Store recordings in-region storage when Stream is not available in Go Local

Teams meeting recordings are stored in Microsoft Stream cloud storage. Tenant admins have an option to go the admin center to turn ON/OFF “Allow cloud recording” setting for Teams meetings. Cloud recordings are currently not allowed/enabled for customers where Stream service is not available in the corresponding Go Local region. We are going to change the existing behavior by enabling “Allow cloud recording” and turning it ON by default. This change will store the recordings in the respective in-region data center. This change will take affect beginning February 3, 2020.

ID: 59665    Tags: Microsoft Teams, O365 – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q3 CY2020

Office What’s New management is generally available

Each release of Office includes new and improved features. The What’s New content in the Office desktop apps highlights an editorially curated list of new features being released for that application, with a short description, and often a picture or a video to help customers learn how to use the feature.? This content is created by the team that is releasing the feature. Historically, Microsoft has chosen which set of features are promoted to end users in the What’s New section of Help. The Office What’s New management feature in the Microsoft 365 admin center puts you in control by allowing your organization to decide which features are shown to or hidden from end users in the Office desktop app. It gives you visibility into new content for each release version and channel, along with the capability to hide or show each feature’s What’s New content.

ID: 60010    Tags: O365, Admin Center – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q1 CY2020

Per site sharing links can now default to People with Existing Access Links

Prior to this change, SharePoint and OneDrive Administrators had the ability to set the default sharing link on a per-site basis and they could choose either “Anyone”, “People in my organization” or “Specific People”. We are now introducing support to set the default sharing link to “People with Existing Access”. Once set, users who click on the Share button or Copy Link will, by default, get an Existing Access link that does not change the permissions on the item. Additional link types are still available in Link Settings if needed

ID: 60335    Tags: SharePoint – All environments   Release: Q1 CY2020

Microsoft Teams – Channel Cross Posting (Editing)

Channel cross posting now supports editing a message after it has been posted. Additionally, you can add or remove channels to reach a wider audience or have a focused conversation

ID: 60946    Tags: Microsoft Teams – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q1 CY2020

New Capabilities in Shifts app

Schedule filtering – End users will see new filtering capabilities in the Shifts app on web and desktop, enabling them to filter by team members or schedule groups to efficiently manage their schedule. ‘Your shifts’ view – ‘Your shifts’ is a new view that will enable end users to quickly access their shift information without the need to scroll through their entire schedule. Schedule withdraw – Team owners will have the ability to withdraw a shared schedule to make any necessary changes.

ID: 61026    Tags: Microsoft Teams – All environments   Release: Q1 CY2020

Communication Compliance now includes Yammer monitoring

You can now detect inappropriate conduct in Yammer conversations. Communication Compliance support multiple company channels, including Microsoft Teams messages, Exchange email, Skype for Business Online, and third parties such as Instant Bloomberg.

ID: 61066    Tags: O365, Admin Center – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: May CY2020

Outlook on the web – GA of new experience in mobile browsers for special instances

We are releasing the new Outlook on the web experience to mobile browsers. Similar to the new Outlook on the web on PC, users accessing Outlook in mobile browsers will see a new experience.

ID: 61092    Tags: Exchange – DoD, GCC High, GCC   Release: Q1 CY2020

Announcing the general availability of Insider Risk Management

Announcing the general availability of Insider Risk Management

ID: 61115    Tags: O365, Admin Center – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) Release: Q1 CY2020

Outlook for iOS: week numbers

The week numbers across the 52 week calendar year will appear in 3 day and 7 day (landscape) views of your Calendar. Week numbers on the monthly calendar view will be supported in a future release.

ID: 61412    Tags: Outlook – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), GCC, DoD, Education   Release: May CY2020

Microsoft Compliance Score and Microsoft Compliance Manager changes in public preview

1. Improved template import/export function in Compliance Manager: The current Add action, Attach action, and Add control functionality will be replaced with an improved Template Import and Export process. This new functionality streamlines the process of creating your own templates, editing your existing templates, and extending pre-configured templates by adding your own controls and actions. 2. Technical actions will sync status across groups in Compliance Manger and Compliance Score: If your organization has multiple groups of assessments, any duplicate technical actions across groups will be combined into one single action. That single action will contain all uploaded notes and evidence from the duplicate versions, and any change made to the action in one group or assessment will now be reflected in all instances. The Implementation Status, Implementation Date, Test Status, and Test Date will reflect the most recent updates. 3. Expanded localization: In addition to English, Compliance Score will now be available in Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, and Spanish.

ID: 62656    Tags: O365 – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q2 CY2020

Records Management: General Availability

Records Management helps organizations meet their business and regulatory record-keeping obligations through discovering, classifying, labeling, retention and defensible deletion capabilities across their Microsoft 365 and third-party data.

ID: 63058    Tags: Admin Center, O365 – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q2 CY2020

Microsoft Teams – share system audio in live events

With share system audio in live events, your live event attendees will be able to hear the audio of the content that you are sharing on your screen. This feature works just like share system audio in Teams Meetings. Once enabled, any audio that is playing on the user’s machine will be shared in the live event for participants to hear. Note: This feature will only be available for Presenters/Producers in a live event joining from the Windows Desktop Teams client. We will be rolling this out starting in late April and rollout will complete within a week from the initial rollout date, with feature support in GCC, GCCH, and DoD environments following within 30 days.

ID: 63276    Tags: Microsoft Teams, O365 – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), Education   Release: Q2 CY2020

Sync Message Center posts to Planner

Microsoft is introducing Planner integration for the Message Center to help with workflow management. Lots of information arrives in the Message Center, and you need to decide whether to act on it or not. And if an action is needed, who performs that action, and how do you track that task to completion? Or maybe you want to make a note of something and tag it for later. You can do all of this and more when you sync your Message Center to Microsoft Planner.

ID: 63317    Tags: Planner, O365 – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: May CY2020

Microsoft Productivity Score Updates

Microsoft Productivity Score will be updated to include the following new features: Communication category added to employee experience area measuring how people communicate over email, Microsoft Teams chat, and Yammer posts. User level details for all categories in the employee experience area Integration of Endpoint Analytics category in technology experience to help you understand how long it takes to get to the desktop after a reboot and login Integration of Network Connectivity category in technology experience to help you understand how your connectivity affects Exchange latency and SharePoint/OneDrive throughput

ID: 63566    Tags: O365, Admin Center – Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant)   Release: Q2 CY2020

Canceled

No cancellations to announce in this week’s feature.