Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 04-03-2026

Updated March 3, 2026: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 

We’re excited to announce that we are making Copilot Chat available as a side-by-side experience in Teams. This will help users access the power of M365 and Web data in addition to current capabilities of Copilot in Chats, Channels, Calling, and Meeting. On Teams desktop (Windows and Mac) and web, users can open Copilot Chat from the Copilot icon located on the top right corner in these surfaces. Copilot Chat will be available in Teams for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. 

This change is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 501107

Screenshot: Copilot Chat in Teams (Windows desktop) for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. UI elements subject to change. 

[When this will happen:]

Chats, Channels, and Post Meeting + Calling Recaps:

• Public Preview: Rollout of this change starts in early October and completes in the weeks following.
• General Availability: Rollout of this change starts mid-November and completes in the weeks following.

In-Meeting and in-Calls:

• Public Preview: Rollout of this change starts in early December and completes in the weeks following.
• General Availability: Rollout of this change starts mid-January and completes by early March 2026. 

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected: Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license using Teams on Windows desktop, Mac desktop, or web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari).

What will happen:

• You can now create new Copilot Chat sessions or access other sessions within any conversation window. When you reopen Copilot Chat, it will always default back to the latest used session that was within the conversation window.
• Upon completion of the migration, all prior Copilot history will not be migrated into the new Copilot Chat experience. However, you can still access prior history by clicking on the More Options menu (…) located on the top right corner of your conversation window. An entry point to access history will be available within the More Options menu (…) of channel thread summaries as well. Within the menu, you find and select the View Copilot history option to access prior history.
• In-Meeting: A new in‑meeting control lets users stop Teams from processing spoken audio during a meeting. When this control is on, Teams stops processing spoken audio — including transcription and recording — and Copilot will not use or reference anything said during this time. If Facilitator is active, it will also be turned off. Users will also be prevented from restarting recording, transcription, or Facilitator while this control is in effect.
• After the meeting: Copilot and Facilitator will only have access to recordings or transcripts from periods when audio processing was active.

Supported Platforms

Web 

• Chrome 
• Edge 
• Firefox 
• Safari 

Desktop 

• Windows 
• Mac 

[What you can do to prepare:]

Admin action required

To ensure Microsoft Copilot is available in Teams meetings, tenant administrators must allow the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

If the Microsoft 365 Copilot app is not allowed at the tenant level, users may not see the Copilot entry point in Teams meetings, even when Copilot licenses are assigned.

Admins should review Teams app permission and app setup policies to confirm that the Microsoft 365 Copilot app is allowed for the intended users. Copilot availability in Teams meetings depends on both licensing and app enablement.

For more information, see the public documentation on managing Copilot access: https://learn.microsoft.com/copilot/manage

[Compliance considerations:]

Updated March 3, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

[Introduction]

To help users better prepare for upcoming meetings, Microsoft is enhancing the Up Next card experience in Microsoft 365. A new Prepare button will replace the Join button up to 5 minutes before a meeting starts, offering a one-tap way to access Copilot’s meeting preparation tools. This update supports improved productivity and readiness, aligning with feedback for more proactive meeting support.

Screenshot 1: Tap Prepare in Up Next.

Screenshot 2: Users can prepare with Copilot Chat.

[When this will happen:]

• General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): Rollout begins April 2026 (previously March) and is expected to complete by end of April 2026 (previously end of March).

[How this affects your organization:]

• Who is affected: Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot Premium license.
• What will happen:
  • The Up Next card will display a Prepare button instead of Join until 5 minutes before a meeting.
  • This button provides quick access to Copilot’s meeting preparation features.
  • No changes to admin settings or policies are required.
  • The feature is enabled by default for eligible users.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• No admin action is required at this time.
• You may wish to:
  • Inform helpdesk and support teams of the upcoming change.
  • Share this support article with users: Prepare for your meeting with Copilot
  • Update internal documentation if you reference the Up Next card or meeting workflows.

[Compliance considerations:]

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

Updated March 3, 2026: Rollout of Anthropic models in the Researcher agent is ongoing through March. We expect the deployment to reach full completion by the end of the month. During this phased rollout, the Anthropic option in Researcher may not yet be visible in all tenants; the existing Researcher functionality remains unchanged. We will provide another update in this post when rollout to Researcher is complete. 

Use Claude with Researcher in Microsoft 365 Copilot

[Introduction:]

In September, Anthropic models became available in certain Copilot experiences through an opt-in setting, where use was subject to Anthropic’s commercial terms and data processing agreement. On January 7, 2026, Anthropic models will be enabled by default for many customers and now offered under the Microsoft Product Terms and Data Protection Addendum. To enable this change, Anthropic has been onboarded as a Microsoft subprocessor. This transition extends Microsoft’s contractual commitments and data protection standards to the use of Anthropic models in Copilot experiences.

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected:

• Admins managing Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot Studio.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed customers participating in select Frontier features such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Researcher agents, as well as Agent Mode in Excel.

Key changes

• Dec 8, 2025: New admin toggle for Anthropic models appears in the Microsoft 365 admin center (MAC). For most commerical cloud customers, it will be enabled ON by default (except customers in EU/EFTA and UK will be OFF by default). See “customer and region exclusions” section below for more details.
• January 7, 2026: Anthropic as a Microsoft subprocessor becomes enabled on your tenant; the legacy admin toggle to opt-in to Anthropic’s commercial terms and data processing agreement is deprecated.
  • If you previously opted in to the legacy Anthropic toggle, and you’re in an excluded region, you would need to opt in to the new subprocessor toggle.
• Admins can opt out in MAC now – no need to wait until January.

Some features are only available when Anthropic models are enabled. If you turn off this option, certain features may no longer be accessible.

Customer and region exclusions:

The following customers and regions will not have the toggle set to default on:

• Customer tenants in EU/EFTA and UK: The toggle will be set to default off. You will need to opt in to use Anthropic models as a subprocessor.
• Government clouds (GCC, GCC High, DoD) or sovereign clouds: Anthropic models are not yet available in government or sovereign clouds. No toggle will be present for those clouds.

What does it mean that Anthropic is now a Microsoft subprocessor?

As a subprocessor for Copilot experiences, Anthropic will operate under Microsoft’s direction and contractual safeguards. This includes coverage under the Microsoft Data Protection Addendum (DPA) and Product Terms. In addition, use of Anthropic models in Microsoft 365 Copilot falls under our Enterprise Data Protection as described here. Note that Anthropic models are currently excluded from EU Data Boundary and when applicable, in-country processing commitments. 

Learn more:

• Integrate and manage Anthropic’s AI models in Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Enterprise data protection in Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
• Use Claude with Researcher in Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Get started with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Agents (Frontier) in Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Choose an external model as the primary AI model – Microsoft Copilot Studio

Updated March 3, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

Microsoft is introducing a unified plus (+) menu to make it easier for users to add grounding, tools, and sources when prompting in Microsoft 365 Copilot. Grounding refers to the content users connect to Copilot—such as files, sites, or other organizational data—that helps improve response relevance. This update consolidates related actions into a single menu, improving discoverability and streamlining the workflow for adding entities or updating inputs. This simplified menu will be available for Copilot Chat users (without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license) and Microsoft 365 Copilot users (with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license).

Note: The Tools menu will be consolidated under the unified plus (+) menu and no longer exist as a separate menu in the prompt box after this change.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout begins in early March 2026 (previously late February) and is expected to complete by mid-April 2026 (previously mid‑March).

[How this affects your organization:]

  Who is affected:

  Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot users that rely on the unified plus (+) menu.

  What will happen:

• Users will see a redesigned and unified plus (+) menu.
• Grounding options, tools, and data sources will be consolidated in one menu.
• Users will be able to add entities and update sources from this unified location.
• The feature will be enabled by default and replaces the current experience; no admin configuration is required.
• Existing admin policies related to Copilot input sources remain unchanged.

[What you can do to prepare:]

No action is required for administrators.

• Inform helpdesk and training teams about the unified plus (+) menu layout.
• Update internal documentation or screenshots that reference the previous menu.

[Compliance considerations:]

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

Updated March 3, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

Introduction

Model Context Protocol (MCP) based agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat will now be able to surface rich, interactive UI widgets directly within chat. This enhancement enables developers to deliver more engaging and structured agent interactions. Users will experience these widgets when interacting with agents that implement them, and admins will continue to manage these agents through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

Screenshot 1: Rich in-line widgets in Copilot

When this will happen:

• WW rollout will begin late February 2026 and is expected to complete by early March 2026.

How this affects your organization:

Who is affected:

• Organizations using Microsoft Copilot agents.
• Administrators responsible for agent governance and controls.

What will happen:

• MCP-based agents can now display rich interactive UI widgets in Copilot Chat.
• Widgets provide more guided, visual, and structured interactions.
• Admins can deploy agents from the Agent Store or through custom MCP packages.
• Existing Copilot extensibility controls remain unchanged.
• Access to agents can continue to be scoped via Entra ID groups.
• This functionality is enabled by default for agents that implement widgets.

What you can do to prepare:

No action is required.

• Optionally review the Agents catalog for alignment with internal policies.
• Review existing Copilot and agent governance controls.
• Update internal documentation as needed.

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

Compliance considerations:

Updated March 3, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

Consecutive Interpretation is a new interpretation mode available as an add‑on to the existing Interpreter agent in Microsoft Teams. It enables structured multilingual conversations in meetings by providing shared, meeting‑level interpretation when enabled by a Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed user.

This mode uses consecutive (turn‑by‑turn) interpretation, meaning participants speak one at a time and each speaker’s words are interpreted before the next speaker begins. This structured flow reduces overlap, improves interpretation accuracy, and helps everyone stay aligned in real time.

Consecutive Interpretation is ideal for back‑and‑forth, interactive discussions where participants need to respond, clarify, and build on each other’s input across languages, such as working sessions, negotiations, and cross‑functional collaboration.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 557180.

[When this will happen]

• Targeted Release: Rollout begins in early April 2026 (previously early March) and is expected to complete by mid-April 2026 (previously mid‑March).
• General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout begins in late April 2026 and is expected to complete by early May 2026.

[How this will affect your organization]

Who is affected

• All Microsoft 365 tenants using Microsoft Teams meetings where users are licensed with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

What will happen

• For tenants
  • The new Consecutive Interpretation mode extends the existing Interpreter agent to support structured, interactive multilingual meetings.
  • The existing Interpreter experience remains unchanged unless this new mode is enabled.
• For admins
• No new tenant‑level configuration is required.
• The feature is available to all users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
• Existing compliance, privacy, and data‑handling policies for Interpreter continue to apply.
• For users
• When a Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed user enables the mode, interpretation becomes a shared meeting‑level experience rather than an individual setting.
• Participants speak consecutively, with each turn interpreted and delivered before the next participant begins.

[What you need to do to prepare]

• No action is required to maintain current behavior.
• Ensure any users who intend to use this mode have an active Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
• Consider providing guidance to users about when this mode is best suited (for example, working sessions, negotiations, or detailed multilingual collaboration).

[Compliance considerations]

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

Your Microsoft Intune account has been updated to the latest service build.

[How this will affect your organization:]

You will see the service release number updated in the Tenant Status blade of the Intune admin center soon. We have introduced some changes that we are excited for you to try out.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Review the additional information below to learn more about what’s new in this service release. We will continue to update the What’s new page with any features that are released between now and the next monthly service update. Learn more by reviewing features highlighted in the latest Intune What’s new 2602 (February) blog and how the Intune service updates each month is described in the Microsoft Intune service updates blog.

[Additional Information:]

Intune What’s new

Staying up to date on Intune new features, service changes, and service health

[Introduction]

To help organizations reduce the risk of unintended long-term access to internal content, Microsoft is introducing expiration policies for “People in your organization” sharing links in SharePoint and OneDrive. This update enables administrators to automatically expire these sharing links after a defined period, supporting stronger data governance and minimizing exposure from stale links. Admins can configure maximum and recommended expiration timeframes separately for SharePoint sites and OneDrive, aligning link behavior with organizational security and compliance requirements.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 553220.

[When this will happen]

• General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out on mid-March 2026 and expect to complete by late May 2026.
• General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out on mid-March 2026 and expect to complete by late June 2026.

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected:

• SharePoint and OneDrive administrators
• Users who create “People in your organization” sharing links

What will happen:

• By default, no behavior changes occur. “People in your organization” links continue to have no expiration unless an admin configures a policy.
• Admins can set tenant-wide maximum expiration periods for these links, separately for:
  • SharePoint sites
  • OneDrive
• Admins can also set recommended expiration values that appear as the default suggestion when users create sharing links.
• Site-level overrides allow different expiration settings for specific SharePoint sites or OneDrive accounts when needed.
• Only links created after the policy is applied will automatically expire based on the configured timeframe.
• Existing links are not retroactively modified, though expiration will be applied on these links when a user uses them after the policy rolls out.

[What you can do to prepare]

No action is required if you want to keep the current behavior.

If you plan to use this feature, consider the following steps:

• Review governance requirements and determine appropriate expiration timeframes (for example, 30, 90, or 180 days).
• Configure tenant-wide maximum expiration values using the SharePoint Online Management Shell:
  • Set-SPOTenant -CoreOrganizationSharingLinkMaxExpirationInDays <days> (SharePoint sites)
  • Set-SPOTenant -OneDriveOrganizationSharingLinkMaxExpirationInDays <days> (OneDrive)
• Configure recommended expiration values that appear as default suggestions for users:
  • Set-SPOTenant -CoreOrganizationSharingLinkRecommendedExpirationInDays <days> (SharePoint sites)
  • Set-SPOTenant -OneDriveOrganizationSharingLinkRecommendedExpirationInDays <days> (OneDrive)
• Override tenant policies for specific sites or OneDrive accounts, if required:
  • Set-SPOSite -Identity <URL> -OverrideTenantOrganizationSharingLinkExpirationPolicy $true
  • Then set:
  • OrganizationSharingLinkMaxExpirationInDays <days>
  • OrganizationSharingLinkRecommendedExpirationInDays <days>
• Communicate the change to users and helpdesk teams so they understand why internal sharing links may stop working after a set period.
• Update internal documentation related to sharing and access governance.

Learn more

• Set-SPOTenant (Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell) (will be updated before rollout)
• Set-SPOSite (Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell) (will be updated before rollout)

[Compliance considerations]

Introduction

We are introducing license-based management updates for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android (MTRA) and other Android-based Teams devices that are synced to the Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal through Device Management (DM) services.

This update aligns management portal capabilities with existing Teams Rooms license entitlements (Basic, Standard, and Pro). By enforcing license boundaries in the portal, this change provides clearer expectations for inventory visibility versus advanced monitoring and management features, while maintaining the current in-room meeting experience.

These changes apply only to Android devices currently synced from DM services. Internet of Things (IoT)–based Android management convergence is still in progress and is not yet Generally Available.

When this will happen

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): Rollout will begin in early March 2026 and is expected to complete by late March 2026.

How this affects your organization

Who is affected

• Admins managing Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android or other Android-based Teams devices
• Devices synced to the Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal via DM services
• Tenants using Teams Rooms Basic, Standard, or Pro licenses for Android devices

What will happen

• There is no change to the in-room Teams meeting experience.
• The update affects only the admin experience in the Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal.
• Portal features will reflect the license assigned to each Android device:
• Teams Rooms Pro (Android)
• Full advanced monitoring and management capabilities remain available.
• Teams Rooms Standard (Android)
  • Device inventory metadata (such as firmware and app versions) remains visible.
  • Advanced management and diagnostic features are restricted and may display upgrade prompts where applicable.
• Teams Rooms Basic (Android)
  • Devices remain visible in Rooms and Inventory views
  • Advanced monitoring and configuration features are not available

What you can do to prepare

• Review license assignments for Android-based Teams Rooms devices
• Ensure devices requiring advanced management are licensed with Teams Rooms Pro
• No action is required unless you plan to upgrade licenses

Compliance considerations

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

[Introduction]

To help reduce Windows file path length issues and improve the local file system experience, IT admins can now set a custom name for the local OneDrive sync root folder on users’ Windows devices using the policy Set a custom name for the OneDrive sync folder with the String ID CustomSyncRootFolderName. Today, the default folder name (“OneDrive – (organization name)”) can contribute to path length constraints in deeply nested folder structures. This new policy allows organizations to define a shorter, organization-specific folder name while keeping the OneDrive experience consistent for users.

Screenshot: Configure group policy by opening the relevant group policy in the Local Group Policy Editor application

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out in mid-March 2026 and expect to complete by early April 2026.

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected:

• Microsoft 365 tenants using OneDrive sync on Windows devices
• Admins managing OneDrive sync policies
• Users setting up OneDrive sync on Windows and existing users who use OneDrive sync on Windows

What will happen:

• Admins can configure a custom local OneDrive sync root folder name using the new policy.
• New users will automatically see the custom folder name when they set up OneDrive sync.
• Existing users must unlink and relink their OneDrive account for the new folder name to take effect. Learn more: Unlink and re-link OneDrive | Microsoft Support.
• We recommend that existing users delete the original OneDrive folder after relinking to avoid confusion.
• The display name shown in File Explorer’s navigation pane and the OneDrive Activity Center remains unchanged (for example, “OneDrive – (organization name)”).
• This feature is opt-in and requires admin configuration; it is not enabled by default.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• Determine whether a shorter OneDrive sync folder name would benefit your organization.
• Select a custom folder name that meets the following requirements:
  • Must contain at least one character.
  • Cannot be named “OneDrive.”
  • The full folder path must not exceed 120 characters.
  • Standard Windows folder naming rules apply.
• Plan communications for existing users who will need to unlink and relink OneDrive sync.
• Update internal documentation and helpdesk guidance as needed.

Learn more: IT Admins – Use OneDrive policies to control sync settings – SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations:]

[Introduction]

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management is introducing a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) billing model for the Other AI apps category within Generative AI apps indicators. This update provides a more flexible, consumption-based pricing model aligned with how organizations use AI workloads.

Microsoft Copilot–related indicators will continue to be available based on existing license and not moving to pay-as-you-go (PAYG) billing model 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 557548.

[When this will happen]

• General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in early April 2026 and expect to complete in April 2026.

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected:

• Insider Risk Management administrators using Generative AI apps → Other AI apps indicators.
• Organizations that use AI applications beyond Microsoft Copilot and process insider risk signals from those apps.

What will happen:

• Other AI apps indicators will transition to a PAYG model.
  • Billing begins April 1, 2026.
  • Charges are based on the number of user activities processed for these indicators.
• Microsoft Copilot experiences indicators remain license-based and will continue working even without an Azure subscription.
• If there is an active subscription, then billing will automatically happen based on indicator usage in the policy
• To continue using Other AI apps indicators:
  • An Azure subscription must be linked to Microsoft Purview for billing enablement.
• The following indicator will move to the PAYG model:
  • “Entering risky prompt in Other AI apps” under Policy indicators → Generative AI apps → Other AI apps.
• No change to policy configuration workflows or existing permissions.
• No user impact unless organizations choose to onboard AI activity signals through PAYG indicators.

[What you can do to prepare]

• Link an Azure subscription to Microsoft Purview to enable PAYG billing. Learn more: Enable Microsoft Purview pay-as-you-go features for new customers | Microsoft Learn
• Review Insider Risk Management settings in the new Microsoft Purview portal to opt in to the updated indicators.
• Notify your security and compliance teams of the upcoming billing change.
• Update internal documentation to reflect the new indicator model.
• For background: Learn about Microsoft Purview billing models | Microsoft Learn

This rollout will occur automatically, with no required admin action before rollout begins.

[Compliance considerations]

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

Updated March 2, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Manage retention and deletion workflows for user-owned Loop workspaces such as Copilot Pages and the Loop personal workspace when users leave the organization.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421612

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late March 2026 (previously early March) and expect to complete by mid-April 2026 (previously end of March).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Once available, admins will be able to manage retention and deletion workflows for user-owned Loop workspaces such as Copilot Pages and the Loop personal workspace when users leave the organization. Updates will include the ability to provide temporary access to other employees or administrators to save important data before deletion policies take effect.

More details will become available closer to the release date.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

There is nothing you need to do to prepare. These changes will roll to your tenant automatically.