Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 25-02-2025

Updated February 24, 2025: The Worldwide release has been temporarily rolled back. We will update this Message center post with new timelines once available. The Targeted release remains enabled.

Coming soon: Users will be able to pop out the side panes for Notes, Chat, and Microsoft Copilot panes in Microsoft Teams meetings

Note: The Copilot pane is only available in Worldwide environments with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421607.

[When this will happen:]

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

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will communicate via Message center when ready to proceed.

[How this will affect your organization:]

After the rollout, users will see a pop-out icon at the top of their Notes, Chat, and Copilot side panes in Teams meetings. This change will be on by default.

When users select the icon, the pane will pop out into a separate window that the user can resize and drag to their desired position, based on their screen setup and their productivity goals for the meeting. Users can view multiple meeting features at the same time, so they don’t miss the chat while they are monitoring meeting notes.

Chat window in the default position in a meeting:

Chat windows popped out into a separate window:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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

Updated February 24, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Administrators and security operators who are using third-party report message solutions in Microsoft Outlook to allow their users to report suspicious messages (for example, Knowbe4, Hoxhunt, Cofense, Proofpoint add-ins, and so on) can now configure Defender for Office 365 to automatically send these messages to Microsoft for analysis.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 406167.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

You must configure this setting if you want the benefit of sending third-party reported messages to Microsoft.

To enable this setting:

1. Go to User reported settings in the Microsoft Defender portal, select Monitor reported messages in Outlook, and then select Use a non-Microsoft add-in button.
2. In the Reported message destination section, select Microsoft and my reporting mailbox, and then provide the email address of the internal Exchange Online mailbox where user-reported messages by the third-party add-ins are being routed to. If the third-party vendor follows the guidance for message submissions format, Defender for Office 365 will submit these messages automatically to Microsoft for analysis.
3.  The result from Microsoft after analysis is shown on the User reported page in the Defender portal.

For more details about how Microsoft handles user-reported suspicious messages, see Report suspicious email messages to Microsoft.

Alerts are automatically generated for user reported messages in Defender for Office 365. If you have Defender for Office 365 Plan 2, Automated investigation and response (AIR) is also automatically triggered for user reported phishing messages. Both alerts and their investigations are automatically correlated to Defender XDR Incidents, which helps SOC teams with automation to triage, investigate, and respond. Submitting these messages to Microsoft for analysis provides a response of this analysis to security analysts and also helps improve Defender for Office 365 filters.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

If your user reporting settings are already set to Use a non-Microsoft add-in button and Microsoft and my reporting mailbox, you don’t need to do anything to benefit from this change. However, if the destination is My reporting mailbox only, you need to change the destination to Microsoft and my reporting mailbox to benefit from this change. 

Updated February 24, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline and content. Thank you for your patience.

We are delaying this change until mid-March to allow time to for customer experiencing issues with classic Outlook shortcuts to use this workaround. Some customers may still see classic Outlook shortcuts listed as just “Outlook”, which could lead to confusion when new Outlook’s installed name changes. The workaround for this issue is documented here.

Coming soon: The installed name for new Microsoft Outlook for Windows will change from “Outlook (new)” to “Outlook.”

This rollout comes after a change to the classic Outlook in version 2407, previously announced in MC803006 (Update) Outlook for Windows display name change (published June 2024, updated August 2024), which added “(classic)” to the installed name to differentiate the two apps.

[When this will happen:]

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

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Outlook in the Windows Start menu. Left: Before the name change. Right: After the name change:

This change will be on by default. This part of the app identity is not customizable for organizations.

As always, we recommend planning your organization’s migration to the new Outlook using the resources at https://aka.ms/newOutlookAdoption

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.

#newoutlookforwindows

Updated February 24, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: A new Mic volume indicator on the user bar in Teams meetings. This feature will provide users with real-time visual feedback on their audio levels in the meeting, eliminating the need to ask, “Can you hear me?” This feature is designed to minimize interruptions as well as enhance user confidence and meeting effectiveness.

This feature applies to Teams on Windows desktop and Mac desktop.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468274.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out in late April 2025 (previously mid-May) and expect to complete by early May 2025 (previously mid-June).

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out in early May 2025 (previously late June) and expect to complete by mid-May (previously early August).

[How this will affect your organization:]

This feature will be available to users by default and has no admin policy.

Users can select the Mic icon and review the Microphone section of the menu to find out more about their audio levels in the meeting:

[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.

Learn more: Muting and unmuting your mic in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support