Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 28-02-2025

Updated February 27, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: A new license request feature and self-service purchase for Microsoft 365 Copilot will be widely available for all tenants. End user license request and self-service purchase will now be available for users with Microsoft 365 E1, Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft Office 365 Plan E1, Microsoft Office 365 Plan E3, Enterprise Mobility + Security E3, Enterprise Mobility + Security E5, Microsoft 365 Apps for Business and standalone products. Both License request and self-service purchase will be shown within Microsoft 365 apps such as Copilot Chat, the unpaid version of work chat included in your Microsoft 365 subscription.

License Request allows users to request a Microsoft 365 Copilot license directly from their admin. This helps you efficiently assign unused licenses or purchase additional ones and assign based on user request. Global admins, license admins, and user admins will be able to manage these requests seamlessly in the Microsoft 365 admin center and can choose between standard or custom messaging, including directing to a third-party URL.

Self-Service Purchase allows users to purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses directly with their own credit card and use within their tenant with their Microsoft admin’s visibility and control. Note: If your organization has previously disabled self-service purchase for Microsoft 365 Copilot, your existing settings will be honored.

This message is related to MC853238 (Updated) Microsoft 365 admin center: New self-service purchase and trial settings (published August 2024, updated September 2024). This message is also related to MC886385 Copilot for Microsoft 365 available for self-service purchase (November 2024) and MC899941 Microsoft 365 Copilot: Self-service purchase settings in Microsoft 365 admin center (E3, E5) (September 2024).

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

License Request:

After this rollout, global admins, license admins and user admins will be able to manage license requests in the Microsoft 365 admin center, where you can approve or deny the request.

Notifications in the Microsoft 365 admin center of pending license requests from users: 

Admins can manage user requests in the Microsoft 365 admin center on the Licenses page:

This change will be available by default to users. Admins can choose to set up their own custom license request process outside of Microsoft Admin Center (Use your own request process).

Self Service Purchase:

As an admin, you ultimately still maintain control over licenses in your tenant. You can view licenses purchased by users in the Microsoft 365 admin center, by going to Billing > Your Products page. You can also view by going to the Licensing page and viewing or filtering to Self-Service licenses. On the Products tab, select the Self-service filter. As with any new product, you will be able to view product usage in your tenant in the Usage page in MAC.

You are able to take over control of licenses purchased by the user at any time and manage them as you would any other license within your tenant. Please note the cancellation policy for Copilot for Microsoft 365 – the user has a seven-day window to receive a full refund. Action notifications will surface in the Microsoft 365 admin center, when a self-service purchase happens, allowing you to see the new license on the licensing page.

• License Request Help and support: Manage self-service license requests in the Microsoft 365 admin center | Microsoft Learn
• Self Service Purchase Help and support: Manage self-service purchases and trials (for admins) | Microsoft Learn
• Deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot and AI at Microsoft with our works councils – Inside Track Blog

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 and users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Coming soon to Microsoft Outlook for iOS/Android: Users will be able to request delivery receipts and read receipts while composing an email. Users will also easily be able to respond to requests for read receipts on emails they receive and set preferences for future read receipts.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users will have a new option for Receipts in the toolbar while composing emails where the user can choose delivery and/or read receipts:

When users first receive an email that has a read receipt requested (left), they will be prompted to make a choice to send a receipt for that email (middle), and to select a preference for future read receipt behavior for that account (right).

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

Coming soon for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat: To enhance the organization and discoverability of the user’s Copilot chat sessions, we will use a large language model (LLM) to generate titles for new chat sessions.

A Microsoft 365 license is required to use this feature.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 388373.

[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:]

Before this rollout: The default title is the same as the first prompt.

After this rollout: After Copilot responds to the first prompt, titles will be generated by LMM for all new chat sessions. Users will still be able to delete session chats and rename their sessions.

Note: Titles generated before this rollout will not be changed.

Chat titles generated by LMM on the Copilot tab display in all products that include a Copilot tab: Microsoft 356/Office, Microsoft Teams, new Microsoft Outlook for desktop and web, and the Microsoft 365 for Windows desktop and web:

This feature will be enabled by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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 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.

Learn more: Frequently asked questions about Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat – Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)

In MC797119 (Updated) SharePoint Online: A new Start experience (published May 2024, updated June 2024), we announced the new Microsoft SharePoint start (Preview) experience, featuring a user-friendly approach that reduces the effort required for creating sites and pages. We have received feedback regarding concerns about the content policy, specifically in relation to personal pages. Starting mid-March 2025 and ending early April 2025, we will retire the ability for SharePoint users to create personal pages from SharePoint start (Preview).

The other features in SharePoint start (Preview) will continue to work after we retire the ability to create personal pages from SharePoint start (Preview).

As an alternative, we recommend that SharePoint users create pages that are connected to sites from SharePoint start (Preview).

[How this will affect your organization:]

When the retirement has been implemented for your tenant, this notification will display at the top of the SharePoint user page: Publish your pages to sites. Creating new personal pages that aren’t connected to sites is no longer supported.

To create a new page from a page template in SharePoint start (Preview) that is connected to a SharePoint site

1. In SharePoint start (Preview), go to Create a page and select a page template:

2. On the right panel, choose a SharePoint site or enter the name of a SharePoint site to begin creating a new page on that site.

FAQs

Can users still access personal pages they have created before the retirement?

• Users can continue their work on these pages. They can be found under My pages or My pages on this site in SharePoint start (Preview).

Can users move these personal pages to another location?

• No, but SharePoint admins can move existing personal pages to other destinations using this PowerShell cmdlet: Copy-SPOPersonalSitePage (Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell)

Can users convert a personal page to a page connected to a SharePoint site?

• No, there is currently no option for users to convert personal pages to pages connected to SharePoint sites through the user interface. SharePoint admins can move personal pages to SharePoint sites using the PowerShell cmdlet.

[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.

• Windows 11, version 24H2
• Quality updates during the out-of-box experience (OOBE) for new Windows 11 devices
• Microsoft Purview to help secure and govern data
• Proactive and reactive incident responses 
• Native Arm® versions of apps and emulated apps on Copilot+ PCs
• New Copilot+ PC features and improvements
• Additional improvements released in February

• Windows IT Pro Blog 
• Microsoft Security 
• Microsoft Intune Blog 
• Windows Insider Blog 
• Windows 11 update history 
• Release notes for Microsoft 365 Copilot