30-October-2024 Below you will find a collection of news published yesterday. This news consists of Microsoft’s Roadmap when it is updated it will be below with items. Then there will be a section with the message center, if there is anything new there, this will be automatically included. And it contains a piece from blogs that I follow myself and would like to share with you. If I miss something in the blogs that do have an RSS feed, please let me know.
This entire post was automated via Microsoft Flow
have fun reading!
The blogs of this day are:
Office 365 Roadmap Updated: 2024-10-30
Additions : 9
Updates : 7
More Details At: www.roadmapwatch.com
Items from the MessageCenter in Microsoft 365
| (Updated) Microsoft Teams: The new streamlined Chat and Channels experienceCategory:Microsoft TeamsNummer:MC920179Status:planForChange | Updated October 29, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. We’ve been listening to user feedback on the pace of work and the challenges of keeping up with conversations, managing messages scattered across different locations, and triaging quickly. To address this, we’ve streamlined the chats, teams, and channels experience to make it easier for users to stay on top of what matters most. For more details and screenshots, refer to Microsoft Teams announces out a new chat and channels experience | Microsoft 365 Blog This message applies to Teams on Windows desktops, Mac desktops, the web, and iOS and Android devices. This message excludes Education tenants. We will send a future post with an update on the plan for Education tenants. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415249. [When this will happen:] Updated October 29, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience. Public Preview / Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-November 2024. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late January 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025. General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-April 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025. [How this will affect your organization:] Before this rollout, users have separate Chat and Teams views (apps) with no option to unify these views; custom sections of chats and channels were not possible; and there was no view for collecting all personal mentions in one list across chats and channels. The new experience brings chat, teams, and channels into one place, in Chat, so users can easily navigate between all conversations without switching between contexts. Users start in the combined Chat view but can opt to keep chat separate from teams and channels like before. In the Chat view, users will see these sections (in order):
Also, users can create custom sections to organize projects and topics that can include individual, group, and meeting chats, as well as channels. Favorites, Chats, and Teams and channels in one list in Teams for Windows:
Favorites, Chats, and Teams and channels in one list in Teams for iOS (also available for Android):
New filters for Unread, Chat, Channels, Meetings and more help users focus on relevant conversation in their list. Filters persist until turned off. The new @mention view gathers all personal @mentions into one interactive list. Users can quickly access messages with @mentions across chats, channels, and meetings. Customizing the experience Users can tailor their chat and channels experience in Teams Settings. Users can choose to keep chat, teams, and channels combined in Chat (default) or switch to separate Chat and Teams views. In the combined Chat view, message previews are off by default to simplify the list. Users can turn on message previews in Settings. When using the separate Chat and Teams views, users can still use the new filters and the @mentions view to triage and organize topics with custom sections.
Starting the new experience A self-service guided onboarding flow in Teams will help users discover the new experience and configure it to their preferences. Users who prefer to keep chat and channels separate can easily do so during the onboarding process or later, without IT assistance. When the new experience is available in your tenant, this screen will display to users:
The Get started button will take users to the new combined chat, teams, and channels experience in Chat, and highlight the location of settings. Users will have the option to defer the new experience up to three times over the course of approximately three days, providing flexibility while also moving an organization to the new experience overall. This feature is on by default. The new experience has no admin policy. Each user can make choices to optimize for how they work best. [What you need to do to prepare:] This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. To help prepare organizations for the new features, product guides for admins and users will be available on the adoption web page The new Microsoft Teams chat and channels experience before rollout begins. For admins who opt in to emails for recommended Microsoft 365 training, an email for users will summarize the update when released. |
| Product transitions to the cloud.microsoft domain – October 2024Category:Microsoft 365 suite Microsoft 365 for the webNummer:MC921105Status:planForChange | The cloud.microsoft domain was provisioned in early 2023 to provide a unified, trusted, and dedicated DNS domain space to host Microsoft’s first party authenticated SaaS products and experiences. This post is to inform admins that the following Microsoft products and scenarios are now available at the cloud.microsoft domain, in parallel with the previous domains.
A full list of product experiences already being delivered on this domain can be found here: Unified cloud.microsoft domain for Microsoft 365 apps – Microsoft 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn. [When this will happen:] The services above are already available on cloud.microsoft, in parallel to their previous domains. You can expect the previous domains to be redirected to cloud.microsoft in the coming months. [How this will affect your organization:]
[What you need to do to prepare:]
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| End of Microsoft Places Preview ProgramCategory:Microsoft 365 suiteNummer:MC921110Status:stayInformed | As we approach General Availability for Microsoft Places, we’re winding down the Preview program and sharing more information about the Places mobile app. Preview program: We will stop accepting new sign-ups for the Preview program when we reach General Availability and will close the Preview on January 6th, 2025. Mobile app: Furthermore, development of the Microsoft Places mobile app has been put on hold and we will instead prioritize adding Places experiences within the Teams and Outlook mobile apps. The beta version of the Places mobile app will no longer be available via TestFlight effective immediately, and existing users will lose access when the build expires at the end of November 2024. [How this will affect your organization:] If you’ve joined the Preview program, you’ll be able to continue evaluating all Places features until January 6th, 2025. After that date, core Places features will remain available to all users with a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription. Enhanced features will require a Teams Premium license, and some features will require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. If you need more time to evaluate these features, you may consider acquiring trial licenses. |
| Microsoft PowerPoint: Web viewer add-in retires December 2024Category:Microsoft 365 for the web Microsoft 365 appsNummer:MC921112Status:planForChange | We will retire the Web Viewer add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint and remove it from Microsoft App Source on December 2, 2024. After this date, the add-in will be unavailable for download or use. Existing files will not be affected, although the add-in’s functionality in existing slides will end. We are retiring the add-in due to low usage. We are prioritizing more critical and relevant features for PowerPoint. This message applies to PowerPoint for Windows and Mac desktop and to PowerPoint for the web. [What you need to do to prepare:] No administrative action is needed on your part as this change will be implemented automatically. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation. |
| Support for the Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile UWP applications will end on October 14, 2025Category:Microsoft 365 appsNummer:MC921113Status:planForChange | Support for the Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications will end on October 14, 2025. After that date, no further updates, security fixes, or technical support will be available for these applications. [When this will happen:] This retirement will occur on October 14, 2025. [How this will affect your organization:] If Microsoft Windows-based devices within your organization are running Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, or PowerPoint Mobile, we recommend that the applications be removed before the October 14, 2025, end of support date. While they may continue to function, using unsupported software could lead to potential security risks and other issues. If you’re using Microsoft Intune, you can run a report to identify devices running these applications. In the Microsoft Intune admin center, go to All services > Apps | Monitor > Discovered apps and search for “office.word”, “office.excel”, or “office.powerpoint”. The application version will start with “16001.14326.xxxxx.x”. [What you need to do to prepare:] To mitigate these risks and ensure your organization remains secure and compliant, we recommend removing these applications and switching to alternatives:
For information about the end of support for the OneNote UWP application (OneNote for Windows 10) see: Moving to OneNote on Windows.
Planning ahead will help you avoid potential disruptions and keep your organization’s software environment secure and up to date. |
| Microsoft Viva Engage: New features for Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption communityCategory:Microsoft Viva Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft 365)Nummer:MC921115Status:stayInformed | Coming soon to the Microsoft Viva Engage adoption community for Microsoft 365 Copilot, admins will have access to new suggested content covering timely Copilot updates and best practices and the ability to easily upload documents and leverage AI to generate Q&A pairs using Answers Intelligent Importer. What is the Microsoft Viva Engage adoption community for Copilot? Since general availability in August 2024 (referenced in MC7841560), network admins and corporate communicators can enable a new type of community specifically built to facilitate the rollout and adoption of Copilot in their organizations. This community can bring employees together in a community of practice where employees can ask questions, seek support from both their peers and IT admins, share best practices, and learn more from articles and quick tips on how best to use Copilot. [When this will happen:] General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late October 2024 and expect to complete by mid-November 2024. [How this will affect your organization:] Every month, there will be new suggested content to highlight new end-user features in Copilot. This is crafted from the monthly Copilot emails that are sent to the licensed users for customers opted into Microsoft direct to end-user emails. This pre-curated content can be leveraged by community admins to better prepare, plan, train, and roll out Copilot features to end users. The suggested content can be found in the community set up checklist or under the ellipses (…) menu on the right side of the community header, under Suggested content. The suggested content will be supported as an Article post type with enhanced design and readability of content for Viva licenses. To help the community grow, upskill, and share knowledge, community admins will soon have access to the new Answers Intelligent Importer, which can be used to upload Q&A documents and FAQs into the community. Intelligent Importer leverages AI to generate Q&A pairs from the content in documents, which can then be reviewed, edited, and posted into the community. Learn more about how Intelligent Importer works on the Introducing Answers Intelligent Importer announcement blog. [What you need to do to prepare:] There is no required action for admins before the rollout. If your organization is working on rollout and adoption of Copilot, we recommend reading the support documentation to learn more about this new capability in Viva Engage and connecting with the Copilot change managers in your organization to include this in your rollout and adoption change management plan. Learn more |
| Microsoft Teams: Automatic location updates with building details for BYOD rooms and bookable desksCategory:Microsoft TeamsNummer:MC921116Status:stayInformed | With this rollout, we are delivering automatic location updates with building details on bookable desks and bring your own device (BYOD) rooms to make it easier for users to keep their workplace presence up to date and connect with others in the office. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422807. [When this will happen:] Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early December 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025. [How this will affect your organization:] Bookable desks refers to unassigned seats in the office that are equipped with devices such as monitors or other peripherals. To set up bookable desks, admins must associate these devices to a workspace account through the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. Similarly, to set up BYOD rooms (rooms without Microsoft Teams Rooms that are equipped with devices such as a speaker puck or other peripherals), admins must associate these devices to a room account through the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. Finally, in order for a user’s work location to be updated to a specific building, an admin must onboard their buildings and parent the workspace or room resource account to the buildings. After these steps are complete, admins have the option to opt-in for automatic location updates. This can be enabled at a tenant level or for a specific user group. Once admins have enabled this feature, users will have the opportunity to opt-in. They can do so in Teams under Settings > Privacy. After users have opted-in, their work location will automatically update to a specific building when they connect to a bookable desk or BYOD room. Note that if a workspace or room resource account does not have a building, the user’s work location will automatically update to “In the office” upon plug-in rather than update to the specific building To facilitate discovery of this feature, after tenant opt-in, the following banner will be shown the first time a user plugs into a bookable desk or BYOD room.
Once a user enables automatic location updates, the following banner will be displayed only once for the user’s convenience and confirmation that the location update was successful on their first subsequent plug-in to bookable desks or BYOD room.
[What you need to do to prepare:] To prepare for this feature, we strongly recommend communicating this new feature to your users and admin team and sharing instructions if needed. Please note that if an admin or user had previously opted in when the automatic work location detection only updated to “In the office” (MC808158), there is no additional setting to enable for one’s work location be automatically updated with building information. The same setting will carry over. For more information about sharing location, visit User experience with location details in Teams. |
| Microsoft Purview |Communication Compliance: Customize policies with language-specific trainable classifier conditionsCategory:Microsoft PurviewNummer:MC921117Status:planForChange | Introducing a new Microsoft Purview | Communication Compliance feature that allows users to customize their compliance policies by selecting specific languages for trainable classifiers. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 408533 (needs to be updated) [When this will happen:] Public Preview: We will begin rolling out early December 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by late January 2025. [How this will affect your organization:] Before this rollout, all available language models are included by default, often leading to unwanted matches. After this rollout, you can tailor your policy conditions to run Trainable Classifiers for specific languages, bringing precision to your compliance approach. The selected languages will be applied to all classifiers in the policy. You can update your existing policies for a more language-specific compliance strategy. This feature will be available by default. In the Purview compliance portal, the Choose languages option will be in the in the Trainable classifier side panel.
[What you need to do to prepare:] This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation. Learn more: Create and manage communication compliance policies | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout) |
