Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter en blogs updates van 18-01-2025

Updated January 16, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: App centric management for admin app installation introduces new admin settings to control who in the tenant has specific Teams apps preinstalled. Similar to app centric management for app availability, as communicated in MC688930 (Updated) Teams admin center: App centric management and changes to app permission policies (November 2023), admins will be able to install apps for users, groups, or everyone in the organization.

After rollout, app centric management will replace Installed apps in the Teams admin center and give admins the ability to install apps individually. The Installed apps in your app setup policies will be migrated to app centric management based on your current user and group assignments for each policy. The rest of your settings in app setup policies will remain unchanged and will continue to work based on app setup policies, including Pinned apps. After this rollout, you can install Teams apps for selected sets of users, groups, or all users in the organization, and Installed apps in app setup policies will no longer be available.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 394274.

[When this will happen:]

App centric management will roll out in four General Availability phases.

• Phase 1 | General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late July 2024 (previously mid-July) and expect to complete late February 2025 (previously early December) phase applies to tenants who meet both conditions: 1) tenants with no Installed apps in the Global app setup policy and 2) tenants with no custom app setup policies created in the Teams admin center. After rollout, these tenants will have app centric management enabled for their app installs. Admins may see the Manage apps page in read-only mode for a short time.
• Phase 2 | More details coming soon as a follow up MC post. This phase applies to tenants who meet both conditions: 1) tenants with apps added to Installed apps in the Global app setup policy and 2) tenants with no custom app setup policies created in the Teams admin center. This phase will migrate apps installed in the Global app setup policy to app centric management.
• Phase 3 | More details coming soon as a follow up MC post. This phase applies to tenants with both the Global app setup policy and custom app setup policies. This phase will migrate apps installed for users and groups through Installed apps in app setup policies to app centric management.
• Phase 4 | More details coming soon as a follow up MC post. This phase applies to all remaining tenants.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before the rollout: If you install an app to a user, the user cannot actually use an admin preinstalled app if you did not take the additional step to allow the user to use it. After the rollout, if you install an app through app centric management, the user will immediately be able to use the app.

Before the roll out, a user will only have apps installed from a single app setup policy, following the policy resolution precedence rules. After the rollout, if you have multiple custom app setup policies assigned to users or groups, apps from every policy will be installed to the user or group assigned to that policy, regardless of the policy resolution precedence rules.

 [What you need to do to prepare:]

No action needed for Phase 1 tenants. We will update this message with more information before the rollouts for Phases 2-4 tenants.

You may want to update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

Updated January 17, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Outlook: Major design improvements to our draft with Copilot experience. This message applies to new Outlook on Windows and Mac desktops, on the web, and on Android/iOS. This feature requires a Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 license.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 397092.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late September 2024 and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late November).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout: Users have the original Copilot Compose design:

After this rollout: Users will have the same Copilot Compose features, with an updated design (as shown in the screenshot). We are not changing the functionality:

This change is on by default for all users with a Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 license.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

#newoutlookforwindows

Updated January 16, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

As an extension to the previous communication MC757613 (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint: Add approvals to any SharePoint list (originally sent March 2024, updated August 2024), we will soon add approvals to document libraries in Microsoft SharePoint Online.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 420336.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously late January).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 (early January) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (late January).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout: Users are not able to add approvals to document libraries in SharePoint Online.

After this rollout, users will be able to configure approvals by going to the Automate dropdown menu from the command bar in SharePoint Online document libraries and then selecting the Configure Approvals option to enable and disable approvals on the library. Note: When editing files, any in-flight approvals will be cancelled if changes are saved. To discourage edits of in-progress approvals, files will open in view-only mode in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for the web, and the same Windows desktop applications will show that the document is Marked as final.

After approvals are enabled, a user can create a file and submit it for approval. By creating an approval request and specifying the approver, the request will appear in the Approvals app in Microsoft Teams or can be approved directly in the library in SharePoint. Once approved, the file metadata is updated.

Note: Disabling approvals will only hide the relevant columns. In-progress approvals will still be actionable in Teams. At any time, you can manually add approvals columns back into your views.

Configure approvals in SharePoint Online:

Enable configured approvals:

Approvals column:

Disable configured approvals:

This feature is on by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout.

Inform your users of the new Approvals functionality for libraries and lists. Share the support documentation Approvals in lists, which will be updated before this rollout begins to include library support.

Updated January 17, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for your engagement with the new chat and channels experience in Teams.

The new chat and channels experience has been in Public Preview and Targeted Release since November 2024 and was targeted for General Availability starting in late January 2025. Based on requests from customers to have additional time to prepare their organizations for the change, we will be postponing the rollout to General Availability from January to a later date.

The GA rollout date is updated to starting late March 2025.

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:]

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 March 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by early April 2025 (previously early February).

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-June 2025 (previously mid-April) and expect to complete by late June 2025 (previously late April).

[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):

1. Favorites containing any previously pinned chats and channels
2. Chats sorted by most recent
3. Teams and channels, organized in same order as in the Teams view

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.

Use /go to: Quickly navigate to your frequently used conversation across your chat and channels with a new keyboard shortcut Ctrl+G (Cmd+G on Mac).

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.

Updated January 17, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

As part of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Security in Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Policy Insights helps admins understand DLP policies and its constructs. This enhancement enables DLP admins to gain insights on coverage of policies on pivots like location, classifiers, and notifications.

DLP admins can get these insights on all the policies or on a few selected policies. They will be able to use prompts to gain a deeper level view of how a policy is configured for their digital landscape. This helps them align their data posture on a regular basis and make corrections to policy posture as needed. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 466740.

[When this will happen:]

Public Preview: We will began rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by early December 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January).

Currently, Copilot for Security is not designed for use by customers using US government clouds, including but not limited to GCC, GCC High, DoD, and Microsoft Azure Government. For more information, consult with your Microsoft representative.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Administrators can invoke the policy insights to understand the insights from all their policies or selected polices. The insights offered start with a higher-level view of how their policies:

• are effective across locations.
• detect the presence of sensitive information types throughout their digital estate.
• notify administrators of violations.
• educate users while they perform activities they should not.

These insights are offered with different pivots by location, classification, and by administrative scopes. This is offered to give the security policy administrators different views for deeper understanding of policy constructs and their impact.

Step 1:

Select the policies you wish to get insights/quick summaries about.

Step 2:

Click on the Get Insights with Copilot button. You will see the prompt is already pushed into the Copilot Experience in the side panel.

Step 3:

Copilot responds with insights on the selected policies.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Admins can prepare by having Security Computer Units (SCUs). Copilot for Security is sold in a provisioned capacity model and is billed by the hour. 

Get more information about SCUs: Get started with Microsoft Copilot for Security | Microsoft Learn.

Updated January 17, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We are introducing a new entry point to Viva Connections from the SharePoint app bar, which will enhance the integration between the Intranet and Viva Connections.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468290.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late January 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by early February 2025 (previously late January).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

After the rollout, end users can easily and seamlessly navigate to Viva Connections via any SharePoint site. 

Note: This feature will only be available to customers who have a configured and published dashboard and an enabled Viva Connections experience on their tenants. This feature will be on by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout.

We recommend creating awareness about this feature with your users by sending a News post.

You may want to update any relevant documentation.

Updated January 17, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We are introducing the ability to forward app cards. With the addition of app card forwarding, users now have a new way to share app cards across chats. To forward a message containing an app card, simply navigate to the More Actions menu of any message containing an app card and select forward. From here, the forward message dialog will populate, which provides users with a preview of the message being forwarded, including the app card. 

Please note: Forwarding of bot cards is excluded from this release. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469506.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously early January) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously early February).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users will now have less restrictions when forwarding content. Previously, users were unable to forward messages that contained app cards. With this improvement, this restriction does not exist. 

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Users must have the latest Microsoft Teams build to receive these updates. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Updated January 17, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Teams now supports multiple windows on iPad. With this ‘multi-window’ feature, users can easily manage different Teams windows side-by-side, increasing productivity and flexibility. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 467246.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCCH, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late February).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Apple’s “split view” capability allows iPad users to have multiple applications and windows open side-by-side. Starting in February, Teams will now support the ability for there to be multiple Teams windows open at once. This makes it easier for users to attend a meeting and have their chat open on the other side or use Stage Manager to move windows to external displays.

This feature is available by default when users update the Teams app on iPad. 

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Coming soon: The installed name for new Microsoft Outlook for Windows will change from “Outlook (new)” to “Outlook.”

This rollout comes after a change to the classic Outlook in version 2407, previously announced in MC803006 (Update) Outlook for Windows display name change (published June 2024, updated August 2024), which added “(classic)” to the installed name to differentiate the two apps.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Outlook in the Windows Start menu. Left: Before the name change. Right: After the name change:

This change will be on by default. This part of the app identity is not customizable for organizations.

As always, we recommend planning your organization’s migration to the new Outlook using the resources at https://aka.ms/newOutlookAdoption

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 users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

#newoutlookforwindows

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: As part of our ongoing security improvements, we are updating the storage path for attachments sent from any email client using the Send an email to a channel in Microsoft Teams feature in Teams.

(Note: An admin needs to turn on this feature in the Teams admin center > Teams settings > Email integration > Users can send emails to a channel email address)

This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Teams for the web, Teams for Mac desktop, and Teams for iOS/Android.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We rolled out in mid-December 2024 and expect to complete by late January 2025

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, attachments sent to a Teams channel through email will be stored in the channel on Microsoft SharePoint at Documents > Apps > Microsoft Teams Mailhook > [Channel Name]

This change will be on by default.

[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 users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Updates to make meeting transcripts more accurate and reliable. These improvements will also enhance the quality of live captions in Teams, Microsoft Copilot in Teams, and intelligent meeting recap for Microsoft Teams Premium users and users with a Copilot license, ensuring more accurate outputs and enhancing the overall experience of each feature.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 471426.

This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop and Teams for Mac desktop.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025.

General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Key changes in this rollout:

Setting the meeting spoken language up front: Before starting features like Recording, Transcription, or Copilot that generate transcripts, users will be prompted to set the spoken language. Whether users enable these features manually or through Meeting options, this change ensures the transcription system starts with the correct language configuration.

Limiting who can change the spoken language for a meeting: When transcription is enabled, either on its own or as part of Recording or Copilot, only the meeting organizer, co-organizer, or the person who started the transcript will be allowed to change the spoken language. This ensures consistency and prevents issues caused by mismatched language settings. If transcription is not enabled, any meeting participant can change the spoken language.

Simplifying language settings: Language settings and caption customization options are on separate screens, instead of overwhelming users with all options in a single screen.

Identifying language mismatches: A Language mismatch detected notification will appear onscreen if the spoken language does not match the settings. Users can quickly resolve mismatches by confirming the system’s language suggestion directly from the notification, avoiding the need to navigate through settings.

This change will be available to users by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before or after the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

We’re excited to introduce a new feature that allows admins to discover, monitor, and manage Microsoft Teams Premium on a single page in the Teams admin center (TAC). This enhancement aims to streamline the admin experience and offer top-tier management for Teams Premium.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out end of January 2025 and expect to complete by early February 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, admins navigate to multiple portals to manage licenses, view usage reports and manage settings.

After this rollout, admins will be able to:

• Manage licenses: Admins can view license information, assign licenses to users, monitor license utilization, and review and act on end user license requests.
• Monitor usage: Admins can track which features are being used through the Teams Premium usage report and identify opportunities to drive further adoption.
• Manage settings: Feature Advisor provides admins a single view of ALL settings along with the status on configuring and deploying Teams Premium features. It highlights any pending actions needed to fully utilize the premium features.
• Review your Teams Premium subscription: The new experience provides detailed information on Teams Premium licenses, such as the total count, assigned count, unassigned count, and license requests. It also allows administrators to assign licenses that have already been purchased from the Microsoft 365 Admin center. NOTE: Admins can only purchase licenses in the Microsoft 365 admin center. The Teams Premium pages in TAC provides a deep link to the Microsoft 365 admin center to manage the subscription.

Only Global admins can perform license management tasks, such as assigning licenses and approving or rejecting end-user license requests.

This feature does not alter any aspect of Teams Premium but provides an additional method to manage it in the Teams admin center.

The new Teams Premium feature in the Teams admin center:

This feature will be available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

• Please review your Teams Premium subscription details in the Microsoft 365 admin center to ensure they are accurately reflected in the TAC when this new feature becomes available for your tenant.
• There is no need to change your existing settings for managing Premium features, as they will remain the same in the new feature.
• It may be beneficial to review and update your settings and policies to ensure they align with your organization’s needs and preferences and are applied to the correct premium users.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

By default, Microsoft Outlook for the web and new Microsoft Outlook for Windows support separating recipients by using either a semicolon or a comma. After this rollout, users can choose if a comma should be used as a recipient separator or if it should be allowed as part of the contact’s name. This change is helpful for organizations where contacts use the “Last name, First name” format.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470020.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out in late February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in late March 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

This release only includes the user-level setting to change the separator behavior, so users will need to change this default themselves if they need to. The default will continue to enable the comma as a separator.

Users can change the default to allow commas as part of the contact’s name in Outlook Settings > Mail > Compose and reply > Commas to separate recipients:

This change will be available by default.

[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 users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

#newoutlookforwindows

Coming soon to Microsoft Outlook: Outlook users will be able to set custom descriptions for their accounts, making it easier to identify their multiple accounts in the Outlook folder list as well as various lists and menus across Outlook. This message applies to Outlook for Windows.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470602.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out in late February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in late March 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users can set the custom descriptions in Outlook Settings > Accounts > Your Accounts > Manage:

In this example, the user chose “Work” as the name of their first account:

Examples of custom descriptions (“Work” and “Personal”) for multiple Outlook accounts:

This change will be available by default.

[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 users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

#newoutlookforwindows

We've released updates to the following update channel for Microsoft 365 Apps:

• Current Channel

[When this will happen:]

We'll be gradually rolling out this update of Microsoft 365 Apps to users on that update channel starting January 16th, 2025 (PST).

[How this will affect your organization:]

If your Microsoft 365 Apps clients are configured to automatically update from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN), then no action is required.

If you manage updates directly you can now download this latest update and begin deployment.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

To get more details about this update view the following release notes:

• Current Channel