Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 05-12-2025

Updated December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Introduction

We hear your feedback about ways we can improve the notifications experience in Viva Engage. It’s always a fine balance between ensuring your users are notified of relevant content without notifications feeling too overwhelming or noisy. In response to your feedback, we’re rolling out an intelligent notifications experience. Specifically, this change will improve how Community Announcement notifications are delivered. This smarter delivery approach optimizes notifications delivery based on a user’s engagement behavior, helping to reduce notifications fatigue while ensuring timely visibility of announcements. 

When this will happen

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out this change in mid-September 2025 and expect the rollout to reach GA (General Availability) by end of January 2026.

How this affects your organization

Previously, when an admin created a new Community Announcement, this would send a notification in Teams and Mobile Push immediately, followed by an email notification two hours later if the announcement was not opened already in Teams and/or Mobile Push.  With this new update:

• Users will now receive the notification in one channel only—either Teams, Mobile Push, or Email. This notification channel may differ by user and is selected based on where a user has engaged with Engage notifications most frequently in the past 30 days. 
• If the announcement is not opened within two hours in the first notification channel, a secondary notification channel will be sent, also determined by where a user engages with Engage notifications most frequently. 

We will continue to respect all user notification preferences and settings where applicable. If a notification channel is disabled or the app is not installed, it will not be selected as a potential notification channel for the Community Announcement delivery.

Note that this change applies only to regular Community Announcements in Viva Engage and does not affect the “immediate” Community Announcement feature (where admins can still select the checkbox to send emails immediately —this functionality remains unchanged).

Can I still notify Community users via email immediately (along with other notification channels)? 

Yes! In Viva Engage, we offer an option to send an “immediate” Community Announcement. With this feature, Community admins can choose to send email notifications immediately after posting a Community Announcement, even if a user has opted out of receiving emails. All other notification channels will also send immediately along with email, including Teams and Mobile Push. Therefore, we recommend admins to use this feature when there is a Community Announcement that requires immediate attention from users. 

Community Admins can find this “immediate” Community Announcement option by firstly navigating to the announcement publisher and selecting the hyperlinked “option to send emails immediately” at the bottom of the publisher. Upon clicking this option, an additional pop-up box will open called “Immediate email delivery”. By selecting this checkbox, this will ensure that all three notification channels – Email, Teams, and Mobile Push – will send to customers immediately after a Community Announcement is made. 

 What you can do to prepare

No admin action is required. However, we recommend:

• Informing your users about the new notifications change to reduce confusion
• Monitoring user feedback and engagement with Community Announcements’ notifications delivery
• Reviewing internal communication strategies to align with the new notification’s behavior

Updated December 3, 2025: This item has completed rollout. Thank you for your patience.

Introduction:

We’re bringing the power of Microsoft 365 Copilot directly into your daily file management experience in Windows. With this update, users can interact with Copilot in File Explorer and the OneDrive activity center to summarize documents, generate FAQs, compare files, and ask questions about their OneDrive files.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCCH, DoD): We began the rollout in late August and expect to complete it by early to mid-November 2025 (previously mid-September). Update: This has completed rollout.

How this affects your organization:

Screenshot 1 – Copilot actions available for OneDrive files in activity center:

• Users can use the OneDrive activity center to perform Copilot actions by selecting a file and clicking the vertical ellipsis.

Actions include summarizing documents, generating FAQs, and asking questions. Microsoft 365 Copilot may not be available in all markets or languages. A qualifying enterprise or business plan is required.

This feature is on by default and does not require admin configuration.

Screenshot 2 – Copilot actions available for OneDrive files in Windows File Explorer:

• Users can use the context menu in Windows File Explorer to perform Copilot actions by selecting a file, right clicking to open the context menu, navigating to the OneDrive drop down menu, and selecting a Copilot action within the secondary, OneDrive context menu. Users can summarize files, creating FAQs, compare files, and ask questions. 

What you can do to prepare:

If your organization uses or plans to use Copilot, we recommend informing end users about these new capabilities. No admin action is required to enable the feature. For more information on Copilot licensing and availability, visit the Microsoft Copilot documentation.

Learn more: Get started with Copilot in OneDrive | Microsoft Support

Compliance considerations

Updated December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

Outlook mobile users can now prepare for their meetings using Copilot chat with a single tap. This feature is available on Android and iOS platforms and requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. It helps users quickly access relevant meeting information, making preparation more efficient and personalized.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 516568.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this affects your organization:]

• Who is affected: Users of Outlook mobile on Android and iOS who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
• What will happen:
  • Eligible users will see a new Copilot chat option to prepare for meetings directly within Outlook mobile.
  • The feature will be ON by default for licensed users. To turn off Copilot in Outlook review Turn off Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps | Microsoft Support.
  • No admin configuration is required.
  • Existing policies and permissions are respected.

Screenshots 1-3 provide a view of the previous experience:

Screenshots 4-5 provide a view of the new experience – Selecting Prepare will take users to Copilot Chat, enabling users to ask follow-up questions:

[What you can do to prepare:]

• No admin action is required at this time.
• If desired, communicate this feature to helpdesk staff.
• Update internal documentation if you detail this feature.
• Ensure users have the appropriate Microsoft 365 Copilot license to access this feature.

[Compliance considerations:]

Updated December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

We are updating the multi-select toolbar in Outlook Mobile. This change will allow users to customize the order and placement of toolbar actions when selecting multiple emails. Users can now Move to Other, Report Junk, Ignore, Pin, and Snooze multiple messages at once.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this affects your organization:]

• Who is affected: Users of Outlook Mobile.
• What will happen:
  • Users will be able to customize the multi-select toolbar.
  • No admin action is required.

  Screenshot 1: Shows the updated toolbar when selecting multiple messages. Tap the overflow menu (…) to find more actions.

  

  Screenshot 2: Tap Reorder to customize the order. Note that several actions shown are disabled because they can only be applied when only one message is selected.

  

  Screenshot 3: Users can customize the multi-select toolbar by dragging and dropping. 

  

[What you can do to prepare:]

• No admin action is required.

[Compliance considerations:]

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

Updated December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

We’re updating the compose toolbar in Outlook Mobile to give users more control over their email experience. This change allows users to customize the order and placement of toolbar actions when composing an email, helping streamline workflows and improve productivity.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this affects your organization:]

• Who is affected: All users of Outlook Mobile.
• What will happen:
  • Users will be able to customize the toolbar layout when composing emails.
  • The feature will be available by default; no opt-in required.

  Screenshot 1: Tap on the overflow menu (…) to find more actions.

  

  Screenshot 2: Tap Reorder to customize the toolbar.

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  Screenshot 3: You can customize the order of your actions by dragging and dropping

  

[What you can do to prepare:]

• No action is required at this time.
• You may choose to notify helpdesk staff or update internal documentation to reflect this new customization capability.

[Compliance considerations:]

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

Viva Engage: Update storyline cover photos in Teams for iOS

We’re adding more customization to your Viva Engage storyline in Microsoft Teams. Soon, you’ll be able to update your storyline cover photo directly from the Teams iOS app. Storyline is a personal feed where users can share updates, insights, and experiences across their organization. This feature is already available on Teams for Android, Windows, Mac, and the web, and supports a consistent and personalized experience across platforms.

Screenshot 1: A user’s cover photo, with options to Take a photo or Upload a picture.

This message is associated with Roadmap ID 526783.

When this will happen:

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

How this affects your organization:

• Who is affected: All users of storyline from Viva Engage in Microsoft Teams.
• What will happen:
  • Users will be able to update their storyline cover photo directly from the Teams iOS app.
  • This feature is enabled by default and does not require admin configuration.
  • There is no change to existing admin policies or controls.

What you can do to prepare:

• Update any internal documentation that references storyline customization.
• No admin action is required to enable this feature.

Compliance considerations:

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

Updated December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

We are updating the user interface (UI) for Copilot Chat in Outlook for Android so that the button is separate from the mail compose, event compose, and add a contact button. This feature will be available for users with a M365 Copilot license.

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

Who is affected:

• Users who have a Copilot license and use Outlook on Android.

What will happen:

• Users will see a distinct Copilot Chat button, separate from mail and event compose buttons.

Screenshot 1: Mail view



Screenshot 2: Calendar view



• This update improves clarity and ease of access to Copilot Chat.
• No changes to functionality or permissions.
• The feature is enabled by default for eligible users.

• No admin action is required.
• You may wish to:
  • Inform helpdesk staff of the UI change to reduce potential confusion.
  • Update internal training or documentation if it references the previous button layout.

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

Updated December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

To streamline workspace scheduling, users can now book a workspace directly from the location field when creating a calendar event. This enhancement simplifies the booking experience and aligns with user feedback requesting more intuitive workspace reservation options.

Screenshot: Open the location field to book a workspace through search or by selecting Browse workspaces

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this affects your organization:]

• Who is affected: All users in tenants where workspace booking is enabled by IT admins and users have turned on workspace booking in their settings.
• What will happen:
• Users will see a new option to search or Browse Workspaces directly from the location field when creating an event.
• On iOS, the existing long-press calendar compose button method for booking workspaces will be retired.
• This feature is ON by default but only applies if workspace booking is enabled by both the admin and the user.
• Admins must have already configured workspace bookings for this feature to be available in their organization.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• No admin action is required.
• If workspace booking is not yet enabled in your organization, consider reviewing the feature and enabling it to take advantage of this streamlined experience.
• Communicate the upcoming change to helpdesk staff, especially regarding the retirement of the iOS long-press method.
• Update internal documentation if it references the previous booking method.

Learn more: Configure rooms and workspaces for Room Finder in Outlook

[Compliance considerations:]

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

Updated December 4, 2025: 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 early January 2026 (previously early December 2025) and is expected to complete by late January 2026.

[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 December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction:]

To help users declutter their calendars, Outlook Mobile now supports hiding declined meetings. This aligns with existing functionality in New Outlook and Outlook for the Web, where users can choose to show or hide declined events. With this update, users can enjoy a simplified calendar experience across devices.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCCH, and DoD): Rollout begins in early January 2026 (previously early December 2025) and is expected to complete by late January 2026. 

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected: Users of Outlook Mobile who have enabled “Show declined meetings” in New Outlook or Outlook for the Web.

What will happen: 

• Users will see a new setting in Outlook Mobile to hide declined meetings: 



• This setting provides a cleaner calendar view by removing declined events.
• The feature respects existing preferences set in New Outlook or Outlook for the Web.
• No changes to admin policies or configurations are required.

Learn more: What is the Hide Declined Events Setting? | Microsoft Support

[What you can do to prepare:] 

No admin action is required at this time.

You may choose to inform helpdesk staff or update internal documentation to reflect this new setting.

[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 3rd, 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

As announced in MC1176368 (October ’25) GPT-5 is now the default model and today we’re introducing the ability for your users to select how much reasoning to apply.

Users can choose from three modes:

• Auto (default): Copilot decides how long to think.
• Quick response (chat): Copilot answers right away.
• Think deeper (reasoning): Copilot thinks longer for better answers.

This change is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 532736

General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin December 4, 2025, and we expect to complete by December 8, 2025.

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected: All users of Microsoft 365 Copilot.

What will happen:

• Users will see a new selector in Copilot experiences.

  

• Default mode is Auto; users can switch to Quick response or Think deeper.
• User’s choice is remembered and retained for new chats.
• No admin configuration changes required. There are no admin controls for this feature.
• Feature is enabled by default for all tenants.

• No action required; this is a standard rollout.
• Optional: Communicate the new modes to helpdesk staff and users.

No compliance impacts identified. Review your organization’s policies as needed.

• New Windows Autopatch reports on CVEs
• Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) report
• Windows Autopatch update readiness
• MSRC Security Update Guide: Vulnerabilities
• Security Copilot Vulnerability Remediation Agent in Microsoft Intune

Updated December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Please note that information about meeting link expiry changes related to this rollout has been added.

We are reducing the length of Microsoft Teams meeting URLs for easier sharing. This rollout applies to all Microsoft Teams platforms (Teams for iOS, Android, Mac, Teams devices, desktop, and web).

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 381953.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously mid-January) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January). Only Meet Now use cases (except Meet Now in chats and channels) will be affected in this timeframe. There will be no impact on the scheduled meetings in this phase.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out January 2026 (previously mid-May 2025) and expect to complete by end of January 2026 (previously late May 2025). Only Meet Now use cases (except Meet Now in chats and channels) will be affected in this timeframe. There will be no impact on the scheduled meetings in this phase. 

General Availability (GCC High, DoD):  We will begin rolling out February 2026 (previously early August 2025) and expect to complete by end of February 2026 (previously late October 2025).

[How this will affect your organization:]

The new URL syntax is: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/<meeting_id>?p=<HashedPasscode>

To make meeting URL shorter, we are removing several parameters such as tenant ID, conversation ID etc. This change serves two main goals: 1) improving usability of URL during sharing and 2) making the URL more secure and less susceptible to malicious attacks.

Here are some details about how meeting links work and when they expire:

1. In case the meeting organizer gets removed from the tenant, the links to the meetings scheduled by them automatically expire.
2.  Every meeting link expires in 60 days after the scheduled event or in 8 hours, if it was created as Meet Now. Learn more about expiration timelines for different types of meetings.

With the Short Meeting URL release, expiration limit will be applied to all newly created links.

Once the change to Short Meeting URL is released, all newly created meetings will expire as described in the documentation: 60 days after meeting ends for scheduled meetings and 8 hours after creation for Meet Now. Once this expiry period is over, in case someone clicks the link (e.g. outside of Teams app OR in the meeting details inside Teams calendar section), they will be unable to join the meeting.

Note: Old links created before short meeting URL release will continue working as it previously was (user will be able to join even after the documented expiry limits).

The reason why we are making this change is simple: security is our topmost priority. Maintaining a high security level is essential to protect sensitive data, prevent financial losses, ensure business continuity, and meet compliance and legal obligations. It is a critical aspect of modern digital life and business operations. This adjustment is designed to enhance the security of Teams meeting links, thereby better safeguarding the customer tenant. We want to be on par with modern security standards, that’s why the new behavior is a step in the right direction that we must take. It’s not possible to keep the current behavior. If you think it breaks some of your business processes, please leave comment to the MC post and describe your case there.

Recommendations in case the meeting link has expired:

For meeting organizer: We recommend scheduling a new meeting. If the meeting organizer got removed from the tenant someone else should reschedule their meetings from scratch.

For participant: Please reach out to the meeting organizer and ask them to reschedule the meeting or send you an updated link.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

You may want to check if you have any integrations that use parameters from URL. After the rollout, the URL will only contain the meeting ID. Parameters such as tenant ID, organizer ID, conversation ID and message ID will not be in the URL.

You may inform meeting organizers from your tenant who use expired meeting links, or you may want to make a tenant-wide announcement about this change.

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

Updated December 4, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: App centric management for admin app installation introduces new admin settings to control who in the tenant has specific Teams apps preinstalled. Similar to app centric management for app availability, as communicated in MC688930 (Updated) Teams admin center: App centric management and changes to app permission policies (November 2023), admins will be able to install apps for users, groups, or everyone in the organization.

After rollout, app-centric management will let admins install apps individually. Existing Installed apps in app setup policies will remain intact; however, no new additions will be permitted, and only deletions will be allowed. Instead, you can install Teams apps for selected users, groups, or all users directly from the respective app. Other settings in app setup policies, including Pinned apps, will remain unchanged.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 394274 and 500637.

[When this will happen:]

App centric management will roll out in following General Availability phases.

• Phase 1 | We will begin rolling this feature mid-October 2025 and complete rollout by end of February 2026 (previously end of November 2025). Phase 1 applies to tenants who meet both conditions: 1) tenants with no Installed apps in the Global app setup policy and 2) tenants with no custom app setup policies created in the Teams admin center.
• Phase 2 | We will begin rolling this feature end of October 2025 and complete rollout by end of February 2026 (previously mid-December 2025) for all remaining tenants.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before the rollout: If you install an app to a user, the user cannot actually use an admin preinstalled app if you did not take the additional step to allow the user to use it. After the rollout, if you install an app through app centric management, the user will immediately be able to use the app.

After the rollout, you can install any number of Teams apps for selected sets of users, groups, or all users in the organization from the respective apps.

Learn more: Preinstall Teams apps for your org users – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

[What you need to do to prepare:]

No action needed for Phase 1 tenants. We will update this message with more information before the rollouts for Phases 2 tenants.

You may want to update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

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