Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 07-02-2025

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Users now have the ability to save the filters applied to Microsoft 365 Activity Explorer and use them later.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 374375

[When this will happen:]

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out late February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously late  February ).

General Availability Worldwide: We will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously mid-March).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Customers will now have a better investigation experience in Activity Explorer without having to set the filters every time they go to the page.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

There is no action needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. 

Please note that customers who are interested in joining the preview must opt-in. To join the preview, customers should file a support ticket requesting to join the Scheduled prompts preview. Thank you for your feedback.

Coming soon for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365: A new Scheduled prompts feature that allows users to automate Copilot prompts to run at set times and frequencies in Copilot in Microsoft Teams, Office.com/chat, and Microsoft Outlook for the web and Desktop. A Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 license and a Standard Microsoft Power Automate license are required to use this feature. To be eligible, customers must also have the Optional Connected Experience (OCE) admin toggle enabled, and configure their DLP policies to allow the Copilot for Microsoft 365 connector in their default PowerPlatform environment.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 401124.

[When this will happen:]

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-December 2024 (previously mid-November) and expect to complete by late December 2024 (previously late November).

General Availability: We will begin rolling out mid-May 2025 (previously mid-March) expect to complete by late May 2025 (previously late March).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout: Users are unable to schedule Copilot for Microsoft 365 prompts to run at a specific time and frequency.

After the rollout: Users can find the Scheduled prompts feature by hovering over a prompt they have submitted to Copilot or by clicking on the Schedule prompts button in the Copilot response footer (references images below). After configuring their Scheduled prompt, when a user selects the Save and activate button to confirm the scheduled prompt, a user’s prompt information will be sent to the Power Automate and Power Platform system, and the Power Automate terms of service and privacy policy apply:

Schedule prompt entry points

Schedule prompt Creation dialog

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Managing the Scheduled prompts feature as an admin: To continue having the Scheduled prompts feature available in your organization, no action is required after completing the opt-in process. The feature is automatically included as part of the Optional Connected Experiences admin setting, which is on by default.

Admins can access the Optional connected experiences setting at config.office.com

If you prefer not to have this feature available to your organization, you can file a customer support ticket requesting to exit the preview program or disable the optional connected experiences setting at config.office.com. For more information: Admin controls for optional connected experiences. If you turn off the Optional connected experiences setting, this action will prevent anyone in your organization from seeing the Scheduled prompts feature in Copilot. If you choose to make these optional connected experiences available to your users, your users will also have the option to turn them by going to the privacy settings dialog box. 

To prevent exposing organizational data, you should also create a data policy in the Power Platform admin center. Creating a data policy in the center allows administrators to control access to these connectors in various ways to help reduce risk in your organization. Learn more here: Data policies – Power Platform | Microsoft Learn

If you disable this feature after someone in your organization has already used the feature:

• Users will no longer be able to manage previously scheduled prompts.
• Sessions for previously run scheduled prompts will continue to exist.
• Users will no longer see the Scheduled prompts feature or the prompt management pane.

Relevant articles

• Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn
• Security in Microsoft Power Platform – Power Platform | Microsoft Learn
• Admin controls for optional connected experiences in Overview of optional connected experiences in Office – Deploy Office | Microsoft Learn

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

To learn more about Microsoft’s own review of this product with its works councils, please consider reading: https://aka.ms/Copilot/MSWorksCouncilsArticle 

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Outlook: Work hours and location information will be available in the My Day pane in Outlook. Users will be able to update their Work Hours and Location information from My Day and also see who is coming to Office. This message applies to new Outlook for Windows desktop and Outlook for the web.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 412618.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release:  We will begin rolling out early December 2024 (previously mid-November) and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously mid-November). 

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, users can review and update their work hours and location information in Outlook Settings > Calendar > Work hours and location. This settings page will remain in place after the rollout.

After this rollout, users will also be able to see and update their work hours and location information in the My Day pane in Outlook. Changes to the My Day pane will sync to any other work hours and location settings made in Outlook.

My Day pane with prompt to Set up your work location:

My Day pane with work location information, which can be updated:

This feature is on by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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

Updated February 6, 2025: Please verify that all previously set values remain unchanged and as intended.

A new csTeamsAIPolicy policy for Microsoft Teams (available now via Microsoft PowerShell and taking effect in mid-March 2025 (previously mid-February) will give IT admins more control over voice and face enrollment settings, allowing organizations to manage these features based on their needs. After rollout, voice and face profile enrollment will be enabled by default, and users can benefit from voice isolation, speaker recognition, and attribution in meeting rooms, resulting in smarter meeting recaps and enhanced functionality for Microsoft 365 Copilot in meetings. To access Copilot features, a Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop and Mac desktop.

NOTE: Microsoft doesn’t use the voice and face profiles of users to train any models or for any other purposes other than providing the voice and face enrollment feature in Microsoft Teams.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 413708.

[When this will happen:]

The new Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets are available now for admins to configure, to ensure a smooth transition.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): The new Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets are available now for preparation and to ensure a smooth transition. The policy takes effect starting in mid-March 2025 (previously mid-February) and is expected to be fully in effect by late March 2025 (previously late February).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, the current policy csTeamsMeetingPolicy has a single setting, EnrollUserOverride, that allows the administrator to enable or disable the enrollment of both face and voice profile of users.

After this rollout, the new csTeamsAIPolicy will replace the existing enrollment setting in csTeamsMeetingPolicy. The new csTeamsAIPolicy has two settings, EnrollFace and EnrollVoice, that will be set to Enabled by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

If your organization prefers to disable voice and face enrollments, review and update your settings before mid-March 2025 (previously mid-January). To help you get started, review:

• Set-CsTeamsAIPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn
• Get-CsTeamsAIPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn

Learn more: Overview of voice and face enrollment – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

If your organization prefers to disable voice and face enrollments, review and update your settings before mid-March 2025 (previously mid-February).

Important: The EnrollUserOverride setting can be assigned globally, directly to users, or to groups in PowerShell.

Admins must ensure that changes are applied consistently across all these locations to avoid unintended configurations.

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Before this rollout, guest sharing for Microsoft Loop components, pages, and workspaces is available for tenants that have not configured sensitivity labels, as communicated in MC736437 Microsoft Loop: Guest Sharing (March 2024). After this rollout and the rollout of Microsoft Information Protection for Loop workspaces, B2B (business to business) guest sharing for Loop workspaces, pages, and components will be available for all tenants, including those who have configured sensitivity labels, subject to admin policy. If admins configure the policy, users will be able to share Loop workspaces, pages, and components with people outside of your tenant. This message applies to Loop on the web and on iOS/Android devices.

This message is related to MC923176 Microsoft Loop: Sensitivity labels at the container level (November 2024).

Note: Loop will respect your Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft SharePoint sharing settings. If your tenant does not allow sharing with guests, then it will prevent guest sharing of Loop workspaces, pages, and components as well.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out in early December 2024 (previously early November) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously early January). 

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, if admins have configured Microsoft SharePoint for B2B guest sharing, users in your organization will be able to share Loop workspaces, pages, and components with people outside of your tenant. Users can share pages and components with the People you choose option. Guest users cannot create workspaces.

The user experience: The Share button in the top left of the Loop app:

Sharing menu with option to share workspace, page, or component:

Copy link dialog box with the Settings icon:

Sharing dialog box with People you choose selected:

Admins: You can configure sharing of Loop workspaces, pages, and components with guests by enabling these policies in Microsoft SharePoint admin center > Policies > Sharing:

1. Set the organization-level external sharing settings for to allow content to be shared with New and existing guests or Existing guests.
2. Enable the B2B collaboration with external guests. Learn more: Overview: B2B collaboration with external guests for your workforce – Microsoft Entra External ID | Microsoft Learn

Learn more:

• Guest/external sharing: Overview of Loop workspaces storage and permissions | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)
• Summary of governance, lifecycle, and compliance capabilities for Loop (direct link to section that says Loop workplace sensitivity labels are not available; will be updated before rollout)

[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.

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Admins will be able to ensure that new Loop workspaces are connected to and managed by an existing Microsoft 365 Group, similar to SharePoint Team sites.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422725

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by late April (previously late February). 

[How this will affect your organization:]

Once Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422728 is available, end-users will have the ability to choose existing Microsoft 365 Groups for managing new Loop workspaces. This means that new Loop workspaces can optionally be connected to and managed by an existing Microsoft 365 Group, similar to how SharePoint Team sites are managed.

Additionally, Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422725 covers the capability to ensure that new Loop workspaces are connected to and managed by an existing Microsoft 365 Group, similar to SharePoint Team sites (it will not be an option for users to skip selecting an existing Microsoft 365 group if this policy is configured).

While this setting may align with existing governance processes, it’s important for admins to note that scenarios like automatic aggregation of Teams meeting content into a Loop workspace, or the creation of small, short-term project workspaces, will be more challenging for end-users unless they can skillfully select an existing M365 group during creation. Please consider this tradeoff in your adoption strategy.

If your organization has governance tools for SharePoint Communication sites that work effectively in a reactive manner (i.e., governance is applied after the site is created), Microsoft recommends extending this process to include Loop workspaces rather than using this policy.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

There is nothing you need to do to prepare. This capability will roll to your tenant automatically.

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Purview | Information Protection: Automatically label all or some assets in Microsoft Azure Storage and Microsoft Azure SQL with an auto-labeling policy. You will be able to clearly define labeling conditions for data sources in Azure separately from existing Microsoft 365 files configurations.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 429876.

[When this will happen:]

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024.

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

You can create new auto-labeling policies for Azure Storage and Azure SQL Server that allow you to specify specific data assets or ALL assets to be automatically labeled when the out-of-the-box sensitive information types are detected in a column or asset. After the auto-labeling policy is turned on, wait 15 minutes, and then rescan the scoped data assets. The assets will be labeled automatically.

This change will be available by default for admins to configure.

After the rollout, these capabilities will no longer be available:

• The ability to extend labeling to assets in the Microsoft Purview Data Map (opt in)
  • Instead, you can select where to extend these assets in an auto-labeling policy
• Schematized data assets as an applicable label scope
  • You can select any label with the scope Files & other data assets for labeling in non-Microsoft 365 workloads
• Auto-labeling for schematized data assets in label definition
  • If you have configured Auto-labeling for schematized data assets in the label definition, you will need to reconfigure those conditions in an auto-labeling policy.

Tip: After you apply labeling to data assets, you can use protection policies to add access control settings associated with the label.

You will be able to select AzureStorage and AzureSQLServer workloads in the auto-labeling policy:

[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.

• Sensitivity Labels in the Microsoft Purview Data Map FAQ
• Learn about Microsoft Purview billing models | Microsoft Learn

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) will soon extend to support Microsoft 365 Copilot. DLP policies will be able to identify sensitive documents based on sensitivity labels and exclude processing for Copilot interactions in Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat.

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

The preview does not support alerts, incident reports, and policy simulation. Audit records will be available at a later time after policy management is enabled for organizations. A Microsoft 365 Copilot license and a Microsoft 365 E5 license or equivalent are required to use this feature.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 423483.

[When this will happen:]

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024.

General Availability: We will begin rolling out late June 2025 and expect to complete by late July 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Customers with the required licenses will be able to go to the Microsoft Purview portal to create policies in the Data Loss Prevention solution. In the AI Hub, admins can find recommendations for creating Copilot policies.

The DLP policy will allow the selection of Microsoft 365 Copilot as a location:

This change will be available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

No preparation is required for admins other than creating the DLP policy and assigning licenses to enterprise users in your organizations.

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.

Refer to the Data Loss Prevention documentation for details on Microsoft 365 Copilot support.

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Starting in late-December, Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot users signed in with an Entra account will be able to upload images in both Work and Web copilot and ask Copilot questions about the image, such as for Copilot to analyze or describe it. Users will be able to take pictures using their mobile cameras or upload images directly to Copilot from their devices. This functionality will be available when using Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot from following locations:

• Microsoft 365 app (Web, desktop, mobile)
• Outlook app (Web, desktop, mobile) 
• Teams (Web, desktop, mobile) 

 [When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

With these enhancements, Microsoft 365 Copilot will now understand non-animated images and will have support for major image types. Copilot will do its best to interpret the image, but the quality and content of the image can affect responses.

This feature will roll out to all endpoints and users will be able to use it without any tenant level configuration support. Any controls in place to limit the availability of Copilot for users will be honored.

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Users will be able to record video in Teams channels with the Record video clip option. Before this rollout, the Record video clip option only exists in Teams chat. After this rollout, users can record short clips to communicate with colleagues in Teams channels. Users can record clips of themselves, their screen, or audio only and send the clip as a new post or a reply in a channel. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Teams for Mac desktop, and Teams on the web.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 383740.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

To use the new feature in a channel, users can go to the box where they compose posts or replies and select the + sign (the Actions and apps menu), and then choose the new Record video clip option:

This change will be available 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.

Learn more: Record a video or audio clip in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Outlook for iOS/Android: New built-in report buttons in version > 4.2446. Admins can control the appearance and behavior of these buttons that allow users to report emails as phishing / junk / not junk from the User Reported setting page in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal (security.microsoft.com). Admins can also customize where messages get reported to (reporting mailbox, Microsoft, or both) and what the user sees both before and after reporting messages from these buttons.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 371383.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We began rolling out in early December 2024 and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Information to keep in mind:

• Microsoft OWA (Outlook on the Web) and the new Microsoft Outlook for Windows have had this functionality since November 2022. This rollout to iOS/Android does not change or affect that functionality.
• Classic Microsoft Outlook for Windows client has had this functionality in current channel since August 2024. Learn more: MC841229 (Updated) Classic Microsoft Outlook for Windows: New reporting buttons integrated with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (published July 2024, updated October 2024).
• Microsoft Outlook for Mac released this functionality in September 2024.
• If you have turned off the reporting feature in the Microsoft 365 Defender User reported settings page or are using a third-party add-in, the report buttons in Outlook for Android/iOS won’t be visible.
• The Microsoft reporting add-in (the Microsoft report message add-in and Microsoft phishing add-in) will be supported till further notice. The future goal is to have a consistent button reporting experience across all Outlook platforms. If you are using Microsoft reporting add-ins in Outlook for iOS/Android, your users will see two reporting experiences: one from the built-in Outlook buttons (added by this rollout) and one from the add-in. Both options will behave the same for users (except for the newly customizable pop-ups) and the reported messages will end up in the same place, causing minimal disruption.
• The selections you make on the user reported settings page will determine the reporting experience for your users (whether they choose the add-in or built-in reporting option in Outlook). Either option will report to the same place (Microsoft, custom mailbox, or both) based on your User reported settings.
• Like OWA and new Outlook for Windows, the built-in reporting button in Outlook for iOS/Android supports reporting from shared and delegate mailboxes.

This change is available 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.

No action is required form you after this rollout because your current settings in the User reported settings page will not be changed.

Learn more

• Report phishing and suspicious emails in Outlook for admins – Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)
• User reported settings – Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center will soon be generally available. Tenants that have at least one Microsoft 365 Copilot license will be able to access Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center via the Copilot button on the top right corner of the screen. Copilot experiences in the Teams and SharePoint admin centers will be introduced in the coming months as part of this feature set. Admin accounts do not require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license to be assigned to them, and no additional action is required. 

Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center is a set of experiences that harnesses the value of generative AI to boost Microsoft 365 admins’ productivity by streamlining daily work, so admins are empowered to focus on their strategic priorities, make faster decisions, and maximize the value of their investments. 

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously ate January) and expect to complete by late March 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin centers will be available to all admins and will respect role-based access controls (RBAC) within the admin center, only surfacing information and controls that the particular admin has access to. Copilot will not make any configuration changes on behalf of an admin, keeping security integrity intact.

When available, Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin centers can help:  

• Optimize routine tasks: Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin centers leverages AI to simplify and speed up routine administrative tasks, allowing IT admins to focus on strategic initiatives. By providing real-time, contextually relevant information and seamless integration across various Microsoft admin centers, Copilot in Microsoft admin centers enhances productivity and decision-making, ensuring a more efficient and effective Microsoft 365 management experience.
  
• Generate insights faster: Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center enables IT admins to quickly access and analyze critical data, enhancing productivity and decision-making. This streamlined approach ensures that administrators can act swiftly and effectively, driving better outcomes for their organizations.
  
• Get more out of Microsoft 365: Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center helps IT admins and adoption specialists to understand licensed Microsoft 365 features and capabilities that can unlock new ways of working for both IT admins and users in their organization.  

Optimizing for the flow of your work

Copilot agents are specialized AI assistants designed to enhance the capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot by connecting to your organization’s knowledge and data sources. Alongside Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center, we’re also rolling out a pre-built admin agent. Rollout of the agent will begin later than Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin centers but is expected to be completed by the end of March. 

This Copilot agent allows admins to access IT administration capabilities directly within various Microsoft 365 workflows from Business Chat without needing to be in an admin center. 

The Microsoft 365 admin agent respects Role Based Access Controls (RBACs) within the admin center and only surfaces information that the account has access to. When rolled out, if a user has an admin role assigned to them and they have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license assigned, the admin agent will be pre-installed. 

[What you need to do to prepare:]

To learn more about Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin centers, including how to disable it, please see Copilot in Microsoft 365 admin centers (Preview), and watch our Empowering IT with the latest Microsoft 365 innovation session at Ignite.  

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. 

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Add a Loop workspace tab to standard channels enabling your team to brainstorm, co-create, collect, and organize content—together in real time. Everyone in the Team will have access to the Loop workspace, even as Team membership changes, and the workspace will adhere to the governance, lifecycle, and compliance standards set by the Microsoft 365 group backing the team. This message applies to Teams on Windows desktop, Teams on Mac desktop, and Teams on the web.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 472022.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete in early March 2025 (previously late January).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 (previously late February) and expect to complete in late March 2025 (previously late February).

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, all users with the Loop app enabled on Teams will receive this experience by default.

To get started, users can select the plus sign (+) at the top of the Teams channel and select Loop from the list.

With this rollout, we will support these features:

• Creating a new workspace for a standard Teams channel where the workspace membership is the Channel group membership.
• Adding pages, files, and links to the workspace, collaborating with others, and sharing pages as components in Teams chats and channels. Users will be able to complete all their Loop workspace workflows in Teams.
• Recreating the Loop workspace tab in the channel, in case someone removes it by mistake.
• Deleting the Team will delete the attached Loop workspace. The workspace will be restored if the Microsoft 365 group is restored.
• If the user adding the Loop app to a channel does not have the appropriate license or permission to create a workspace, the user will be blocked from adding the app.
• The Loop workspace created in a Teams channel will automatically receive the sensitivity label of the Microsoft 365 group at creation time. With this rollout, when the label of a Microsoft 365 group changes after workspace creation, the label will not be automatically propagated to the workspace’s Microsoft SharePoint Embedded (SPE) container. Admins can update labels for these workspaces in the SharePoint admin center.
  • Coming soon in late February: When the label of the Microsoft 365 group changes, that update will automatically propagate to the SPE container for the workspace within 24 hours. We will update this message when this feature is available.

[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.

If you want to block the Loop app in Teams, this will remove the Loop tab applications in channels and the Loop personal app in Teams. To learn more: Overview of Loop workspaces storage and permissions | Microsoft Learn

If you want to keep the Loop application in Teams but disable to ability for users to create Loop workspaces, follow these instructions:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center at https://config.office.com/ with your Microsoft 365 admin credentials.
2. Select Customization from the left pane.
3. Select Policy management.
4. Create a new policy configuration or edit an existing one.
5. From the Choose the scope dropdown menu, choose either All users or select the group for which you want to apply the policy. Learn more: Microsoft 365 Groups for Cloud Policy in Manage Loop components in your organization | Microsoft Learn.
6. In Configure settings, choose your desired setting for Create Loop workspaces in Loop:
   • Disabled: Users cannot create Loop workspaces in Teams. (When disabled, the Loop app will open Loop components in Teams.)
   • Enabled or not configured: Users can create Loop workspaces in Teams.
   • Not configured = Enabled
7. Save the policy configuration.
8. Reassign priority for any security group, if required. (If two or more policy configurations are applicable to the same set of users, the one with the higher priority is applied.)

Learn more

• Overview of Loop workspaces storage and permissions | Microsoft Learn
• Related message center post: MC929022 Microsoft Loop – Require Existing Microsoft 365 Group for New Loop workspaces (published November 2024)

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft SharePoint: a new web part for Pages and New posts called the Editorial card. Unlike automated web parts like News and Events, the new Editorial card allows SharePoint designers to manually tailor the content presentation to their needs.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 414524.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will start rolling out late January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will start rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, users can:

• Showcase content in an engaging card format with advanced background and content settings
• Configure content to suit varied author needs

This change will be available to users by default.

The Editorial card in the Web parts section of the Toolbox (right pane):

[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 revised documentation.

Examples of Editorial card content:

Additional resources: Use the Editorial Card web part – Microsoft Support 

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft 365 Copilot: When writing Copilot prompts in the chat box, users will be able to use CIQ to search for and select Microsoft SharePoint sites.

Context IQ (CIQ) is a set of AI capabilities from Microsoft that allows users to search for, select, and insert relevant enterprise or personal data directly into their prompts or conversations. This capability helps users to “ground” or anchor their prompts in specific, contextually relevant data, making responses more accurate, specific, and useful.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 413110.

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

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

No impact to tenant admins. This change is available by default. Users will begin seeing their recent SharePoint sites in CIQ (only the sites they have access to) when writing Copilot prompts.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before or after the rollout. 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.

Learn more: Using Context IQ to refer to specific files, people, and more in Microsoft 365 Copilot – Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)

Flexible sections are a new section type that allow authors to build pages without a strict column structure. Web parts can be dynamically resized and moved within flexible sections to create a fully customized section. Flexible sections unlock an endless number of design possibilities for sections. 

With the introduction of flexible sections, we have reimagined section templates that are located in the content pane toolbox. The new section templates will be powered by both flexible and column-based sections with example content. All sample content from these templates is placed onto the canvas when a section template is applied. 

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

The new flexible section type and section templates will be available in SharePoint and Viva Amplify. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 395213.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 (previously late-January) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously mid-March).

General Availability (Production, GCC, GCC High, DOD): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by late April 2025. 

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users will see a new option when adding a section to a page, called “Flexible”. Within a flexible section, users can drag and drop web parts anywhere on the grid. Web parts will snap to the closest grid line when moved.

Users can also resize web parts. Card-based web parts, such as Quick Links, People, or Hero, only have four different width options (full width, 1/3 canvas width, ½ canvas width, and 2/3 canvas width). These web parts can only be resized to one of the four options. 

Non-card-based web parts, such as Text, Image, and File & Media can be resized to any width. Web parts will snap to the closest gird line when being resized. 

Users can resize flexible sections manually, change the arrangement of overlapping web parts, multi-select web parts, and group web parts. 

Users can select or drag and drop a new section template from the content pane toolbox. After the template is added to the canvas, users can make adjustments to the web parts and section until ready to publish.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

You might want to notify users, update your user training, and prepare your help desk.

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the content. 

We are introducing a new Carousel layout to make the Hero web part more attractive. This new layout will feature a slideshow and a selection of new styles with imagery, bold text, and a call to action, creating a more engaging page experience.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 395214.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will start rolling out in mid-January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously late January).

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Adding a Hero web part to a page or news post has not changed. This update allows authors to create eye-catching carousel slides in any section type, with up to five slides in Carousel layout, enhancing user engagement and highlighting key content to establish page hierarchy. It offers three new styles and supports Stream videos to make the page more appealing. 

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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

Additional resources: Use the Hero web part – Microsoft Support

Updated February 6, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat (BizChat): Users will be able to use CIQ to ground their Copilot prompts with third-party data from their Microsoft Graph Connectors.

Context IQ (CIQ) is a set of AI capabilities from Microsoft that allows users to search for, select, and insert relevant enterprise or personal data directly into their prompts or conversations. This capability helps users to “ground” or anchor their prompts in specific, contextually relevant data, making responses more accurate, specific, and useful.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 413111.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously late February) and expect to complete by early April 2025 (previously early March).

[How this will affect your organization:]

No impact for the tenant admin. End users will see a new Other tab in CIQ to add their third-party data from any MS Graph Connectors that are enabled.

This change will be available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before or after the rollout. 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.

Learn more: Using Context IQ to refer to specific files, people, and more in Microsoft 365 Copilot – Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)

Coming soon for Microsoft Purview | Endpoint Data Loss Prevention: In cloud egress events (File copied to cloud), you will soon be able to find out exactly where the data is moving with the new Full URL field in Activity Explorer.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 471445.

[When this will happen:]

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out early February 2025 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, you can only see the target domain for the event when a user tries to upload a file to a website.

To enable this feature, go to Endpoint Data Loss Prevention Settings > Browser and domain restrictions to sensitive data > File copied to cloud > turn on Full URL:

When a cloud egress event is triggered, this feature will show you the Full URL for the event in the details pane:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

• Enable the Full URL toggle in Endpoint Data Loss Prevention Settings.
• Look for the rule matches in Activity Explorer for a new/existing DLP policy monitoring cloud egress.
• Find the Full URL in the event details pane.

Learn more about the Data Loss Prevention solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal

• Learn about Endpoint data loss prevention | Microsoft Learn
• Configure endpoint DLP settings | Microsoft Learn

Employees will soon be able to create their own link cards that connect to other tools and destinations on the Microsoft Viva Connections dashboard.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 472021.

[When this will happen:]

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

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, employees can create their own cards for the Connections dashboard:

Step 1: On the Viva Connections dashboard, the user selects Customize:

Step 2: Add a Quick links card:

Step 3: Set up the card to choose a title, image, and appropriate links. Save the dashboard:

This feature will be on by default and accessible to all users in your tenant unless you turn it off.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

If your company is not ready to roll out end user customizations to employees, you can turn it off with the setting in Dashboard details:

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.

We are modernizing the existing admin notification settings in Viva Engage to make admin notification settings and configuration more user-friendly and intuitive within Viva Engage. Previously, the tenant-wide notifications settings for admin configuration opened in legacy web pages. With this update, these notification settings will now appear under Viva Engage Admin center > Tenant settings. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 472925.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

• Administrators will gain the ability to manage admin notifications directly from within the Engage Admin center.
• All existing tenant admin notification preferences will remain unchanged, and the current tenant preferences for these two settings will continue to be respected.
• Improved guidance and labels covering each available setting will be provided, making the process more intuitive than before.

Existing experience:

New experience:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

These updates will be applied automatically, and administrators will see the new experience in Viva Engage admin center without any additional configuration. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: Users will be able to share a file from a Chat conversation, a Chat Shared tab, or a channel post to 1:1 chats, group chats, or channels with fewer clicks. When files are shared, their permissions are maintained, ensuring that recipients have the appropriate access rights. Users can include a message with the shared file and @mention recipients.

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

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 475852.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by early April 2025.

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

When users shares a file from a Chat conversation, a Chat Shared tab, or a channel post, a dialog box will pop up. Options available in the dialog box:

1. Mandatory: Names of the intended recipients or the channel where the user intends to share the post.
2. Optional: Add text to the message (or @mention users).
3. Optional: Modify permissions.

The new sharing icon in the file preview in a Chat conversation:

The Share option (accessed from the three-dot menu) in the Chat Shared tab:

After the user selects Send, the file will be shared with the intended recipients as a Teams message in Chat or will be posted to the intended channel.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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

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

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: When in a meeting that is being recorded and has content shared onscreen, Microsoft Copilot will be able to answer questions based on the shared onscreen content. Before this rollout, Copilot was only able to answer questions based on the transcript and meeting chat, and this capability will continue after the rollout. This message applies to Teams on VDI, Teams on Windows desktop, Teams on Mac desktop, Teams on the web, and Teams for iOS/Android. A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required to use this feature.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 325873.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, users will be able to ask Copilot questions about screenshare data, but only if a meeting is recorded and transcribed. If the meeting is only transcribed, users can still use Copilot, just without screenshare data.

Copilot will be able to understand slides, documents, spreadsheets, and websites, or anything else shared onscreen. Users will be able to ask simple recall questions, such as “Show me the content that was shared on the screen” or more specific questions like “what was the Sales target number” if it was shared on a previous slide. Users will also be able to combine screenshare with transcript and chat data to ask, “Show me all the slides and the feedback on each slide,” or “Rewrite the paragraph based on the comments from the audience.”

Copilot can only answer questions about content shared onscreen if the meeting is recorded and transcribed, and if the specific slide, document, spreadsheet, and website is shared for longer than 10 seconds. This will alleviate potential accidental shares being used by Copilot. For example, if a user accidentally shares the wrong content and changes it within 10 seconds, Copilot will not have access to it. However, when the meeting is recorded, the recording will still have this information. Deleting a recording will also delete all associated screen data along with it, so Copilot will no longer have access to screen data if the meeting recording was deleted.

This change will be available 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. 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.

Learn more: Use Copilot in Microsoft Teams meetings – Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)

• Coming soon: Quality updates during the out-of-box experience