Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 20-02-2025

Coming soon to new Microsoft Outlook: Newsletters in Outlook enable customers to create, distribute, and track success for their internal email newsletters. This message applies to the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook for the web.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 328282

[When this will happen:]

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. Rollout will begin in Targeted Release and will proceed to Standard Release.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early August 2025 and expect to complete by early September 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, users in your organization using the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook for the Web can create professional and engaging email newsletters with a variety of rich elements and leverage built-in tools to manage reader engagement. Readers can discover and subscribe to newsletters that interest them using the new Explore page in the Outlook Newsletters module, accessible in the left-side navigation menu. The new module also includes pages for users to view their drafts.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Outlook Newsletters will roll out on the specified date as an opt-in preview, meaning that no users in your organization will have access to the new module without you taking additional configuration steps.

User access to Outlook Newsletters is controlled by the OwaMailboxPolicy. OutlookNewslettersAccessLevel property. The default value of this property is Undefined until you set it explicitly, which will default to NoAccess while Outlook Newsletters remains in Preview. You can use Set-OwaMailboxPolicy to update this property to ReadWrite, ReadOnly, or NoAccess. Users with ReadWrite access can create content in Outlook Newsletters while ReadOnly limits users to accessing content created by others in your organization.

For more information on using OutlookNewslettersAccessLevel, please see: Newsletters in Outlook (Preview) – Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn

After enabling Outlook Newsletters, you may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

End-user help: Newsletters in Outlook (Preview) – Microsoft Support

We are pleased to announce that Microsoft Viva Insights will soon be included in Microsoft 365 Copilot. With Viva Insights included, IT admins and analysts can tailor advanced prebuilt Copilot reports with their business data or create custom reports with organizational attributes, expanded Microsoft 365 Copilot usage metrics, and more granular controls.

This message applies to Viva Insights on the web, Viva Insights in Microsoft Teams for Windows desktop, and Viva Insights in Microsoft Teams for iOS/Android.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 471002.

What’s new

• Viva Insights service plans will soon be included under Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions.
• We will increase the minimum assigned Viva Insights license thresholds for new tenants from 10 to 50 to access the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard, advanced insights, and organizational insights.
• We will retire the cohort analysis feature between Copilot and non-Copilot users in the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard. However, this feature will still be available in advanced insights.

This message applies to Viva Insights for Windows desktop and Viva Insights for the web.

[When will this happen]

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

[How this will affect your organization]

1. We will include the Viva Insights service plan in Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions

To help your organization realize the full value of Microsoft 365 Copilot, the entirety of Viva Insights including all premium features and capabilities (Viva Insights setup overview | Microsoft Learn) will be available to Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed customers. These Viva Insights service plans will be added under Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions:

• Microsoft Viva Insights: This service plan is automatically assigned at the user level to be included in Viva Insights analysis. Microsoft 365 global administrators can unassign this service plan from individuals to exclude them from Viva Insights.
• Microsoft Viva Insights backend: This service plan is automatically assigned at the tenant level without requiring any admin action and is needed for proper functioning of Viva Insights features. Microsoft 365 global administrators cannot edit this service plan.

If your organization has already set up Viva Insights, we will continue to honor your existing admin and user settings for Viva Insights personal, organizational, advanced insights, and the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard.

2. We will increase the minimum Viva Insights license thresholds to access the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard, advanced insights, and organizational insights.

Starting mid-March 2025, for customers who are not already using Viva Insights, a minimum of 50 assigned Viva Insights service plans will be required to access advanced insights, organizational Insights, and the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard. This minimum can be achieved through a combination of licenses. For example: 30 assigned Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses (that now includes the Viva Insights service plan) + 20 assigned Viva Insights licenses = 50 assigned Viva Insights licenses.

For existing customers who already have access to advanced insights, organizational Insights, and the Copilot Dashboard, there is no minimum license requirement change.

3. We will retire Cohort analysis from the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard

We will retire the cohort analysis features from the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard and Microsoft 365 admin center. These features include the behavior metrics tab in Compare between groups and the metric comparison between Copilot and non-Copilot users on the Impact page (go to Highlight > select Explore more on the cards for Meetings, Emails, or Teams chat). Also, we will retire the Manage non-Copilot users setting in Microsoft 365 admin center.

You can continue to use cohort analysis features in Viva Insights advanced insights.

[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.

After this rollout starting in mid-March 2025, all employees with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses will be assigned a Viva Insights service plan. To exclude specific users from Viva Insights analysis, unassign their Viva Insights service plans. Data processing for newly licensed users will begin in early April 2025.

However, if your tenant has already enabled advanced insights before mid-March 2025, we will provide extra time for admins to review, and unassign Viva Insights service plans. Tenant admins can unassign Viva Insights service plans starting from mid-March 2025 to the end of April 2025, before the newly licensed users will be included in Viva Insights analysis.

Note: The Exclusion list applies only to the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard. To exclude users from advanced and organizational insights, remove their Viva Insights service plans.

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

This new feature applies to customers with Exchange Online Protection, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 or Plan 2 service plans.

Soon, it will be possible to create allow entries for domain & addresses and URLs directly from the Tenant Allow/Block Lists page. The entries can be created directly from the Microsoft Defender portal or the New-TenantAllowBlockListItems cmdlet. Allow entries for domains & addresses override spam and phishing (not high confidence phishing) verdicts of email from domain/sender addresses for delivery to the Inbox. URL allow entries override spam and phishing (not high confidence phishing) verdicts of the URL during mail flow and at time of click. Due to secure by default in Office 365, you still need to report the email, URL, or file to override high confidence phishing and malware verdicts. The submission automatically modifies existing allow entries or adds new entries as necessary.

The same permissions required for the Tenant Allow/Block List also apply to this feature. For information about these permissions, see Allow or block email using the Tenant Allow/Block List.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 406165.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

This new feature will not impact any of your current Tenant Allow/Block List entries. 

We suggest that you use allow entries for domain & addresses and URLs directly from the Tenant Allow/Block Lists page to enable misclassified spam and bulk/low confidence phishing to get delivered to the Inbox.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. 

Microsoft Teams admin center has brought security and compliance information directly into the Teams admin center app detail pages. In the security and compliance tab, users can find information on an app’s security and compliance posture to help them make more informed decisions about which apps they choose to trust. Information may include things such as assessments for data security, vulnerability scanning, Service Organization Controls (SOC), Payment Card Industry (PCI), and more. Furthermore, admins will now have the ability to view the count of apps that have completed the Microsoft 365 Certification or the publisher attestation portion of the Microsoft 365 app compliance program. Admins who may not have explored these new experiences will be notified within the Teams admin center upon the release of this feature.

This feature will bring a notification to Teams admin center that helps inform and direct admins via a click-through experience from the Teams admin center dashboard into the manage apps page. There, they will be given a quick tutorial on the fastest way to access the security and compliance info for an app. In the Manage apps page, they will also find a new tile that gives a live count of the number of Teams apps that have completed the Microsoft 365 Certification or Publisher attestation.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Admins will have increased awareness of app security and compliance information in Teams admin center and a view into the current number of apps that have completed the Microsoft 365 Certification or the publisher attestation.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required.

NOTE: If your organization does not support Android devices, you can safely ignore this message. Coming soon for the Walkie Talkie app in Microsoft Teams: New user Connection Settings for Headset microphones that are designed to optimize battery life for older Bluetooth headsets.

This message applies to Teams on Android only.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 476733.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

When a Bluetooth headset is connected to the Walkie Talkie app, the new Connection Settings for Headset microphones use SCO (Synchronous Connection-Oriented) to control whether the microphone remains constantly connected or disconnects after a period of inactivity. This helps in reducing battery drain by allowing the headset to disconnect when not in use and reconnect when needed. The user control feature allows users to set a timeout period after which the Bluetooth headset will automatically disconnect if there is no activity.

When the SCO setting is turned on, users may experience a slight delay in transmission as the headset reconnects. However, once the headset is reconnected, users will hear a sound indicating that they can start transmitting on the app. This brief delay is a small trade-off for the substantial battery savings on older Bluetooth headsets.

This setting update is not needed for newer Bluetooth headsets as the battery life is already optimal.

This change will be available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Learn more: The section called Get insight into Walkie Talkie usage and performance in Manage the Walkie Talkie app in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

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.

Microsoft OneNote Copilot Chat is coming to OneNote for the web and OneNote in Teams. OneNote Copilot Chat is an intelligent assistant, transforming the way users interact with their notes. Users enter natural language prompts, and Copilot helps them understand, summarize, and rewrite notes for enhanced clarity and purpose.

A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required to use this feature.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 417005.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Copilot Chat for OneNote for the web and OneNote in Teams will be available automatically by default. No action is needed to enable this experience. Learn more: Increase Your Productivity with Copilot on OneNote Web and OneNote in Teams | Microsoft Community Hub

If you prefer to disable Copilot Chat for your tenant, review these instructions in Manage Copilot | Microsoft Learn.

[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.

Presenters and attendees can now join Microsoft Teams town halls using dial-in options and join codes that are available in email invites. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 476489.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

With the release of this feature, Teams town hall attendee and presenter email invites will include dial-in details and join codes.

This update is available by default.

[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.

Microsoft Teams Events invite emails will be separated based on the role of the participant. Event organizers will get an email explaining the specific roles of participants in the event. Similarly, each presenter will get a separate calendar invite, allowing the organizers of town halls to maintain separate invites for attendees. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 476488.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

This feature update allows the organizers of town halls to maintain separate invites for attendees.

[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 to Microsoft Teams: Meeting organizers and schedulers will be able to add CVI (Cloud Video Interop) coordinates to Teams town hall and webinar meeting invitations. With CVI coordinates in invitations, non-Teams users—such as external customers or partners—can easily join town hall and webinar meetings using a third-party teleconferencing device. This message applies to Teams on Windows desktop, Teams on Mac desktop, and Teams on the web.

CVI is a Microsoft Qualified third-party solution that enables third-party SIP and H.323 video room devices (VTCs) to join Microsoft Teams meetings. As an admin, you can set CVI for your org. Learn more: Manage and set up Cloud Video Interop for Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 476487.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

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 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.

Learn more: Plan for Teams town halls – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

As part of the Microsoft Viva Insights Change Management template, a third insights category will soon be available, focused on highlighting employee groups deemed to be “Brokers of information flow.” Groups identified as top information brokers serve as key disseminators of information throughout the employee network. The experience associated with the third insights category will surface the groups that are deemed as “central hubs” dictating information flow. However, while they might be an important communication channel, these groups could also cause collaboration barriers, since a significant proportion of information flows through these groups.

By identifying these groups, this new insight category can help business leaders see where there might be potential barriers to communication flow within their company.

[When this will happen:]

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

Note: The Change Management template already encompasses two other insight categories that are generally available:

• Significant change in collaboration
• Showing signs of insularity

[How this will affect your organization:]

As this feature update rolls out, your organization will see the following updates:

• A third insights category for “Brokers of Information flow” will appear in the output of the Change Management query within the Viva Insights Analyst Workbench experience.
• A “Brokers of Information flow” card within the Change Management query will surface insights around which groups are controlling the flow of information before and after a change event. The analysis will also include more granular insights around which sub-groups are contributing to the brokering profile of the overarching group.

These insights will only appear for newly run queries, not previously run queries. 

Learn more here: Create change management queries.

[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.

The Porting wizard for Microsoft Teams Phone in the Microsoft Teams admin center simplifies the transfer of telephone numbers from external carriers (such as AT&T) to Microsoft Teams Calling Plans. We’re excited to introduce an enhanced version of the wizard, launching first with customers in the United States and Canada. The current wizard will still be available.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

The updated wizard will offer a seamless and efficient port order management process, streamlining everything from order creation to submission. Key enhancements include:

• Simplified portability check: Effortlessly verify number eligibility.
• Save draft orders: Start and finish orders on your schedule.
• Edit validated orders: Easily make adjustments to validated orders.

To access: Admins Teams admin center > Voice: Phone numbers tab > Select the Port link.

This updated wizard will be available by default.

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.

Learn more

• Transfer phone numbers to Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
• What’s the status of your port orders? – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

Updated February 19, 2025: Email domain change: We will communicate a new timeline when we are ready to proceed.

If you took action to change or update your email configuration based on the previous communication, then that should remain largely valid. We encourage you to review changes when any updated notice is received.

As previously communicated in MC561701 (May 2023), a key step in our rebranding from Yammer to Viva Engage is changing our web and email domains. These changes happen on different schedules and may impact you differently.

Changes to our web domain are currently not anticipated to impact our APIs. Should there be any changes in the future we will notify you.

This message is associated with Microsoft Roadmap ID 180352

[When this will happen:]

• Web domain change: Rollout will begin in late March 2024 and is expected to be complete by mid-April 2024.
• Email domain change: We will communicate a new timeline when we are ready to proceed.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Web Domain

• During rollout, the web domain will change for all tenants from https://web.yammer.com to engage.cloud.microsoft. No admin action is required to initiate the change, and it is not possible to opt-out of this change.
  
• Admins need to prepare for this change because the old URL may be saved in bookmarks, linked from intranet pages, or configured in network devices like proxies. We will indefinitely redirect URLs to the new domain ensuring uninterrupted access in many cases, but you must review any domain usage specific to your environment. It is not possible for us to identify all places within your environment where redirections may not function correctly. Users may initially need to refresh their browsers to receive the redirect if they are using Viva Engage once the change occurs.
• Most attention is required to other usage of the old domain which may be hardcoded in a network proxy or security system. It is not possible for Microsoft to identify instances like these which exist inside your environment. IT, network, or security admins inside your organization may be able to help identify instances and plan changes. Check your configuration for desktop and mobile browsers because they may be different.

Email Domain

• The sender domain used in emails from Viva Engage will start changing from @yammer.com to @engage.mail.microsoft. This phased change to emails will continue until all Viva Engage email notifications and digests use the new sender domain. No admin action is required to initiate the change, and it is not possible to opt-out of this change.
• Preparation for this change will depend on how you use the sender domain. If you have made specific customizations for the old domain in the past, then you may need to replicate the change for the new domain. If the old domain has been configured in transport rules, or an email gateway, then the new domain will need to be added. End users may need to update rules in Outlook. The impact will depend upon how you use the sender domain, so you will need to review your mail configuration and communicate with end users.
• This change may go unnoticed by most users unless they have specific Outlook rules based on the sender domain. Outlook rules can be updated to use the new domain without admin intervention, but you will need to communicate that the change is coming. Moving to engage.mail.microsoft eliminates the need for yammer.com rules. Customers can delete previous rules or modify them for engage.mail.microsoft. Admins should review their email configuration.

Progressive Web App (PWA)

Users will need to re-install after the domain migration is completed in order to continue using the application this can be done through the browser PWA options: Chrome, Edge and Firefox.

Desktop Notifications

Users who have enabled desktop notifications previously, after the domain migration will have to enable them again in the Settings menu.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Review all places where you might have explicitly configured or hardcoded domain names. Share this information on the domain changes with the relevant admins noted above to give them time to make any necessary changes. Use existing changes implemented for the old domain as a guide to what you may need to implement for the new domain.

While changes are not anticipated to impact our APIs, it is possible that the old domain is hardcoded within a custom application, script, or automation – possibly in an unsupported manner. Review your usage of custom applications and contact your developer or partner for updates.

Updated February 19, 2025: We are canceling this feature for the time being, we apologize for any inconveniences.

This new feature will allow users to search within Outlook for sub-folders within specific folders.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 151025

[When this will happen:]

Worldwide: We will begin rolling out by late February 2025 (previously late November) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late December).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Search within Outlook will soon return results not only from specific folders but also from sub-folders within it.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Updated February 19, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Customers will see a new design for reactions in conversation cards across Microsoft Viva Engage web, Microsoft Teams and Outlook apps, and interactive emails in Outlook Web app and new Outlook for Windows.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 416644.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early October 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2025 (previously late January).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Engage conversations will have a new design to show reactions across threadstarters, comments, and replies. The redesign brings a more interactive style, showing users’ reactions as clickable pills like what’s seen in other Microsoft 365 applications.

There are no changes to the number of icons available. The change will first show in Engage web (browser), Teams and Outlook apps, and interactive emails in Outlook Web app and new Outlook. In the future, we will launch in other surfaces, including the Engage iOS and Android apps.

Users will also see a dedicated copy link button and streamlined share button in threadstarters.

There are no changes to the core reactions capabilities, nor does the new design affect any data handling. This redesign is solely focused on the end-user experience.

[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.

Updated February 19, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android: Minimize draft emails and quickly access them again from the message list or calendar view.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470304.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Outlook will help you compose emails more quickly and efficiently by allowing you to minimize your draft emails and quickly access them again from the message list or calendar view. This means that while composing an email you can easily get information you need from your calendar or other emails and easily get back into the draft you are working on without ever having to go to the Draft folder.

To start, select the minimize icon in the upper right corner:

This change will be on by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This change will happen automatically by the specified date. No admin action is required. Please notify your users about this change and update relevant documentation.

Updated February 19, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Outlook for iOS/Android: New built-in report buttons in version > 4.2446 or later (android) and version > 4.2508 or later (iOS). Admins can control the appearance and behavior of these buttons that allow users to report emails as phishing / junk / not junk from the User Reported setting page in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal (security.microsoft.com). Admins can also customize where messages get reported to (reporting mailbox, Microsoft, or both) and what the user sees both before and after reporting messages from these buttons.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 371383.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We began rolling out in early December 2024 and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Information to keep in mind:

• Microsoft OWA (Outlook on the Web) and the new Microsoft Outlook for Windows have had this functionality since November 2022. This rollout to iOS/Android does not change or affect that functionality.
• Classic Microsoft Outlook for Windows client has had this functionality in current channel since August 2024. Learn more: MC841229 (Updated) Classic Microsoft Outlook for Windows: New reporting buttons integrated with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (published July 2024, updated October 2024).
• Microsoft Outlook for Mac released this functionality in September 2024.
• If you have turned off the reporting feature in the Microsoft 365 Defender User reported settings page or are using a third-party add-in, the report buttons in Outlook for Android/iOS won’t be visible.
• The Microsoft reporting add-in (the Microsoft report message add-in and Microsoft phishing add-in) will be supported till further notice. The future goal is to have a consistent button reporting experience across all Outlook platforms. If you are using Microsoft reporting add-ins in Outlook for iOS/Android, your users will see two reporting experiences: one from the built-in Outlook buttons (added by this rollout) and one from the add-in. Both options will behave the same for users (except for the newly customizable pop-ups) and the reported messages will end up in the same place, causing minimal disruption.
• The selections you make on the user reported settings page will determine the reporting experience for your users (whether they choose the add-in or built-in reporting option in Outlook). Either option will report to the same place (Microsoft, custom mailbox, or both) based on your User reported settings.
• Like OWA and new Outlook for Windows, the built-in reporting button in Outlook for iOS/Android supports reporting from shared and delegate mailboxes.

This change is 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. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

No action is required form you after this rollout because your current settings in the User reported settings page will not be changed.

Learn more

• Report phishing and suspicious emails in Outlook for admins – Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)
• User reported settings – Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

Updated February 19, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

Starting in mid-January 2025, Microsoft Copilot in Edge will introduce support for page summarization and contextual queries to the Work tab for Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat. With this feature, users can ask Copilot contextual queries such as “summarize this page.” This feature will also include contextual prompt suggestions to help users ask relevant questions about open pages in Edge. Page summarization and contextual prompt suggestions will be accessible for users when using Copilot through the Edge side pane.

A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required to use this feature.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468884.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, Copilot may have access to a user’s page context when a user sends contextual prompts to Copilot in Edge in the side pane when a webpage or PDF is open.

The page summarization feature will be available by default when it rolls out in late-January. It can also be configured by admins.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

The existing EdgeEntraCopilotPageContext policy is available now for you to manage whether your users have access to page context while using Copilot in Edge across Copilot Business Chat and Microsoft Copilot with enterprise data protection. Before this rollout, the policy only applied to the Web tab of Business Chat and to Copilot with enterprise data protection. After this rollout, the EdgeEntraCopilotPageContext policy will include the Work tab of Business Chat. If the policy is not configured, users can enable or disable Copilot’s access to page context in their Copilot settings.

If you prefer to disable Copilot Chat for your tenant, review these instructions in Manage Copilot | Microsoft Learn.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date. Review your current configuration to determine the impact on your organization. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more

• The section called What’s the difference between Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot? in Overview of Copilot | Microsoft Learn
• Enterprise data protection in Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft Learn

Updated February 19, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

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 mid-February 2025 (previously early February) 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

Updated February 19, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

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 mid-March 2025 (previously late February) and expect to complete by mid-April 2025 (previously late March).

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

[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

Updated February 19, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps:

• A change to alerts generated by events originating from Defender for Cloud Apps that are generated in the Microsoft Defender XDR detection engine

This rollout aims to provide more accurate and precise information on the origin of these alerts, enabling customers to identify, manage, and respond to alerts more effectively.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD, Production, DoD): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by early April 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

We will change the field indicating the alert source in the alert data itself. Note: The rollout will only affect new alerts generated after the rollout and will not alter existing alerts.

This rollout will be reflected in all experiences where alerts are represented, including Incidents & alerts queues in the XDR portal, Advanced hunting, and the correlating APIs and SIEM systems.

In the Defender XDR portal, the change will be reflected in the Service sources field, replacing the current Microsoft Defender XDR values with the new value Defender for Cloud Apps. The detection sources will remain unchanged and will continue to indicate the detections are generated in the XDR detection engine.

The alert ID prepended characters of some of the alerts will also be changed to comply with the Defender XDR mapping.

Learn more about the different alert sources in Defender XDR in the Alert sources section of Investigate alerts in Microsoft Defender XDR – Microsoft Defender XDR | Microsoft Learn

In the Microsoft Graph API, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint streaming API, and the Microsoft Azure Events Hub, the change will be reflected in the alert resource type under the property serviceSource, and the previous values of microsoft365Defender will change to microsoftDefenderForCloudApps.

Learn more about the Graph API alert resource: alert resource type – Microsoft Graph v1.0 | Microsoft Learn

Learn more about Streaming API: Stream Microsoft Defender XDR events – Microsoft Defender XDR | Microsoft Learn

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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

Administrators should review and update any custom alert rules, playbooks, or automations involving the alerts mentioned above (Service sources = Microsoft Defender XDR and Detection sources = Defender XDR, to ensure they reflect the new value. You may also want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

As a reminder, detection sources will remain unchanged, so if you only filter on detection sources, everything should continue to function as normal.