Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 20-02-2026

Updated February 19, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

[Introduction]

To support frontline workers using personal devices, Microsoft is introducing a dynamic onboarding wizard for Microsoft Teams. This experience is designed to simplify setup on Android and iOS devices, especially in environments with security policies like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and mobile application management. The wizard adapts automatically to your organization’s policies, helping drive secure and efficient Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) adoption.

This message is associated with Roadmap ID 523213.

[When this will happen:]

• Public Preview: Rollout begins in late November 2025 and is and expected to complete by mid-January 2026
• General Availability: Rollout begins in late April 2026 (previously mid-March) and is and expected to complete by early May 2026 (previously end of March).

[How this affects your organization:]

• Who is affected: Frontline workers setting up Microsoft Teams on personal Android or iOS devices
• What will happen:
  • A new onboarding wizard will be available via web, optimized for desktop kiosks or shared PCs
  • The wizard dynamically adjusts based on your organization’s security policies
  • Supports MFA setup, with emphasis on Microsoft Authenticator push notifications
  • This tool is optional and designed to improve BYOD Microsoft Teams adoption

[What you can do to prepare:]

• Review the admin documentation to understand the onboarding wizard’s capabilities and limitations
• Consider integrating the wizard into your new user onboarding workflows
• Communicate availability to helpdesk and frontline managers
• Update internal documentation if you support BYOD Microsoft Teams deployment
• Review documentation at the following link: Set up frontline Teams on personal devices

[Compliance considerations:]

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

Updated February 19, 2026: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 

We’re making some changes to the Microsoft eCDN configuration.

Starting with Chrome 146, browsers will enforce Local Network Access restrictions that may impact Microsoft eCDN peer-to-peer functionality.

[How this will affect your organization:]

You are receiving this message because our reporting indicates one or more users in your organization may be using Microsoft eCDN. To maintain optimal performance for Teams Live Events and Town Halls, admins must configure the LocalNetworkAccessAllowedForUrls policy for Chrome-based browsers.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

For complete, up-to-date details (including required URLs, deployment methods, and tenant-specific considerations), see the official Microsoft eCDN documentation: Configure Local Network Access Policy for Microsoft eCDN.

Updated February 19, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

This feature empowers organizations with powerful insights into the adoption and usage of M365 Copilot Chat by users who are not licensed for M365 Copilot. Insights include usage trends, retention and usage intensity insights, app-level breakdowns, and filtering by organizational attributes.

This experience will be enabled by default for tenants with at least 1 M365 Copilot license. You can disable insights for Copilot Chat (unlicensed) in Viva Feature Access Management, either at user- or tenant-level.

Screenshot: Copilot chat adoption in Copilot Dashboard

This message is associated with Roadmap ID 501581.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected:

• Tenants with at least one Microsoft 365 Copilot license assigned.
• Admins and users enabled for Microsoft Copilot Dashboard.

For tenants with 1-49 paid licenses:

For tenants with at 1-49 M365 Copilot licenses the user experience for the M365 Copilot adoption and impact insights will also update and include organizational filters and group by attributes. However, the minimum group size restrictions, defaulting to 10, will still apply.

It’s important to note that tenants with 1-49 M365 Copilot licenses will not have access to the premium features available to those with 50 or more M365 Copilot licenses. These premium features include benchmarks, export capabilities, Agent dashboard and agent insights on Copilot dashboard, the Reports tab, Advanced insights with query abilities, Group Manager access, as well as any other Viva Insights premium features from Personal and Team insights.

What will happen:

• Feature will be enabled by default; no admin action required.
• New analytics cards and visualizations will appear in the Copilot Dashboard adoption tab.
• Insights will include:
  • Usage Trends Over Time: Visualize how Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat adoption evolves at your organization, by measuring the number of active users over time.
  • Adoption by Group: Compare adoption across organizational attributes, such as organization or job function to uncover where Copilot Chat is gaining traction and where further engagement may be needed.
  • Usage intensity and retention insights: Analyze how consistently users return to Copilot Chat and how many Copilot actions are being taken, with metrics on recurring usage and usage intensity.
  • App-Level Breakdowns: Identify which entry points and applications are driving Copilot Chat adoption.
  • Filtering and drilldown capabilities will be available for both Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot views on the adoption and impact tabs.
  • Filtering and Drilldown: Filter by org attributes to explore adoption patterns, enabling Copilot Dashboard users to tailor their change management and support approaches for maximum impact.

Administrator Controls:

Global administrators, Viva Insights Administrators, and AI administrators will continue to have the following controls:  

• Create a policy for the Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat in Copilot Dashboard feature through Viva Feature Access Management (VFAM) in Microsoft Admin Center or PowerShell.
• Create a policy for access to the Viva Insights web app through Viva Feature Access Management (VFAM) in Microsoft Admin Center or PowerShell. 
• Exclude certain users or groups of users of Microsoft 365 Copilot chat from being included in the aggregated insights through the exclusion feature. 

Learn more: 

• Manage access to Viva Insights web app for individual users and groups in Microsoft 365 admin center
• Control access to features in Microsoft 365

[What you can do to prepare:]

• Read the Microsoft announcement regarding Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
• Review and assess the impact on your organization.
• Update training and documentation as appropriate.
• No additional configuration is required; metrics will be enabled by default.

[Compliance considerations:]

Updated February 19, 2026: Performance may be slower on some browsers for large basic plans with more than 300 tasks. For best results, please use the latest versions of Edge (144 or higher) or Chrome (144 or higher). Meanwhile, we’re also working on an update that we expect to improve performance.

[Introduction]

In early 2026, a major update of Planner will begin rolling out. This update will introduce several new capabilities. In addition, several features will be retired from Microsoft Planner. These changes will begin rolling out between mid-January 2026 and mid-February 2026.

[When this will happen:]

Refer to the sections below for details on timing.

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected: All users of Microsoft Planner in your organization, including those using Planner components in Loop, integrations with Viva Goals, and premium Planner plans.

What will happen:

In early 2026, we will begin rolling out a new major update of the Planner app in Teams desktop and web as well as Planner on the web. This update will come with several new enhancements, and we will also be retiring several features at this time. See each section below for more detail on the timing.

New features in the upcoming Planner update:

• These changes will be available with the new update, which we expect to begin rolling in mid-February 2026.
• Tasks chats in basic plans will allow team members to collaborate directly on tasks using rich text formatting and @mentions, making it easier to discuss work and notify teammates about what needs attention.
• Goals in basic plans for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or a Planner premium license. Goals will allow teams to set clear, well-defined objectives to help prioritize work. By connecting tasks to shared goals, teams achieve greater alignment, gain clarity on priorities, and track progress and outcomes—driving the plan forward together.

New features coming in subsequent Planner updates:

• Project manager agent will be available in all plans for M365 Copilot licensed users, including basic plans. The Project Manager agent can help teams get work done faster by executing on tasks and can help drive alignment by writing comprehensive status reports based on plan updates.
• Custom templates will allow you to create reusable, pre-designed plan layouts tailored to your organization’s needs, ensuring consistency and saving time. They provide the ability to standardize content while allowing easy customization for specific scenarios.

Features in Planner that will be retired:

• We expect this rollout to begin between mid-January 2026 and mid-February 2026.
• The following changes will take effect as this build rolls out to your organization:
• A new Task chat experience will replace the prior comments experience for basic plan tasks:
  • As noted above, the previous task comments experience will be replaced by a new task chat feature that supports messages about the task that can include @mentions and rich text formatting, in response to a longstanding top customer request. Due to customer feedback on our notifications experience, the new chat feature only sends an email/Teams notification to a colleague that’s been @mentioned in the message.
  • The task chat experience will be available on Planner in Teams web/desktop and the Planner web experience, and the old experience for viewing comments will no longer be directly visible on a task. Instead, the task details pane will show a link to open a page in Outlook where task comments can be seen.
  • Users can continue to use and see the previous task comments experience in the iOS Planner app, Android Planner app, and Planner in Teams mobile. New task chat messages will not be visible in the mobile experience at this time.
  • There are no changes to email notifications for the existing task comments experience, meaning that an email notification will be sent to all group members associated with the plan when a task comment is added.
  • There is no change to the premium plan conversations feature at this time.
• The whiteboard tab for premium plans will be retired.
  • This feature automatically created a whiteboard for premium plans in Planner and allowed users to create tasks in Planner from that whiteboard’s sticky notes.
  • The whiteboard tab will be unavailable on the premium plan after retirement of this feature.
  • Users will be unable to create tasks from a whiteboard as a result.
  • Any existing whiteboard content will remain available via the Whiteboard app.
  • There is no replacement for this feature at this time.

Features in Planner that will be temporarily unavailable:

• We expect this rollout to begin between mid-January 2026 and mid-February 2026.
• Convert a basic plan to a premium plan will be temporarily unavailable.
• The ability to convert an existing basic plan to a premium plan will be unavailable.
• We plan to make similar functionality available again in the future.
• In the meantime, users will need to create a new premium plan and manually copy the tasks into the new plan.

Features that will be retired as we pursue a long‑term plan to bring equivalent capabilities:

• Planner component in Loop pages.
  • This control, which could previously be inserted by typing /planner in a Loop workspace or pasting the link to a Plan, was one of the available options. This control will be retired between mid-January 2026 and mid-February 2026.
  • Loop pages support various options for capturing task information. We recommend the Task List Control in Loop to capture tasks.
  • After the retirement of this control, which is expected to begin in January 2026 and will roll out independent of the Planner update rollout, it will no longer be possible to add a new component of this type in a Loop workspace.
  • Workspaces where these components were already present will display the Planner plan URL where the component was previously located.
  • Tasks previously entered in these components will remain available in Planner.

While the Planner component in Loop is being retired currently, we recognize the user need around a component like this for their planning needs. We have a longer-term goal to bring a similar Planner component across our M365 suite, including Loop. Considering these discussions are still in an early stage, we do not have an ETA to share currently.

 Features outside of Planner that will be retired without replacement:

• Planner integration in Viva Goals.
  • Viva Goals will be retired on December 31, 2025, as previously announced. Refer to Viva Goals retirement for more information.
  • When Viva Goals is retired, the entry point in Viva Goals for use with Planner will no longer be available.
• iCalendar feed integration retirement.
  • This feature will be retired between mid-January 2026 and mid-February 2026.
  • This feature allowed users to subscribe to their Planner tasks as an iCalendar feed that could be viewed in iCalendar-compatible applications like Outlook.
  • After this feature is retired, users will not be able to create new iCalendar feeds for their tasks or plans, and they will stop seeing their tasks in the iCalendar feeds they previous created.
  • There is no replacement for this feature at this time.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• These changes will happen automatically by the specified dates.
• No admin action is required.
• Notify users about this change.
  • Update relevant documentation as appropriate.
  • Share the recommended alternate options where appropriate, as described above.

[Compliance considerations:]

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

[Introduction]

To help organizations gain better operational visibility into Microsoft Fabric workloads while maintaining centralized governance, Microsoft is enabling the tenant setting “Workspace admins can turn on monitoring for their workspaces” by default. This change reflects customer feedback requesting easier access to workspace-level insights without automatically enabling monitoring or changing existing permissions. This update does not turn on monitoring for any workspace.

[When this will happen:]

Starting March 23, 2026

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected:

• Tenants using Microsoft Fabric
• Tenant admins managing Fabric tenant settings
• Workspace Admins managing Fabric workspaces

What will happen:

• The tenant setting “Workspace admins can turn on monitoring for their workspaces” will be enabled by default.
• No monitoring is automatically enabled for any existing or new workspace.
• Workspace Admins can choose whether to enable monitoring for their individual workspaces.
• If enabled by a Workspace Admin, monitoring provides access to logs, metrics, and operational insights related to Fabric items within that workspace.
• Existing tenant governance, permissions, and security controls are respected.
• There is no impact to end users unless Workspace Admins explicitly enable monitoring.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• No immediate action is required.
• Review the tenant setting in the Fabric Admin portal to understand or adjust your governance posture.
• If needed, disable the setting to prevent Workspace Admins from enabling monitoring at the workspace level.
• Consider communicating internal guidance to Workspace Admins about when and how workspace monitoring should be used.
• Learn more about Workspace Monitoring

[Compliance considerations:]

[Introduction]

We’re expanding Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) controls to provide broader governance for Microsoft 365 Copilot. With this update, DLP policies that prevent Copilot from processing content based on sensitivity labels will now apply to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files regardless of where they are stored. This enhancement responds to customer feedback requesting more consistent protection coverage across local and cloud-based file locations.

This feature is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 557255.

[When this will happen]

• General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): Rollout will begin in late March 2026 and is expected to complete by late April 2026.

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected

• Organizations using Microsoft Purview DLP to restrict Copilot processing of sensitivity-labeled content
• Admins who manage Purview DLP policies
• Users working with Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint

What will happen

• DLP policies that restrict Copilot from processing sensitivity‑labeled files will apply to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in all storage locations, including:
  • SharePoint
  • OneDrive for Business
  • Local device storage
  • Other storage locations accessible to Office apps
• When a DLP policy blocks Copilot processing, Copilot will not process the file’s content in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
• Existing DLP policies will continue to function normally; no policy migration or reconfiguration is required.
• The feature will be on by default for tenants with relevant DLP rules configured.
• Users will see consistent DLP enforcement when invoking Copilot in supported Microsoft 365 apps.

Implementation detail:

This update does not modify Copilot capabilities. Instead, Office clients and AugLoop have been enhanced so AugLoop can read a file’s sensitivity label directly from the client. Today, AugLoop retrieves the label by calling Microsoft Graph using the file’s SharePoint or OneDrive URL, which limits DLP enforcement to files stored in OneDrive and SharePoint. By enabling the client to provide the label, DLP enforcement now applies uniformly across all storage locations, including local files.

[What you can do to prepare]

No action is required to enable this feature.

If your organization uses DLP controls for Copilot, you may optionally:

• Review existing DLP policies that include sensitivity-label-based restrictions
• Update internal documentation or helpdesk guidance if needed
• Communicate this enhancement to relevant security or compliance teams

Learn about managing DLP policies: Learn about data loss prevention | Microsoft Purview | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations]

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

[Introduction]

We’re introducing an improved device settings experience in Microsoft Teams on the web, designed to make it easier for users to configure audio and video devices before or during meetings. This update consolidates speaker, microphone, and camera controls into a single, streamlined location.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCCH, DoD): Rolling out early February 2026 and completing by late February 2026.

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected:

All users accessing Microsoft Teams on the web.

What will happen:

• Users will see a new Device settings panel under Settings → Devices.



• Select preferred speaker and microphone.
• Place a test call to confirm audio configuration.
• Select a camera.
• Adjust video settings, including Mirror my video and Adjust brightness.

Additional details:

• The new device settings experience is on by default.
• No changes to existing admin policies or controls.
• No impact to current meeting workflows.

[What you can do to prepare:]

No admin action is required for this rollout.

Optional steps:

• Communicate these changes to helpdesk and support teams.
• Update internal training materials or user guidance.

[Compliance considerations:]

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

• Find, filter, and sort data using natural language prompts.
• Generate interactive charts from tabular data instantly.
• Personalize visualizations to highlight trends and relationships.
• Save AI-generated charts for future reference.

• Personalize your Message center feed
• Microsoft 365 admin center email preferences
• Track message center tasks in Planner
• Message center in the Microsoft 365 admin center
• Windows Tech Community