Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 18-12-2025

Updated December 17, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Access to emails by typing ‘/’ in the prompt box will only be available when using Copilot Chat in Outlook. This applies to both the full app and side pane experience. Thank you for your patience.

We’re enhancing Copilot Chat for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license with new capabilities that make it easier for them to include work content—such as files and emails—in their prompts when using Chat in Web scope. By typing ‘/’ in the prompt box, users can quickly search and reference relevant files or emails, streamlining prompt creation and improving Copilot responses. Additionally, some suggested prompts beneath the input box will now include relevant files or emails to help users get started quickly.

Note: Web scope in Copilot Chat is still grounded only in the web. Users can also choose to include additional content in the prompt for Copilot to reason over, such as with the methods described above. Users must switch to Work scope to have Chat automatically grounded in content from their organization’s graph or their personal graph.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 500377.

When this will happen:

• Files: Currently available (Roadmap ID 497112)
• Emails: Rollout begins early October 2025 (previously mid-September) and completes by end of January 2026 (previously late November 2025).  Roadmap ID 500377.

[How this will affect your organization:]

This update improves usability and prompt relevance in Copilot Chat by allowing users to reference files and emails in their prompts (without uploading them manually) or as part of suggested prompts under the input box. Users will only see content they have access to, based on interaction signals (such as accessed, modified, or shared) and properties (such as creation or last update date).

No changes to default settings or user permissions are required.

What you can do to prepare:

No admin action is required. You may want to inform your users of these changes.

Learn more: Using Context IQ to refer to specific files, people, and more in Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat

Compliance considerations

Updated December 17, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Access to emails by typing ‘/’ in the prompt box will only be available when using Copilot Chat in Outlook. This applies to both the full app and side pane experience. Thank you for your patience.

We’re enhancing Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat with new capabilities that make it easier for users to include work content—such as files and emails—in their prompts. By typing ‘/’ in the prompt box, users can quickly search and reference relevant files or emails, streamlining prompt creation and improving Copilot responses. Additionally, some suggested prompts beneath the input box will now include relevant files or emails to help users get started quickly.

Note: For users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, Copilot Chat is still grounded only in the web. Users can also choose to include additional content in the prompt for Copilot to reason over, such as with the methods described above. Chat is not automatically grounded in the organization’s graph or the user’s personal graph – this is only available for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license when using Chat in Work scope.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 500377.

When this will happen:

• Files: Currently available (Roadmap ID 497112)
• Emails: Rollout begins early October 2025 (previously mid-September) and completes by end of January 2026 (previously late November 2025). Roadmap ID 500377.

How this affects your organization:

This update improves usability and prompt relevance in Copilot Chat by allowing users to reference files and emails in their prompts (without uploading them manually) or as part of suggested prompts under the input box. Users will only see content they have access to, based on interaction signals (such as accessed, modified, or shared) and properties (such as creation or last update date).

No changes to default settings or user permissions are required.

What you can do to prepare:

No admin action is required. You may want to inform your users about the new reference capabilities.

Learn more: Using Context IQ to refer to specific files, people, and more in Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat

Compliance considerations

Updated December 17, 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 mid-February 2026 (previously 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

Updated December 17, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Task management and document creation capabilities, previously in public preview, are now generally available. This is associated with Roadmap ID 500701.

Microsoft Purview compliance roadmap for these skills:

• eDiscovery for tasks captured in Teams Meetings will begin rolling out in January 2026, and Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) support for tasks will be introduced in the first half of 2026.
• Admins can turn off these capabilities by setting the AllowRosterCreation flag to false. Set-PlannerConfiguration -AllowRosterCreation$:$false

Introduction

Meetings should be more productive—not more work. The Facilitator agent is now generally available for Microsoft 365 Copilot-licensed users. This AI-powered agent helps keep meetings focused, organized, and action-oriented by surfacing agendas, tracking progress, and capturing key highlights in real time. It supports collaboration through a conversational interface and integrates with tools like Planner, Word, Loop, and Teams Rooms.

This rollout includes general availability for core meeting skills and public preview for task management and document creation capabilities.

This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Mac desktop, the web, iOS, Android, and Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) devices and is associated with Roadmap IDs 478611, 499891, and 500701.

• Preview: Began in March 2025 
• General availability: We will begin rolling out late September and expect to complete by end of January 26 (previously early October 2025).

Who is affected: Microsoft 365 users with Copilot licenses. Facilitator is included with a Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription license and subject to available capacity.

What will happen:

• Facilitator agent will be available for scheduled meetings and ad-hoc discussions
• The Facilitator option is available by default in the Teams meeting experience for licensed users, meaning it appears in the meeting interface if the app is allowed in your tenant. However, it is not added to meetings automatically—meeting organizers or participants must choose to enable it before or during each meeting.
• Facilitator is shipped as an app and is allowed by default, respecting existing app permission policies
• If the Facilitator app is allowed in your tenant, it will appear in the meeting UX automatically
• Users can enable Facilitator before or during meetings

Screenshot 1: Copilot License User can turn on Facilitator in meeting


Screenshot 2: Users can see messages from Facilitator and new agenda tracker on the meeting window



• Facilitator does not require recording and can be used with or without transcription
• Visual timeline markers to track topics and time, with reminders at midway and wrap-up
• Collaborative, real-time notes editable by all participants via the Notes tab
• AI-powered Q&A from meeting and web content
• Task tracking integrated with Planner
• Instant document drafting in Word or Loop
• Enhanced Teams Rooms experience with chat, notes, and timers
• Mobile capture of ad-hoc discussions and action items
• Licensed users can interact with the agent by mentioning it in the chat, for example “@Facilitator add these topics to the agenda…”
  What you can do to prepare:
• No admin action is required
• Notify Copilot-licensed users about Facilitator availability
• Update internal documentation as needed
• Review meeting options to configure Facilitator without transcription:
  • Set Allow Copilot to Only during the meeting in Meeting Options
• Public documentation will be available at launch

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

[Introduction:]

We’re introducing support for emojis in custom section names in Microsoft Teams. This update allows users to personalize and visually organize their workspace more expressively, aligning with familiar experiences from other collaboration platforms like Slack. Initially, this feature will be available on Teams for Desktop and Web, with support for Teams on Mobile coming next semester.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 503300.

[When this will happen:]

• Targeted Release: Rolling out early November 2025; expected completion by mid-November 2025.
• General Availability (Worldwide): Rolling out late November 2025; expected completion by end of December 2025 (previously end of November).

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected: All Microsoft Teams users across commercial and education tenants.

What will happen:

• Users will be able to insert emojis directly into custom section names in Teams:

 

• Emojis will appear in the left navigation pane, providing visual anchors for sections:

 

• This feature is ON by default and does not require admin configuration.
• No changes to existing admin policies or controls.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• No action is required to prepare.
• If desired, communicate this update to helpdesk staff to address potential user questions.
• Consider updating internal documentation if section naming conventions are referenced.

[Compliance considerations:]

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

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

Copilot in PowerPoint is getting smarter. Soon, users will be able to generate a compelling title, concise summary, or captions for visuals simply by describing what they want in natural language. Copilot will use the context of the slide to generate relevant text, helping users turn ideas into content quickly and efficiently.

Note: A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required to access this feature.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs: 513427.

General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin in mid-January 2026 (previously mid-December 2025) and is expected to complete by mid-February 2026 (previously late December 2025).

• Who is affected: Users of PowerPoint for Windows desktop, PowerPoint for Mac desktop, and PowerPoint Online Web.
• What will happen:
  • A new Copilot dropdown (pen icon) will appear for blank textboxes.
  • Editors will see a prompt box to enter instructions for generating text.
  • The feature will be on by default.

• No admin action is required before rollout.
• You may want to:
  • Notify users about this new capability.
  • Update internal documentation to reflect the change.

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

Copilot is making it easier to manage scheduling conflicts by automatically rescheduling 1:1 meetings and personal events. Within the meeting event form, users can indicate which events are more flexible and allow Copilot to reschedule them if conflicts arise. Users can also set preferences for when rescheduled events should occur. Copilot will detect double-bookings and automatically move these flexible events to a better time—saving users time and reducing manual coordination.

A Microsoft Copilot license is required to utilize this functionality.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: Rollout begins mid-November 2025 and expected to complete by mid-January 2026 (previously late December 2025).

[How this affects your organization:]

Copilot users will gain the ability to automatically resolve scheduling conflicts for 1:1 meetings and personal events. This feature is especially useful for users with recurring 1:1 series that do not need to occur at a specific time each week, helping automatically reschedule those meetings if a conflict arises. The feature is available for Copilot-licensed users and can be enabled through the meeting form.

Main form with new toggle control for automatic rescheduling:

Users can specify their rescheduling preferences (if not set, Copilot will pick intelligent defaults):

This post will be updated with a link to the support article once published.

[What you can do to prepare:]

No admin action is required. However, you may want to:

• Inform users about this new capability and how to set their rescheduling preferences in the meeting form.
• Review any internal guidance on calendar management or Copilot usage to ensure alignment.

[Compliance considerations:]

• Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed? Yes – Calendar data is used to identify and reschedule events.
• Does the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML or agent capabilities that interact with or provide access to customer data? Yes – Copilot uses AI to analyze and reschedule events.
• Does the change provide end users any new way of interacting with generative AI? Yes – Users interact with Copilot to manage scheduling.

Updated December 17, 2025: We have updated the document link. Thank you for your patience.

[Introduction]

We’re introducing a new pay-as-you-go (PAYG) experience in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (MAC). This update provides a centralized way to manage metered services such as Microsoft 365 Backup and Copilot under the Billing node.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability:

• Available to new Microsoft 365 Backup and all Copilot customers starting January 15, 2026 (previously December 15, 2025).
• Migration path for existing Backup customers will be announced later.

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected: Admins in Worldwide and GCC environments managing Microsoft 365 Backup and Copilot PAYG services.

What will happen:

• A new PAYG page will appear under the Billing node in MAC.
• Admins can create and manage billing policies directly in MAC.
• Services can be linked to billing policies, with support for departmental billing. Note: departmental billing for Backup customers will become available in Q1 2026.
• Budgets can be set, and notifications triggered when thresholds are met.
• Usage and spending can be viewed at the billing policy level.
• Subscriptions and resource groups can be created in MAC without navigating to Azure.
• PAYG setup for other services remains under Org Settings > PAYG until transitioned.
• Additional PAYG-enabled services will be added to the Billing node over time. Until then, the PAYG setup for other products (besides Backup) will continue to remain under Org Settings > PAYG.

[What you can do to prepare:]

No action is required.

Admins may decide to:

• Review the new PAYG page under Billing in MAC.
• Monitor announcements for migration timelines for existing Backup customers.
• Refer to Microsoft documentation for guidance on billing policies and budget notifications.

Learn more: Set up or disconnect pay-as-you-go billing for services in new billing node | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

[Compliance considerations:]

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

Updated December 17, 2025: We understand that implementing the current guidance involves considerable effort for administrators, and we are actively working to reduce this impact. We are exploring ways to make policy changes as seamless as possible, in close partnership with the Windows team.

Given this ongoing work, we recommend pausing any testing or configuration updates related to this feature. Updated instructions and revised guidance will be shared as part of the formal communication planned for January 2026.

Thank you for the valuable feedback we’ve received. We are currently reassessing the rollout timelines to ensure alignment with your needs and operational requirements. You can expect a formal update from us by mid to late January 2026.

[Introduction]

We’re improving the performance and startup time of calling features in the Microsoft Teams Desktop Client for Windows. To achieve this, we’re introducing a new child process named ms-teams_modulehost.exe that will handle the calling stack separately from the main application process (ms-teams.exe). This change optimizes resource usage and enhances meeting experiences.

Updated rollout timing will be announced in January 2026

Note: Timelines may shift due to year-end feature flag rollout freeze.

• Who is affected: All users running the Teams Desktop Client on Windows.
• What will happen:
  • A new process (ms-teams_modulehost.exe) will appear in Task Manager under the main Teams process (ms-teams.exe).
  • This process is dedicated to calling features and improves performance.
  • No changes to user workflows or UI; however, admins should ensure endpoint and security software allow this new process.

• Update endpoint management and security software to allowlist ms-teams_modulehost.exe alongside ms-teams.exe.
• Communicate this change to helpdesk staff to avoid confusion during troubleshooting.
• Update internal documentation if you reference Teams process names.
• Make sure the same QoS settings applied to ms-teams.exe are also applied to ms-teams_modulehost.exe. Refer to this page for details: Implement Quality of Service (QoS) in Microsoft Teams
  • DO NOT remove QoS settings of ms-teams.exe. Only add QoS settings for ms-teams_modulehost.exe.

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

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

[Introduction]

We’re introducing a new capability in Microsoft 365 Copilot chat that allows users to RSVP to meetings directly within the chat experience. This enhancement simplifies meeting management by enabling quick responses such as Accept, Decline, Tentative, Follow, or Remove canceled meetings—all without leaving Copilot chat.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC and DoD): Rollout will begin early January 2026 (previously mid-December 2025) and is expected to complete by end of January 2026 (previously late December 2025).

• Who is affected: Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
• What will happen:
  • Users can RSVP to meetings directly from Copilot chat:

  

  • Supported actions include Accept, Decline, Tentative, Follow, and Remove canceled meetings: 

  

  • This feature will be ON by default for all tenants.
  • No admin configuration is required; existing policies remain unchanged.

• No action is required from admins.
• Communicate this new capability to your helpdesk or end users if needed.

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

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

Introduction

Microsoft 365 Copilot makes PDF reviews faster and easier. It explains selected text in plain language and lets you customize prompts for tailored results, so you spend less time switching between apps.

When this will happen

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out in early January 2026 (previously mid-December 2025) and expect to complete by late January 2026.

How this will affect your organization

The Copilot context menu provides quick access to actions that reduce PDF review time. Two options are available:

• Explain this (default): Instantly explains selected text in plain language.
• Custom prompt: Add your own prompt for tailored results—no need to switch apps.

For OneDrive for work users, the Copilot context menu is available for PDFs in OneDrive web.

Steps to use the Copilot context menu in OneDrive web:

1. Go to https://onedrive.com and sign in with your work account.
2. Select the PDF you want to review.
3. Highlight any text in the PDF. The context menu will display Explain this. Press Enter for a plain-language explanation. 



4. To customize, type your own prompt in the input field and press Enter for tailored results. 

Licensing requirements

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

What you need to do to prepare

No action is required at this time.

Note: Some users may see this feature before others in your organization.

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 December 16th, 2025 (PST).

[How this will affect your organization:]

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

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

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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

• Current Channel

[Introduction]

Empower your organization with proactive governance. The new site attestation policy ensures that site owners regularly validate critical details like ownership, membership, and sharing settings. By automating periodic reviews and enforcement actions, this policy helps reduce compliance risks, prevent oversharing, and maintain a secure, well-governed SharePoint Online experience.

[When this will happen:]

This feature is now generally available to all customers.

[How this will affect your organization:]

• Who is affected: SharePoint administrators and site owners.
• What will happen:
  • SharePoint admins can enable site attestation policy in the SharePoint Admin Center.
  • Site owners will receive periodic prompts to confirm site details such as ownership, membership, and sharing settings.
  • Enforcement actions (such as restricting access or archiving) can be configured if attestations are not completed.
  • The feature is off by default and requires admin configuration.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• Notify your SharePoint administrators about the new policy.
• Update internal documentation and workflows to account for this capability.
• Review governance policies and determine enforcement actions for non-compliance.

Learn more: Request recurring site attestations for SharePoint sites

[Compliance considerations:]

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

We’re introducing cross-tenant group synchronization, a new capability that enables organizations to synchronize security groups across Microsoft Entra tenants. This feature simplifies collaboration scenarios by allowing shared access to resources across tenants while maintaining centralized group management. It also streamlines administration of multiple tenants by centralizing group membership control, reducing duplication and manual overhead.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 518221.

• Public Preview: Rollout begins in late January 2026 and completes by late January 2026.
• General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): Rollout begins in late April 2026 and completes by late April 2026.

• Who is affected: Admins managing Microsoft Entra tenants who want to enable cross-tenant group synchronization.
• What will happen:
  • No impact unless you opt in during Public Preview.
  • Admins can enable synchronization by updating attribute mappings.
  • Cross-tenant access policies in the target tenant must allow group synchronization.

• Identify groups that require synchronization into other tenants.
• Collaborate with admins of other tenants to align on supported scenarios and business processes.
• Review and update attribute mappings and cross-tenant access policies as needed.

Learn more: Configure cross-tenant synchronization – Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn

No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.

We’re introducing support for deploying Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to specific macOS devices or device groups. This enhancement provides more granular control for organizations managing data protection on Mac endpoints.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 526792.

General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin in late December 2025 and is expected to complete by early January 2026.

• Who is affected: Admins managing Endpoint DLP policies for macOS devices.
• What will happen:
  • You can scope Endpoint DLP policies to specific macOS devices or device groups.

  

  • This feature is available for tenants running version 101.25072 or higher.
  • No changes to existing policies unless you choose to configure device-based scoping.

• Ensure your environment is updated to version 101.25072 or higher.
• Review your Endpoint DLP policy configurations to determine if device-level scoping is needed.
• Communicate this change to your security and compliance teams.

No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.

[Introduction]

To simplify cross-tenant migrations, we’re introducing a unified interface that enables administrators to move user data—including Exchange mailboxes, OneDrive files, and Teams chats and meetings—across Microsoft 365 tenants. This streamlines migration workflows and supports seamless collaboration during organizational transitions.

[When this will happen:]

• Public Preview (Worldwide): Begins early December 2025.

[How this affects your organization:]

• Who is affected: Admins managing Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migrations; organizations planning mergers, acquisitions, or restructuring.
• What will happen:
  • A new set of PowerShell Graph commands will be available to migrate Exchange mailboxes, OneDrive content, and Teams chats and meetings across tenants.
  • The feature is opt-in; no changes will occur unless enabled by your organization.
  • Migration workflows are consolidated into a single experience, reducing complexity.
  • Admins can initiate and monitor migrations from a centralized location.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• No action is required unless your organization chooses to use the feature.
• If planning a migration:
  • Review internal migration policies and timelines.
  • Communicate availability of this feature to IT and helpdesk teams.

Learn more: Migration orchestrator overview – Microsoft 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations:]

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

• Evaluation criteria: Supervisors create a form with questions, answer choices, scoring metrics, and instructions for Quality Evaluation Automation. Quality Evaluation Agent uses these criteria to assess interactions and generate responses and assign quality scores. Supervisors get insights into the overall contact center conversation quality.
• Evaluation plan: Supervisors set up plans that define when to evaluate interactions. They select interactions based on conditions and apply the right evaluation criteria to conduct evaluations.

[Introduction]

New Outlook for Windows will support Wait on Send for Oversharing, allowing admins to block email sending if Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy evaluation is not completed for labeled or sensitive content. The new experience allows for multi-tasking and does not block the user from using New Outlook even when mail is in evaluation.

The wait-on-send experience is controlled through Exchange mailbox parameters:

• DLPWaitOnSendEnabled – Boolean (true or false), Default: false
• DLPWaitOnSendTimeout – Integer (0–10000 seconds), Default: 9999

Specifies how long Outlook waits for the DLP evaluation to finish before offering an override.

Example: If the value is set to 25 seconds, Outlook will wait up to 25 seconds for the evaluation to complete before allowing the user to override and send the email without waiting for the evaluation to finish.

Note: This does not stop the evaluation after the set time. It simply allows the user to override while the evaluation continues. If the user prefers, they can wait until the evaluation is fully completed.

– When DLPWaitOnSendTimeout = 0, user will immediately see “Send Anyway” in the info bar of mail. 

– When DLPWaitOnSendTimeout >= 9999, user will never be allowed to send the email without DLP evaluation getting completed. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 498920.

[When this will happen]

• General Availability (Worldwide): Early January 2026 – Late January 2026
• General Availability (GCC): Early January 2026 – Early March 2026

[How this affects your organization]

• Who is affected: Admins managing New Outlook for Windows users.
• What will happen:
  • New Outlook will support Wait on Send for DLP evaluation.
  • Feature is disabled by default; admins must enable it via Exchange mailbox settings.
  • Users can continue working while mail is under evaluation.
  • Override behavior depends on DLPWaitOnSendTimeout configuration.

[What you can do to prepare]

• No action required unless you want to enable this feature.
• To enable, configure Exchange Online mailbox policy settings: Set-OrganizationConfig | ExchangePowerShell | Microsoft Learn

Learn more: Wait on Send dialog support for Oversharing for Outlook for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations]

No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.

[Introduction]

SharePoint admins can now customize the emails sent from Data Access Governance reports to site owners and admins for site access reviews. Customizing email content helps improve the read-through rate of these emails, which can lead to faster responses and better governance across the tenant.

[When this will happen]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCCH, DoD): We will begin rolling out in mid-December 2025 and expect to complete by mid-January 2026.

[How this affects your organization]

• Who is affected: SharePoint Online admins managing Data Access Governance reports
• What will happen:
  • Admins can customize email content sent to site owners/admins during site access reviews.
  • This feature is designed to improve engagement and response rates.
  • No changes to existing policies; customization is optional.

[What you need to do to prepare]

• Notify your SharePoint administrators about the ability to customize emails from Data Access Governance reports. 
• Update internal documentation and workflows to reflect this change.
• Review Microsoft documentation for guidance on customizing email templates.

Learn more: Customize email to site owners – Initiate site access reviews for Data access governance reports | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations]

No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.

Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors enable your organization to bring content from third-party systems into Microsoft 365 so that Copilot can reason over it, ground responses, and improve knowledge discovery. With connectors, your users can search, retrieve, summarize, and interact with enterprise data—no matter where it resides.

We are pleased to announce the general availability (GA) of nine new Microsoft 365 connectors across engineering systems, knowledge bases, cloud storage, and service platforms. These connectors have completed all quality, reliability, security, and documentation requirements, and are now fully supported for production use.

The following connectors are now GA:

• GitHub Cloud – Knowledge Base
• GitHub Cloud – Issues
• GitHub Cloud – Pull Requests
• Freshservice (solution articles)
• Guru (knowledge cards)
• Dropbox (files)
• Google Drive (files)
• Zendesk Help Center (articles)
• Amazon S3 (files & objects)

These releases represent a major milestone in expanding the Copilot extensibility ecosystem and enabling organizations to unlock high-value knowledge trapped in external systems.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 513282.

General availability is effective immediately.

Who is affected: Admins managing Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors and users leveraging Copilot for external content.

What will happen:

• Organizations can deploy nine new GA connectors for Copilot.
• End users will be able to:
  • Use Copilot to reason over engineering knowledge, tickets, help-center content, files, and cloud object stores.
  • Ask domain-specific questions grounded in indexed content.
  • Search connected content through Microsoft Search surfaces such as Copilot Search, SharePoint, Bing, Windows Search, and Microsoft 365 apps.
• Existing preview participants do not need to take any action; their connections will continue under GA.

• Review connector documentation for setup guidance and capabilities.
• Ensure required authentication and permissions are configured.
• Plan indexing scopes to optimize grounding quality in Copilot.
• Optionally run pilot deployments within selected departments before broader rollout.

Learn more: Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors overview | Microsoft Learn

No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.

Updated December 17, 2025: After further review we have decided not to proceed with this change at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Coming soon to new Microsoft Outlook: Users will be able to share Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint files stored on their device (not stored in a cloud like Microsoft OneDrive) from new Outlook for Windows.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 397094.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, users are only able to see old Outlook for Windows when they try to share a Word, Excel or PowerPoint fie.

After this rollout, when users want to share a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file that is saved to their device (not stored in a cloud like Microsoft OneDrive), the user can right-click the file name in File Explorer, select Share, and select new Outlook for Windows to email the file.

This option 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.

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

Coming soon for Microsoft Purview | Data Lifecycle Management: Admins will be able to apply a retention policy or retention label in Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft SharePoint for files that have not been accessed by anyone in your organization for a specified period of time. This message applies to retention for Microsoft 365 file types. We will support other file types (non-Microsoft 365) in a future rollout.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 472030.

[When this will happen:]

Preview: We will begin rolling out late May 2026 (previously late January) and expect to complete by late June 2026 (previously late February)

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late June 2026 (previously mid-January 2026) and expect to complete by late July 2026 (previously mid-July)

[How this will affect your organization:]

This feature will help delete obsolete data, which will improve the quality and relevance of Microsoft 365 Copilot responses.

This feature will be available by default.

After the rollout, admins can use the retention control When items were last accessed when configuring labels and policies.

Retention settings page in Purview with the new “last accessed” option for retention policies:

[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.

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