Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 23-10-2025

Updated October 22, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: We are excited to announce a new feature in Microsoft Teams that allows users to insert emojis in the compose box by typing a word surrounded by colons. For example, 🙂 will turn into the smiling face emoji. Users can soon add any emoji, including custom ones, for faster and easier personal expression.

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

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 369345.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

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

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out early December 2025 (previously late September) and expect to complete by mid-December 2025 (previously late September).

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2026 (previously early October) and expect to complete by late January 2026 (previously mid October).

[How this will affect your organization:]

This feature will be available by default.

Watch the video: Use colons to insert emojis (0:04 minutes)

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

Learn more: Send an emoji, GIF, or sticker in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)

Updated October 22, 2025: We have updated the content below with Power Automate templates to assist in this transition.

Microsoft is retiring the SharePoint Alerts feature to streamline and modernize user notifications. With Power Automate, organizations can benefit from an enhanced, versatile solution that goes beyond traditional alerts, offering seamless integration across Microsoft 365 services and more.

Key Points

• Major: Retirement
• Timeline:
  • Starting from July 2025, the creation of new SharePoint Alerts will be gradually turned off for newly onboarding tenants.
  • Starting from October 2025, the SharePoint Alert expiration feature will be gradually activated. Once activated, any SharePoint Alert will have a validity of 30 days starting from its first run, then it will expire. Users can self-service re-enable expired SharePoint Alerts and extend their expiration for another 30 days. Re-enabling and extending SharePoint Alerts can be done by using the “Manage my alerts” list/library menu item, opening the SharePoint Alert to update, extending its expiration date and clicking OK. For more details refer to this support article.
  • Starting from January 2026, the creation of new SharePoint Alerts will be gradually turned off for all tenants.
  • Starting July 2026, Microsoft will remove the ability to use SharePoint Alerts, existing SharePoint Alerts cannot be extended anymore and will not work anymore.
• Action: Review and assess impact

How this will affect your organization

If your organization still uses SharePoint Alerts, they will no longer function from July 2026 onwards. We recommend customers to port their SharePoint Alerts to the Power Automate platform or alternatively create a SharePoint Rule. To help you with the transition to Power Automate the following set of Power Automate templates can be used by either browsing https://make.powerautomate.com/templates and searching for the template name or alternatively using the links. Template names and links are in the table below.

What you need to do to prepare

It’s recommended to update your user training content and prepare your help desk to support your organization with this retirement. SharePoint Alerts users will be notified of this feature retirement via banners in both the relevant SharePoint Online page and Alert emails and users can self-service extend the alerts they deem required.

For admins:

• Optionally use the Microsoft 365 Assessment tool to scan your tenants for SharePoint Alerts.
• Review the documentation on using Power Automate with SharePoint Online.
• Review the documentation on using SharePoint Rules.
• Note: There will not be an option to extend SharePoint Alerts beyond July 2026.

Learn more:

• Detailed support article with additional resources.

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 with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses. 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 are Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed.
• 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 on a tenant opt-in basis to users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
• Learn more about opting into the preview: Get started with Knowledge Agent (preview). If you receive a command not recognized error running the commands , please review this article for additional troubleshooting.
• For tenants who have opted in, it is possible to opt out for specific sites.The ability to opt-in for certain types is coming in mid-to-late November.
• No setup is required for individual features.
• Learn more via the Knowledge Agent blog.

Updated October 22, 2025: We have updated the content below. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction:]

We’re updating Memory in Microsoft 365 Copilot to improve personalization and enhance the user experience. With this update, Copilot will personalize responses using chat history, helping users receive more relevant and contextual replies. We’re also introducing refreshed user controls in Copilot settings to make it easier to view and manage Saved Memory.

Control over personalization using chat history is also available, with details for users via the settings screen. 

[When this will happen:]

• Targeted Release: Begins rolling out early October 2025 and expected to complete by mid-October 2025.
• General Availability: Begins mid-October 2025 and expected to complete by late October 2025.

[How this affects your organization:]

All users of Microsoft 365 Copilot in tenants where Memory is enabled.

What will happen:

• Copilot will use chat history to personalize responses, making interactions more tailored and helpful:

 

• Users will see a redesigned Memory settings page that improves visibility and control over what Copilot remembers.
• Existing admin and user-level Memory settings are respected. If Memory is toggled off, it will remain off.
• No changes to admin controls or policy enforcement.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• Review the updated Memory settings experience with your users once available.
• No admin action is required unless you wish to update internal documentation or training materials.

Learn more:

• Enhanced personalization control overview | Microsoft Graph | Microsoft Learn 
• enhancedPersonalizationSetting resource type | Microsoft Graph | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations:]

Introduction

When this will happen:

How this affects your organization:

• Who is affected: Global and billing admins in SMEC and Enterprise environments who currently access the Purchase Services node in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. (Note: SMB customers already see Marketplace in this location.)
• What will happen:
  • The Purchase Services node will be retired.
  • A new Marketplace node will appear as a Level 1 (L1) item above Billing in the left-hand navigation.
  • This is a visual and navigational update only.
  • No changes to functionality, permissions, or user workflows.
  • The update will be applied by default; no admin action is required.

What you can do to prepare:

• Inform helpdesk or support teams of the updated navigation label and location.
• Update internal documentation if it references Purchase Services or its previous location.
• Review the Marketplace experience to ensure familiarity with the updated placement.
• Learn more: Microsoft 365 admin center – Overview – Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn (documentation will be updated closer to rollout)

Compliance considerations:

[Introduction]

To improve self-service capabilities and reduce support dependency, Microsoft has made the Remove-DkimSigningConfig cmdlet available to tenant administrators. This cmdlet enables admins to remove obsolete DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) signing configurations directly from Exchange Online PowerShell, helping clean up configurations when domains are removed from a tenant.

[When this will happen]

This feature is already enabled worldwide, including in special clouds. Rollout dates:

• Worldwide: June 6–10, 2025
• GCCHigh: August 6–12, 2025

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected: Tenant administrators managing DKIM configurations in Exchange Online with either the Transport Hygiene management role or the Security Administrator role in Entra ID.

What will happen:

• Admins can now run Remove-DkimSigningConfig directly using Exchange Online PowerShell (requires ExO v3.7 module).
• No escalation to Microsoft support is needed for DKIM cleanup.
• Obsolete DKIM configurations for removed domains can be self-managed.
• The cmdlet is available by default for eligible roles.
• This cmdlet does not replace any existing tools or processes; it introduces a new capability for tenant admins to manage DKIM cleanup independently.

[What you can do to prepare]

• Ensure you have the required role (Transport Hygiene or Security Administrator).
• Upgrade to Exchange Online PowerShell module v3.7.
• Use Connect-ExchangeOnline and run Remove-DkimSigningConfig as needed.
• Update internal documentation for DKIM management procedures.

Learn more: 

• Exchange Online PowerShell | Microsoft Learn
• Remove-DkimSigningConfig | antispam-antimalware | ExchangePowerShell | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations]

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

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 October 21st, 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

• How Windows 11 and AI are transforming the future of work 
• Making every Windows 11 PC an AI PC 
• Windows Insider Blog 
• Microsoft Ignite 

Updated October 22, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: Users will be able to automatically see their automapped calendars when toggling from classic Microsoft Outlook to new Outlook for Windows. This message applies to classic Outlook for Windows desktop and new Outlook for Windows desktop.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415168.

[When this will happen:]

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

General Availability: We will begin rolling out in early December 2025 (previously early November) and expect to complete by late December (previously late November).  

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, users were not able to see their automapped calendars when toggling from classic Outlook to new Outlook.

To access an automapped calendars, users can go to Microsoft Outlook > Calendar icon on left of screen > My Calendars > Automapped calendar.

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

Learn more

• The section called Use the shared calendar from the shared mailbox in Open and use a shared mailbox in Outlook – Microsoft Support
• Definition of automapping: Remove automapping for a shared mailbox – Outlook | Microsoft Learn

#newoutlookforwindows