Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 19-09-2025

Updated September 18, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Before this rollout, Microsoft Teams town hall attendees typically watch the presentation with a 20-30 second delay. After this rollout, with ultra-low latency (ULL), attendees will be able to view and participate in a town hall at a much lower latency than before, ensuring they are in sync with content being shared by presenters and organizers.

This feature is available for town hall organizers with a Teams Premium license. This feature will only be available for tenants who use the Microsoft eCDN (Enterprise Content Delivery Network) or who do not have an eCDN provider.

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

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 486535.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

This change will be on by default for attendees in town halls scheduled by Teams Premium organizers.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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

In addition, we recommend that you allowlist the domains recommended for Microsoft Teams as suggested in the article Microsoft 365 URLs and IP address ranges – Microsoft 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn, including the *.ml.cdn.office.net domain. 

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

Updated September 18, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management (IRM), admins will be able to select any Communication Compliance (CC) policy alerts as indicators in IRM policies. After this rollout, IRM admins can select any CC policies that they would like to bring into IRM and detect if a user has alerts for these selected CC policies. When an IRM alert is generated, admins can review if there are any alerts for the user in CC under the policies that are enabled as indicators. This feature will help admins and analysts view this information in IRM without switching to CC.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 489838.

[When this will happen:]

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out late July 2025 (previously late May) and expect to complete by early August 2025 (previously early June).

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, admins will be able to enable this indicator in IRM’s global settings for policy indicators. When enabled, this indicator can be selected in any IRM policy.

Using the indicator

1. In IRM, go to Settings > Insider Risk Management > Policy indicators > Built-in Indicators. Open the Communication Compliance indicators > Detect messages matched by specific CC policies drop-down menu. Check the box and choose the CC policies to bring into IRM. Save the changes.
2. To use in a policy: In the policy wizard for any IRM policy, configure the policies as applicable until you get to the Indicators page. Open the Communication Compliance indicators drop-down menu and check the box for Sending messages flagged by selected CC policies. Configure the rest of the policy as applicable.

These changes will be available by default for admins to configure.

[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: Configure policy indicators in insider risk management | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

Updated September 18, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

This feature will empower administrators to manage the availability of trusted Microsoft Teams apps based on rules, for enhanced security. Admins will be able to manage Microsoft 365 certified apps in the Teams admin center through a new control in Org-wide settings. You can further customize the availability of these apps based on permissions accessed and publisher names. The system automatically checks the Microsoft 365 certified apps that meet all the conditions you specify and makes those apps available.  

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 485712.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, you cannot manage at bulk the availability of Microsoft 365 certified apps. They are only controlled by third-party app tenant settings.

After this rollout, you can manage Microsoft 365 certified apps availability from org-wide settings in the Teams admin center at Manage apps > Actions > Org-wide app settings > Microsoft 365 certified apps. 

You can configure additional criteria from the Customize availability option:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before or after the rollout. Review your current configuration to assess the impact on your organization. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation. This new control will be disabled by default.

Learn more: Manage org-wide app settings in Manage your apps in the Microsoft Teams admin center – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

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

Based on your feedback, we are excited to announce that Microsoft 365 service health email notifications for Issues in your organization that require action will soon be available by default in your preferred language.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-July 2025 (previously late June) and expect to complete by early October 2025 (previously late September). 

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, service health email notifications for Issues in your organization that require action were only sent in English. With this update, admins will receive alerts in their preferred language, making it easier to understand and act on service health issues that affect your organization. This change improves accessibility and ensures critical service health information is actionable for all admins, regardless of their language preference.

After this rollout, if you’ve already subscribed to service health notification alerts for Issues in your environment that require action, you will start receiving these email notifications in the language set in your Microsoft 365 admin center preferences. We will support these 72 languages for email translation:

1. af-za: Afrikaans (South Africa)
2. am-et: Amharic (Ethiopia)
3. ar-sa: Arabic (Saudi Arabia)
4. as-in: Assamese (India)
5. az-latn-az Azerbaijani (Latin, Azerbaijan)
6. bg-bg: Bulgarian (Bulgaria)
7. bn-in: Bengali (India)
8. bs-latn-ba Bosnian (Latin, Bosnia & Herzegovina)
9. ca-es: Catalan (Spain)
10. ca-es-valencia Valencian (Spain)
11. cs-cz: Czech (Czechia)
12. da-dk: Danish (Denmark)
13. de-de: German (Germany)
14. el-gr: Greek (Greece)
15. es-es: Spanish (Spain)
16. et-ee: Estonian (Estonia)
17. eu-es: Basque (Spain)
18. fa-ir: Persian (Iran)
19. fi-fi: Finnish (Finland)
20. fil-ph: Filipino (Philippines)
21. fr-fr: French (France)
22. ga-ie: Irish (Ireland)
23. gl-es: Galician (Spain)
24. gu-in: Gujarati (India)
25. he-il: Hebrew (Israel)
26. hi-in: Hindi (India)
27. hr-hr: Croatian (Croatia)
28. hu-hu: Hungarian (Hungary)
29. id-id: Indonesian (Indonesia)
30. is-is: Icelandic (Iceland)
31. it-it: Italian (Italy)
32. ja-jp: Japanese (Japan)
33. ka-ge: Georgian (Georgia)
34. kk-kz: Kazakh (Kazakhstan)
35. km-kh: Khmer (Cambodia)
36. kn-in: Kannada (India)
37. ko-kr: Korean (Korea)
38. lo-la: Lao (Laos)
39. lt-lt: Lithuanian (Lithuania)
40. lv-lv: Latvian (Latvia)
41. mi-nz: Maori (New Zealand)
42. mk-mk: Macedonian (North Macedonia)
43. ml-in: Malayalam (India)
44. mr-in: Marathi (India)
45. mt-mt: Maltese (Malta)
46. nb-no: Norwegian Bokmål (Norway)
47. ne-np: Nepali (Nepal)
48. nl-nl: Dutch (Netherlands)
49. or-in: Odia (India)
50. pa-in: Punjabi (India)
51. pl-pl: Polish (Poland)
52. pt-br: Portuguese (Brazil)
53. pt-pt: Portuguese (Portugal)
54. ro-ro: Romanian (Romania)
55. ru-ru: Russian (Russia)
56. sk-sk: Slovak (Slovakia)
57. sl-si: Slovenian (Slovenia)
58. sq-al: Albanian (Albania)
59. sr-cyrl-rs: Serbian (Cyrillic, Serbia)
60. sr-latn-rs: Serbian (Latin, Serbia)
61. sv-se: Swedish (Sweden)
62. ta-in: Tamil (India)
63. te-in: Telugu (India)
64. th-th: Thai (Thailand)
65. tr-tr: Turkish (Türkiye)
66. tt-ru: Tatar (Russia)
67. uk-ua: Ukrainian (Ukraine)
68. ur-pk: Urdu (Pakistan)
69. vi-vn: Vietnamese (Vietnam)
70. zh-cn: Chinese (Simplified, China)
71. zh-tw: Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan

To configure this feature:

• Go to Microsoft 365 admin center > Service Health Dashboard > Customize tab > Email tab to subscribe to Issues in your environment that require action (and Issues with priority accounts notifications, available for certain licenses).
• Keep the Translate emails to <preferred language> checkbox checked to start receiving these notifications in your preferred language. Note: This box will be checked by default.
• You can opt out of translation at any time to go back to receiving emails in English.

How to check Microsoft 365 service health – Microsoft 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

Updated September 18, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Introduction

We’re streamlining the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for acquiring Microsoft telephone numbers in all markets. Teams administrators will need to submit general business information and supporting documents via Teams Admin Center before provisioning new telephone numbers. This is a one-time process that will allow Microsoft to validate businesses and fulfill regulatory requirements, helping protect our phone services from misuse, such as spam calls and voice phishing (vishing).

When this will happen

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

How this will affect your organization

This change updates the existing telephone number provisioning workflow. Teams administrators must now complete a KYC onboarding process in the Teams Admin Center before provisioning new telephone numbers.

• Admins will be required to submit business information and supporting documentation.
• The vetting process typically takes a few hours but may take up to two business days.
• No new telephone numbers can be acquired until the submitted information is validated.
• Existing telephone numbers are not affected.

These requirements apply globally and are consistent across all markets.

What you need to do to prepare

Ensure your Teams administrators are ready to provide the following information via the Teams Admin Center:

• Company name
• Tax ID, DUNS number, or Business Registration Number
• Business address
• A copy of the Business Registration, Registry Extract, or Articles of Incorporation

This process applies to all tenants, including those on free trials. No specific license tier is required to complete the KYC onboarding.

Learn more: Teams Phone Know Your Customer overview – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn  

Compliance considerations

• Does the change store new customer data, if so, where, and is the data cached or permanently stored? – Yes. The KYC onboarding process requires submission of business information and supporting documentation, which will be stored by Microsoft to fulfill regulatory requirements.
• Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed? – Maybe. While existing telephone numbers are not affected, the process introduces new data collection and validation workflows that may interact with existing tenant metadata.
• Does the change include an admin control and, can it be controlled through Entra ID group membership? – Yes. The KYC onboarding process is managed through the Teams Admin Center, which supports role-based access control via Entra ID group membership.

Updated September 18, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

You can now save a meeting as a draft on your calendar when you’re not ready to send invites. This update gives users more flexibility when planning events, especially when details are still being finalized.

• General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): Rollout will begin in July 2025 and is expected to complete by mid-October 2025 (previously early September).

Users will be able to save events as drafts when creating a meeting with at least one attendee. To do this, select the Discard button while composing the event, then choose Save as a draft. Draft events will appear on the calendar with a “[Draft]” prefix in the title.
This feature is available on mobile and will be on by default.

What you can do to prepare

• No admin action is required. You may want to:
• Inform your users about this new capability.
• Update internal training materials or documentation as needed.

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.

Updated September 18, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Introduction

To streamline app management and reduce clutter, Teams apps with version numbers below 1.12 will be removed from the Integrated apps view in the Microsoft 365 admin center. These apps will continue to be fully visible and manageable in the Teams admin center.

When this will happen

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

How this affects your organization

Apps below version 1.12 will no longer appear in the Microsoft 365 admin center. However, there is no change to how these apps are managed—they remain fully supported in the Teams admin center, and the upgrade path and user experience are unchanged.

What you can do to prepare

• No action is required.
• If your organization relies on the Microsoft 365 admin center for app visibility, consider updating apps to supported versions to retain visibility there.
• There is no required timeline for upgrading apps to version 1.12 or higher. Admins may choose to upgrade at their discretion.
• There is no change to the user experience—apps below version 1.12 will simply not appear in MAC > Settings > Integrated apps.

Learn more: Manage agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center | Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

Compliance considerations

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.

Updated September 18, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

Introduction

We are introducing a new capability in Microsoft Teams external collaboration that allows Teams administrators to specify which users or groups within the organization can interact with specific external domains. This enhancement provides more granular control over external collaboration, enabling scenarios such as piloting with select departments, restricting high-risk roles, or enabling broader federation where appropriate.

This message is associated with Roadmap ID 501275.

When this will happen

Targeted Release: Begins early September 2025 and completes by mid-September 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide): Begins late October 2025 and completes by mid-December 2025.

How this affects your organization

Previously, external access settings could only be configured at the tenant level, with policy-level settings limited to either inheriting tenant settings or blocking all external domains. With this update, you can assign custom external access policies to users or groups with five configuration options:

• Use organization settings: Inherits the tenant’s default external access configuration
• Allow all external domains: All external organizations are trusted
• Allow only specific external domains: Only domains in the allow list are trusted
• Block only specific external domains: Domains in the block list are restricted; all others are trusted
• Block all: All external domains are blocked for users assigned to this policy

Users assigned a custom policy may interact with different external domains than those defined in the organization-wide settings.

What you can do to prepare

Administrators should begin identifying users and groups that require differentiated external access and plan pilot scenarios accordingly.

During the public preview, configuration must be done via PowerShell using the following cmdlets:

• Set-CsExternalAccessPolicy
• Set-CsTenantFederationConfiguration

Note: Changes made through these cmdlets will not be reflected in the Teams admin center UI during the Targeted Release.

Once the feature reaches general availability, the Teams admin center UI will support these configurations, allowing policy management via both PowerShell and the UI.

Learn more:

IT Admins – Manage external meetings and chat with people and organizations using Microsoft identities – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn  

Compliance considerations

Updated September 18, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Introduction

We’re introducing a new AI audio briefing feature in Viva Connections for Teams mobile (iOS and Android). This feature provides users with a quick, AI-generated summary of top news items in their news feed, with playback controls such as play, pause, and speed adjustment. A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required to access this feature.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 498233.

When this will happen

General Availability: We will begin rolling out late September 2025 (previously mid-September) and complete by end-November 2025. 

How this affects your organization

Users with the Microsoft 365 Copilot license will be able to access the AI generated briefings in their Viva Connections news feed.

This feature is on by default and requires no configuration.

What you can do to prepare

• No action is required. The rollout will be automatic.
• You may wish to inform licensed users about the new feature and its capabilities.

Compliance considerations

Starting October 31, 2025, Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) will transition the inline protection of sensitive text in Microsoft Edge for Business to a paid public preview as a pay-as-you-go capability using the In Transit Protection meter. This capability helps organizations detect and prevent data exfiltration to unsanctioned Generative AI apps in the browser such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and DeepSeek. 

This message is associated with Roadmap ID 486368.

Global rollout will begin in late October 2025 and is expected to complete by early November 2025.

Who is affected:

Organizations using Microsoft Purview Collection and DLP Policies to monitor and protect sensitive text shared via Microsoft Edge for Business to unmanaged cloud apps.

What will happen:

• Inline protection of sensitive text in Edge for Business will move to paid public preview using the In Transit Protection meter.
• Impacted policies:
  • Microsoft Purview Collection Policies
  • Microsoft Purview DLP Policies
• Impacted locations:
  • Unmanaged cloud apps collection and protection in the Edge browser
  • Currently includes text upload activities; additional browser-based activities may be added in future updates.
• To continue using this capability, organizations must link an Azure subscription for billing.
• If billing is not configured by October 31, 2025, inline protection for unmanaged apps in Edge will stop working.

• Set up billing in Azure DevOps: Manage billing for your organization

• Link your Azure subscription to Microsoft Purview: Enable Microsoft Purview pay-as-you-go features via subscription
• Inform your Data Loss Prevention and Finance administrators of this change.
• Use Purview Activity Explorer to estimate usage:
  • Filter by enforcement plane: browser to review relevant activities.
  • Use the Azure Pricing Calculator to estimate costs under the In Transit Protection meter.
  • Review Microsoft Purview pricing.

Learn more:

• Purview DLP Browser Policy Documentation
• Collection Policies Reference
• Service Description for Microsoft Purview  

For questions or feedback, please contact your Microsoft account representative or support team. 

[Compliance considerations:]

[Introduction]

We’re introducing custom site inclusion for Site Lifecycle Management (SLM) policies in SharePoint. This new capability gives you greater control over which sites are governed by SLM, enabling more precise and flexible retention strategies based on your organization’s needs.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): Available now

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected:

• Microsoft 365 admins managing SharePoint site lifecycle policies
• Organizations using Site Lifecycle Management (SLM) in SharePoint

What will happen:

• Admins can now upload a CSV file to define a custom scope of up to 10,000 SharePoint site URLs for SLM policy enforcement.
• Sites with existing retention policies or holds are automatically included in the scope.
• The inactivity period setting has moved from the Scope page to the Configuration page in both the policy creation wizard and the policy details panel.
• This feature is available by default and does not require additional configuration to enable.

[What you can do to prepare:]

Instructions for using custom site inclusion in SLM policies:

1. Upload a CSV file:
   • Use the new option to upload a CSV file containing up to 10,000 SharePoint site URLs to define the custom scope for policy execution.
   • Sites with retention policies and retention holds are automatically included in this scope.
2. CSV file requirements:
   • Ensure the file contains no duplicate URLs.
   • All URLs must be valid, complete, and belong to your tenant’s domain.
   • The file format must be CSV.
3. Policy wizard update:
   • The inactivity period selection has moved from the Scope page to the Configuration page in both the create policy wizard and the policy details panel.

Screenshot: Custom Inclusion of sites

Additional preparation steps:

• Notify your SharePoint and Microsoft 365 admins about this new capability.
• Update internal documentation to reflect the new policy configuration options.
• Prepare a CSV file with the list of SharePoint site URLs you want to include in your custom policy scope.

[Compliance considerations:]

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.

[Introduction]
Starting in early October, the Microsoft 365 Copilot app for Windows will introduce a new Update available button. This button will not block the app UI; users will be able to continue interacting with the app when the button appears. This update encourages users to use the latest version of the app—ensuring access to new features, performance improvements, and security updates—without disrupting their workflow.

[When this will happen:]
General Availability: Rollout begins in early October 2025 and completes by end of October 2025.

[How this affects your organization:]

• Who is affected: All users of the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on Windows.
• What will happen:
  • A new Update available button will appear in the bottom-left corner of the app’s navigation pane when a newer version is available.



• The button is non-blocking; users can continue using the app without interruption.
• Clicking the button opens a prompt with two options:
  • Update now: The app will close, install the update in the background, and relaunch with the latest version.
  • Update later: The app remains open in its current version, and the update button stays visible for future use.



• Once updated, the button disappears until a new version becomes available.
• No changes to app functionality or user settings are introduced with this update mechanism.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• Communicate this change to your users to avoid confusion.
• No admin action is required.
• For internal documentation, you may wish to note the new update behavior.

[Compliance considerations:]

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.

Updated September 18, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

[Introduction]

Agent in Viva Engage communities are now available in Public Preview. Community admins can add agents to communities to enhance knowledge sharing by drafting answers to questions without best or verified answers based on community content.

Shortly after public preview begins, we’ll be enhancing agents in communities with SharePoint grounding to improve the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated answers. This update allows the agent to use content from SharePoint sites that community members can access, helping ensure responses are contextually grounded and backed by trusted sources. Agents in communities will only draft answers with content that all community members have access to. You can set up your agent with before SharePoint grounding is available and add it later.

[When this will happen:]

• Agents in communities Public Preview: Begins September 18th, expected to be complete by late September
• SharePoint Grounding Public Preview (Worldwide): Begins late September 2025, expected to complete by early October 2025
• General Availability (Worldwide): Begins late January 2026, expected to complete by late February 2026

• Who is affected: Viva Engage community admins with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses; Global and Engage admins managing Viva Engage networks
• What will happen:
• During Public Preview:
• Admins can opt their network into the preview via the Engage admin center: Engage admin center > Tenant Settings > Enable Community Agent Public Preview.

Figure i. Add agent to community​

The agent will proactively draft answers to unanswered questions using past conversations.

By default, the agent posts answers automatically.

Admins can configure whether the agent posts answers automatically or only after approval.

Figure ii. Configure the agent to require answer review before posting​

If Require review is enabled, admins and designated experts will be notified when the agent drafts an answer. They can approve, edit, or dismiss the response.

Figure iii. Community admins and experts can review agent suggestions​

Coming soon (General Availability):

The agent will only use content that all community members can access.

Admins must be owners of the SharePoint sites they wish to configure.

Admins can add additional SharePoint sites to expand the agent’s grounding knowledge.

The agent will be grounded by default on the community’s SharePoint site.

All Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users will have access to the Community Agent by default.

The Community Agent Public Preview toggle will be retired.

• If participating in preview:
• Opt your network into the preview via the Engage admin center
• Communicate this change to helpdesk staff. 
• Update internal documentation that references Viva Engage Community Agent behavior or setup.
• No action is required at GA; the feature will be on by default.

Learn more: Set up and manage the agents in communities feature in Viva Engage

[Compliance considerations:]

We’re introducing Knowledge Agent, a built-in SharePoint capability that helps organizations prepare content for AI at scale. It unifies fragmented AI features into a single, context-aware interface that adapts to user roles and surfaces intelligent actions directly in the flow of work. This enhancement supports high-quality, trustworthy responses from Microsoft 365 Copilot and custom agents.

• Public Preview (Worldwide): Begins mid-September 2025; completes by late February 2026.

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected:

• Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license on tenants opted into Knowledge Agent preview.
• Admins managing SharePoint content and agents.

What will happen:

• A floating button will appear in the lower-right corner of SharePoint surfaces, launching a context-aware menu with intelligent actions.
• Role-based capabilities include:
  • Content managers can structure, tag, and enrich content using smart metadata and AI recommendations.
  • Site owners can identify stale pages, broken links, and content gaps.
  • Content creators can generate pages and documents using natural language prompts.
  • Collaborators and viewers can surface grounded insights via natural language chat.

Impact to SharePoint agents users:

• Ready-made SharePoint site agents are now exclusively available to customers licensed for Knowledge Agent. These agents are no longer accessible through the Microsoft 365 Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) billing model under the SharePoint agents meter.
• PAYG customers can still create custom-built, no-code SharePoint agents using the same SharePoint agents meter, but they will not have access to the ready-made site agents unless they meet the Knowledge Agent licensing requirements.
• The SharePoint ribbon icon has changed from the Copilot logo to a hexagon to indicate Knowledge Agent-enabled sites.
• Agent creation remains available via:
  • Site homepage
  • Agent chat pane
  • AI actions menu in the command bar of a document library
  • Content menu of selected file(s) in a document library

• Knowledge Agent Public Preview begins September 18, 2025.
• Learn more about opting into the preview: Get started with Knowledge Agent (preview).
• For tenants who have opted in, it is possible to opt out for specific sites.
• No setup is required for individual features.
• Learn more via the Knowledge Agent blog.

An agent for every channel: Teams channels provide an organized space for teams to manage workstreams and communicate with stakeholders. Now, each channel can have a dedicated agent that draws on its conversations and meetings to act as a domain expert for the team. These agents adopt the channel’s name and help with common tasks – for example, flagging important deadlines that are buried in conversations, summarizing progress with succinct status reports, assigning tasks and due dates, and answering questions asked in natural language like “What’s the latest on our budget?” You can even invite these agents into meetings when you need expert insights in the discussion.

• Status reporting: The agent can draft a status report for your project on your behalf. It pulls updates from channel conversations, meeting summaries, Planner boards, and announcements, organizing them into sections within the report. You can edit the draft directly in Teams before publishing it to the channel
• Providing answers: Instead of manually searching for information across posts and threads, simply ask the agent. It checks the channel’s conversations, meetings, and plans, and can also trigger a web search. Then it quickly compiles the insights, summarizes the information, and delivers a clear, actionable reply
• Planner integration: When a user assigns a task to another user via your channel’s agent, it creates a plan in Planner. Users can then ask the agent questions about the plan and the agent will keep them updated on the status of action items

Image 1 – Add an agent to a Teams channel:

Image 2 – Channel Agent participates in the conversation:

Limitations:

• Channel Agent may gather and share context that crosses information barriers.
• Channel Agent is best supported by English (US).
• Channel Agent is not supported in private channels.
• Channel Agent is not functional in channels that contain external or guest users.
• Channel Agent is not supported in tenants that use Customer Key.
• Processing data from previews can happen outside of the EU Data Boundaries

When this will happen:

• Public Preview: We will begin rolling out in mid-September 2025 and expect to complete by mid-October 2025.

How this affects your organization:

This new agent is available in public preview and customers are required to have the following licenses to access in public preview. Beyond preview access, additional licensing details will be communicated at general availability.

• An eligible Microsoft 365 base license.
  • For the list of eligible base licenses, see Understand licensing requirements for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
• Have an eligible Microsoft Teams license.
  • Teams licenses might be included in your Microsoft 365 subscription. If you have Microsoft 365 (no Teams) licenses, you need to purchase separate Teams licenses.
• Have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
  • For information on how to acquire Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, see Where can I get Microsoft Copilot?.

Channel Agent and Microsoft 365 are built on Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to security, compliance, and privacy. Learn more about Microsoft Purview: Use Microsoft Purview to manage data security & compliance for Channel Agent in Teams.

For existing Teams channels, users will need to manually add an agent in to use its capabilities. To add an agent to a channel, open the side panel through the “Agents and Bots” button in the upper right-hand corner of the channel. Once the side panel is open, you will see a banner to add an agent to this channel.

An agent will be automatically added to newly created channels. This means that for any new channel that an eligible user creates, an agent will be automatically added to the channel. If you would like to change this behavior, IT admins can choose to update this in Teams admin center.

Within Teams admin center, in the Teams apps section you will see a new page called Agent settings, where you can manage the configuration for the auto-creation feature. By default, auto-creation is enabled. It can be disabled by turning the toggle off. 

What you can 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.

The “Channel Agent” app will be turned on by default unless all apps are blocked by your organization. However, as an admin, you control whether Channel Agent will be available to your entire organization or to a certain group of users. For more information, refer to our admin documentation here.

To create Channel Agent, a user needs to be Copilot licensed, have the necessary admin permissions, and be an owner of the channel or have permissions to add/remove apps in the channel.

Documentation:

• Set up Channel Agent in Microsoft Teams
• Get started with Channel Agent in Microsoft Teams

Compliance considerations: