Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter en blogs updates van 08-01-2025

Updated January 7, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Purview: The feature to configure HR resignation date as a condition for risk level in Adaptive Protection will be rolling out to General Availability. We communicated the preview for this feature in MC681240 Adaptive Protection in Microsoft Purview: Public preview of HR resignation date as a condition for risk level (November 2023).

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 124972 and 171748

[When this will happen:]

General Availability: We will begin rolling out late June 2024 and expect to complete by mid-January 2025 (previously late mid-December).

[How this will affect your organization:]

When the HR connector has been configured, admins with appropriate permissions can now select the HR resignation date as a condition to assign a minor, moderate, or elevated risk level. For example, an admin can configure the elevated risk level to be assigned when an HR resignation date is sent via the HR connector.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

No action is required for this update. To configure user’s risk level for Adaptive Protection, admins can visit Insider Risk Management > Adaptive Protection (preview) > risk levels for Adaptive Protection.

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

Additional Resources:

You can access the Insider Risk Management solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

• Home – Microsoft Purview 

Learn more about adaptive risk mitigation:

• Help dynamically mitigate risks with Adaptive Protection (preview) | Microsoft Learn

Updated January 7, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

As communicated in MC816207 Microsoft Forms now supports live data sync to Microsoft Excel with more functionality (July 2024), Microsoft Forms is introducing a new data sync solution with higher reliability to sync Forms response data to Microsoft Excel for the web. Before this rollout. Forms supported an older version of live data sync to Excel. The older version of live data sync will be replaced by the newer solution on January 13, 2025 and for GCC on February 13, 2025. This message describes the support that we will provide for migrating from the older solution to the newer solution. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 410988.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): Support for migrating the older data sync to the new solution will begin rolling out in late October 2024 (previously early October). We expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously early October). 

General Availability (GCC) Support for migrating the older data sync to the new solution will begin rolling out in early January 2025 (previously late November). We expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously mid-December 2024). 

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users who rely on the older version to sync data from Forms to Excel will need to manually update the data sync to the new solution before January 13, 2025 (previously October 20, 2024). After this date, existing Excel files with the older data sync will be retained but will no longer receive automatic data updates from Forms.

The older version of the data sync exists in two types of Forms:  

• Forms created from Microsoft OneDrive and Excel for the web
• Group forms created with SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365 Groups.

For these two types of Forms, we will provide this support to migrate to the new solution:

• Users who own Forms with the older version of the data sync will get notifications through email, Forms, and Excel for the web.
• In Forms, users will be able to recreate the data sync with the new solution. The data sync will be created to the same table in the existing workbook as the older data sync. The new worksheet will be connected to the latest data from Forms.
• After the older solution is retired, the user can still recreate a new data sync to the Excel workbook.

For workflows that connect to Excel data from Forms responses (such as Power Automate workflows), users will need to update the workflow to the Forms connector for new response updates. Learn more: Create an automated workflow for Microsoft Forms – Microsoft Support

Note: The new data sync can only be triggered in Excel for the web. If users want to receive new Forms response data in the Excel desktop app, open the file in Excel for the web, and then wait for the desktop app file to sync from the web file. (Support for other versions of Excel is in progress.)

The new data sync solution will be on by default and available to all Forms and Excel for the web customers. 

Notification in Forms to update workbook to continue syncing with Forms:

Notification in Excel for the web to update the data sync to new solution:

Excel workbook is successfully updated to new solution:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

• Send a notification to impacted users and groups to migrate their data syncs to new solution.
• Share the migration solution if users report they cannot get Forms data updated in Excel.
• Learn more: Introducing Forms data sync to Excel – Microsoft Community Hub

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.

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


Updated January 7, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

There is now the ability to forward loop components in Microsoft Teams. With the addition of loop component forwarding, users have a new way to share loop components across chats and channels. To forward a message containing a loop component, simply navigate to the more actions menu of any message containing a loop component and select forward. From there, the forward this message dialog will populate, which provides users with a preview of the message being forwarded, including the loop component. In this view, users will be able to give permissions to recipients of the loop component to ensure all recipients have access to the content. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469507.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users will now have less restrictions when forwarding content. Previously, users were unable to forward messages that contained a loop component. With this improvement, no such restriction exists. 

This update is available by default.

For additional information, see Forward a message in a Teams chat – Microsoft Support.

[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.

Updated January 7, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We’re introducing a pay-as-you-go (PayG) billing model for Agents in SharePoint allowing organizations to use an Azure subscription to pay for the service based on the number of queries used.

[When this will happen:]

Pay-as-you-go billing for Agents in SharePoint is expected to be released starting mid-January 2025. Pay-as-you-go services are disabled by default and services will be available to be used only after PayG billing is set up.

General Availability (WW): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2025 and expected to complete by early February 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

With this update, admins can now provide users without Copilot licenses with the ability to use and create agents on any SharePoint site or document library they have access to. Users with Microsoft 365 Copilot seat licenses can continue using agents in SharePoint according to their license terms. 

[What you need to do to prepare:]

To use agents in SharePoint on a pay-as-you-go basis, admins must first set up billing and activate the service in the Microsoft 365 admin center. An Azure subscription and resource group are required to set up pay-as-you-go billing.

Admins need to have the owner or contributor role for the Azure subscription to setup billing. Select Activate pay-as-you-go services from the Setup page to get started.

Follow these steps to enable PAYG billing for Agents in SharePoint:

1. Visit the https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home#/syntex/documents as a Global Admin or SharePoint Admin
2. Click Pay-as-you-go services in org settings or Activate pay-as-you-go under setup.
3. Go to “Agents in SharePoint” Tab under Billing Tab
4. Setup billing by adding Subscription, Region, and Resource group.

To use pay-as-you go for Agents in SharePoint, you need:

• An Azure subscription.
• An Azure resource group in that subscription.
• For information about how to create an Azure subscription, see Create your initial Azure subscriptions.
• For information about how to create an Azure resource group, see Manage Azure resource groups by using the Azure portal.

Note: The use of PayG to allow unlicensed users to utilize Agents in SharePoint will respect any controls in place to manage Copilot within the organization.

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Users can find and add Microsoft 365 Copilot agents to group chats and use the agents to help increase productivity in collaborative scenarios. Users do not require a Copilot license to use this feature. This message applies to Teams on Windows desktop, Mac desktop, and on the web.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 464988.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, your users can use agents to ask questions about and summarize information in their group conversations. To access the Copilot agents, users can go to the updated group chat participants roster and select Add agents or bots:

The Add agents or bots option opens a contextual view of agents that users can add to the group chat. This view first displays previously installed agents that can be used in the group chat, followed by new agents that can be installed and used in the group chat. For additional agent offerings, users can select Get more apps in the bottom right:

This change will be on by default. If you prefer to disable Copilot for your tenant, review these instructions in Manage Copilot | Microsoft Learn.

[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.

Coming soon to the Microsoft Viva Engage adoption community for Microsoft 365 Copilot, users will receive recommendations of similar questions and answers when composing a question, leveraging the collective knowledge of the Copilot topic across all of Engage to help them find what they’re looking for faster. Additionally, admins will have the ability to remove adoption features from the existing community and apply them to a new or different community.

Since general availability in August 2024 (referenced in MC7841560), network admins and corporate communicators can enable a new type of community specifically built to facilitate the rollout and adoption of Copilot in their organizations. This community can bring employees together in a community of practice where employees can ask questions, seek support from both their peers and IT admins, share best practices, and learn more from articles and quick tips on how best to use Copilot.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

When composing a question in the Copilot adoption community, users will soon have access to a new feature that provides a list of recommended similar questions that have been asked and answered across all of Viva Engage. Users will soon be able to quickly navigate to existing answers, contribute to recommended questions, or post a new question, leveraging the collective knowledge across their network to find information faster and more efficiently.

Admins who want to remove adoption features from the existing community and apply them to a new or different community can do so by navigating to the ellipses (…) menu on the right side of the community header and selecting Unmark Copilot community. This action will remove all adoption features, including suggested content, suggested members, and the setup checklist, while retaining all other content.

This update is available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

There is no required action for admins before the rollout. If your organization is working on rollout and adoption of Copilot, we recommend reading the support documentation to learn more about this new capability in Viva Engage and connecting with the Copilot change managers in your organization to include this in your rollout and adoption change management plan.

Learn more:

• New features in Viva Engage help you rollout and adopt Copilot – Microsoft Community Hub
• Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption community in Viva Engage | Microsoft Learn

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 January 2025 and expect to complete in late January 2025.

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

[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)

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:

We will introduce pay-as-you-go (PayG) billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, admins will have the ability to grant access to Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat to users in their tenant who do not have Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses. The pay-as-you-go service will be disabled by default and will only become available after you set up billing in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Users with Microsoft 365 Copilot seat licenses can continue using the service according to their license terms.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

To use the pay-as-you-go capability for Copilot Chat, set up billing for the feature in Microsoft 365 admin center. To set up pay-as-you-go billing, a Microsoft Azure subscription and a resource group are required. Admins must have either the owner or contributor role for the Azure subscription to set up billing in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Follow these steps to enable PayG billing for Copilot Chat in Microsoft 365 admin center:

Step 1: Log in to the Microsoft 365 admin center as a global admin or Microsoft SharePoint admin. Ensure that this admin also holds either the owner or contributor role for the Azure subscription.

• Go to Org settings and select Pay-as-you-go services.
• Go to Setup and select Pay-as-you-go services.

Step 2: Go the Billing tab, and then select M365 Copilot Chat:

Step 3: Set up billing by adding Subscription, Region, and Resource group. Select Save to complete the billing setup:

Step 4: A completed billing setup:

To disconnect PayG for Copilot Chat, select Disconnect Azure subscription. This change will stop pay-as-you-go access to Copilot Chat:

Learn more:

• Create your initial Azure subscriptions – Cloud Adoption Framework | Microsoft Learn
• Manage resource groups – Azure portal – Azure Resource Manager | Microsoft Learn

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Users will have a new Tag mentions filter in the Activity feed to see their tag mentions in their chat and channel messages. The existing @Mentions filter allows users to catch up quickly on personal mentions.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470598.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

This change will be available by default. There are no tenant level settings. Defaults will not change.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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

User documentation: Explore the Activity feed in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support (will be updated before rollout)

Coming soon to Microsoft Defender for Office: We will introduce Threat classification details to enhance your ability to understand the intent behind email attacks. This update will allow you to integrate Threat classification information across key experiences, enabling better detection, analysis, and response. The Threat classification system utilizes large language models (LLMs), machine learning (ML) models, and other advanced techniques to understand the intent behind threats, providing a more accurate classification. As the system evolves, you can expect new Threat classifications to be added to keep pace with emerging attack methods.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Threat Explorer: You will be able to filter emails by Threat classification, view the classification in the results, analyze trends using charts, and export data with the classification details included:

Advanced Hunting: The ThreatClassification column will be available in the EmailEvents table, allowing you to create custom detection rules based on classification details:

Email summary panel: Threat classification will be integrated across multiple areas, including Alerts, Incidents, Reports, AIR, Submission, Explorer, and Advanced Hunting, providing a comprehensive view of threat classifications:

Email entity page: A new Threat classification field will be added in the threat detection details, helping you understand the context and intent of the detected threat:

These changes will be available by default for admins to configure.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Familiarize your team with the new Threat classification details available in the Threat Explorer, Advanced Hunting, email summary panel, and email entity page.

Leverage Threat classification to enhance filtering, hunting, and trend analysis in your workflows.

Prepare to update any custom detection rules or automated workflows to incorporate Threat classification for more targeted and insightful threat detection.

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 team about this change and update any relevant documentation.

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

Coming soon for Microsoft 365 Copilot: When writing Copilot prompts in the chat box, users will be able to use CIQ to select Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft OneDrive folders using the existing Attach cloud files icon.

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 413109.

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

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

No impact to tenant admins. This change is available by default. Users will be able to attach a OneDrive folder or a SharePoint folder to their prompt, similar to how they can select files to attach before the rollout. Users can only select folders that they own or that are shared to the user.

To add OneDrive or SharePoint folders to add to their Copilot prompt, users can select the Attach cloud files icon in the Copilot chat box:

From the new window, users can select the desired folders to add to their Copilot prompt:

[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 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 mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

[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)

This new feature provides the capability for admins to configure separate retention policies for various Microsoft 365 Copilot and AI apps. As a result, admins will have the option to configure policies that can delete Copilot and Generative AI interactions faster.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470025.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Organizations will now have controls to configure different retention policies for Microsoft Teams Chat, Copilot, Copilot studio, and ChatGPT Enterprise.

This feature is available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

For more information, see Create and configure a retention policy.

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.

The Multi-pin Conversations Carousel is now available for Microsoft Viva Engage.

The behavior of single pin remains the same; two or more pins will enable the carousel. Posts will appear in the order of the most recently pinned post first. Pinned conversations will remain in the feed with a thumbtack icon on the corner to denote that it is a pinned conversation.

 [When this will happen:] 

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Community admins can now pin up to six posts at the top of the community feed. When you pin two or more posts, the carousel feature will automatically activate, enhancing visibility and engagement.

This new feature is available by default.

[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.

Together mode will get a new simplified flow which will take the user from the beginning to the end through the steps of setting up the scene, assigning the seats and applying for everyone in the call in a transparent and easy-to-understand way. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470427

[When this will happen:]

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

With the improved experience, the function itself does not change but there will be more transparency thanks to the icons on the meeting toolbar for an easy access for each next step in the familiar Together mode flow. 

[What you need to do to prepare:]

You may consider updating your training and documentation as appropriate.

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. 

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 late-January 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025.

General Availability (Production, GCC, GCC High, DOD): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 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.

We are introducing tool tips and pointers in the Quarantine portal to help enlighten admins about the product.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout completed in mid-December 2024.

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

We are introducing tool tips and guidance in-product to help enlighten admins about the Quarantine feature and to further eliminate the need to raise support requests for such guidance.

This guidance can be accessed by clicking on the Resolution to common issues on the Quarantine portal.

[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.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: We are updating our default policy settings for transcription for new tenants. Before this rollout, the setting was off by default. After this rollout, the setting will be on by default. This change applies to new global policies created for new tenants. Existing policies in the Teams admin center will not be changed; however, tenants that have not customized any part of their Teams meeting policy will be impacted.

• Tenants without customized policies: The new default settings will apply, and these tenants will be impacted by this change.
• Tenants with customized policies: Policies for user-level assignments or group-level assignments will remain unchanged and unaffected.

This change is designed to streamline the adoption of transcription and enhance the use of all AI features. This change will align transcription with the default policy for recording, which is also enabled by default in Teams admin center. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop and Teams for Mac desktop.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 468282.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, transcription services will be more accessible to users, allowing them to turn on and use transcription as needed during meetings. Transcription will not be automatically activated for every meeting.

For new tenants, transcription will be enabled by default when admins set up their global policies. New tenants will automatically have the transcription policy turned on when they start. Existing tenants without a global policy will also have the policy turned on by default.

Transcription policy on by default in Teams admin center. Admins can turn off the policy if needed:

[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.

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