Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter en blogs updates van 16-11-2024

Updated November 15, 2024: We have made the decision to not proceed with this change for DoD, GCC, or GCC High organizations at this time. We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed. The External Recipient Rate Limit will only apply to WWMT/Production.

Today, we are announcing that, beginning in January 2025, Exchange Online will begin enforcing an external recipient rate limit of 2000 recipients in 24 hours.

Exchange Online does not support bulk or high-volume transactional email. We have not enforced limiting of bulk email until now, but we plan on doing so with the introduction of an External Recipient Rate (ERR) limit. The ERR limit is being introduced to help reduce unfair usage and abuse of Exchange Online resources.

[When this will happen:]

The new ERR limit will be introduced in 2 phases:

• Phase 1 – Starting January 1, 2025, the limit will apply to cloud-hosted mailboxes of all newly created tenants.
• Phase 2 – Between July and December 2025, we will start applying the limit to cloud-hosted mailboxes of existing tenants.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Exchange Online enforces a Recipient Rate limit of 10000 recipients for cloud-hosted mailboxes. The 2000 ERR limit will become a sublimit within this 10000 Recipient Rate limit. There is no change to the Recipient Rate limit, and both of these will be rolling limits for 24-hour windows. You can send to up to 2,000 external recipients in a 24-hour period, and if you max out the external recipient rate limit then you will still be able to send to up to 8,000 internal recipients in that same period. If you don’t send to any external recipients in a 24-hour period, you can send to up to 10,000 internal recipients.

For example:

• You use a cloud-hosted mailbox to send to 1,000 external recipients and 2,000 internal recipients at 6:00AM on Day 1, for a total of 3,000 recipients. You then send to another 1,000 external recipients at 8:00AM on Day 1. Because you sent to 2,000 external recipients, you will be blocked from sending to external recipients until 6:00AM on Day 2. During this period, you are able to send to up to 6,000 internal recipients, but for this example, let’s assume that you don’t.
• At 6:00AM on Day 2, the 1,000 external recipients and 2,000 internal recipients sent at 6:00AM on Day 1 will no longer count toward the 24-hour limit calculation. Thus, from 6:00-8:00AM on Day 2, you can send to up to 9,000 total recipients (e.g., 9,000 internal or 8,000 internal plus 1,000 external).
• If you don’t send to any internal or external recipients during this period, then at 8:00AM on Day 2 you can again send to 10,000 recipients total with up to 2,000 of them being external recipients.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

If you have a cloud-hosted mailbox that needs to exceed the ERR limit, you can move to Azure Communication Services for Email, which is designed specifically for high volume email sent to recipients external to your tenant.

Updated November 15, 2024: After further review we have decided not to proceed with this change at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience. 

This feature update expands how Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android gives external recipient warnings.

[When this will happen:]

 We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed.

[How this will affect your organization:]

A new optional administrative setting (InternalDomains) allows your organization to configure a list of internal domains to inform the external recipients warning in Outlook for iOS and Android. If set, this list of domains will be used to make determinations for external recipient warnings rather than the MailTip service

This feature update is available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Manage the option to provide a list of external domains to provide external recipient MailTip warnings by Outlook for iOS and Android. For more information, see External recipients MailTip domain configuration.

You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate. 

Updated November 14, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Viva Insights: We will improve sentiment insights by enabling users to view Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 survey results from Viva Glint or Viva Pulse in the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard. Users can start a Pulse Copilot impact survey directly from the Copilot Dashboard and filter results to compare Copilot impact by attributes. Survey results will only be available for groups that meet the minimum privacy threshold set by Viva admins.

Only survey results that use the Microsoft Copilot impact template will be displayed. Learn more: Microsoft Copilot Impact Survey template in Viva Glint | Microsoft Learn

To access this feature, subscription plans for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 as well as Viva suite, Viva Glint, or Viva Pulse are required.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 412358.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late October 2024 (previously late September) and expect to complete by early December 2024 (previously early November).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, Users enabled to view the Copilot Dashboard do not see survey results from the Pulse Copilot impact survey template or the Glint Copilot impact survey template and are not able to start a Pulse survey from the Copilot Dashboard.

After this rollout, users enabled to view the Copilot Dashboard will see these updates to the Impact tab of the Copilot Dashboard:

• A Start Pulse survey button will be available.
• Survey results from the Pulse Copilot impact survey template will be available.
• Survey results from the Glint Copilot impact survey template will be available, if the Glint admin selects the program to be sent to Viva Insights. Learn more about sending data from Glint to Insights: Export Viva Glint survey results to Viva Insights (preview) | Microsoft Learn.

This new feature is on by default.

Sentiment data in Copilot Dashboard:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

After this rollout, these existing admin controls will continue to be respected:

• If a user has not been provided access to the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard, this feature will be unavailable to them. Learn more: Manage settings for the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard | Microsoft Learn.
• If Viva Pulse or Viva Glint is not enabled for your organization, this feature will be unavailable.
• Privacy thresholds set by the Viva Insights admin or the (Glint/Pulse) survey admin will be respected in the Copilot Dashboard.

Review and assess the impact on your organization. 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 November 14, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

A new Microsoft Purview compliance portal introduces a pivotal communications enhancement that integrates Insider Risk Management (IRM) alerts within Communication Compliance (CC) triage flows, providing a holistic approach to compliance risk assessment. This integration empowers investigators with enriched insights by correlating communication alerts with a user’s risk profile and activity history from IRM directly in a CC triage flow. This synergy between IRM and CC facilitates a more nuanced and informed decision-making process during investigations. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 408534.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

The integration of IRM context into CC is a significant stride towards enhancing the efficacy of compliance investigations. This will allow investigators to view a user’s risk profile and history alongside communication alerts, enabling a more informed and efficient triage process.

The insider risk severity (Low, Medium, or High) determined by activity detected in IRM policies helps to prioritize and respond to user activity accordingly. A new user activity timeline will show messages and activities from IRM in one screen, simplifying the review process.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

To use this feature, please connect with IRM administrators to enable Data sharing from IRM settings. If you don’t turn this setting on, you will see Insider risk activity not available.

Updated November 11, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Purview compliance portal | Communication Compliance: A notification banner designed to enhance transparency will alert users when keywords embedded in hidden content (such as hyperlinks or encoded strings) trigger a compliance policy match. With this rollout, investigators will be able to quickly recognize that some or all keyword matches are not immediately visible in the main content body, saving time and ensuring a more efficient triage experience.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 417483.

[When this will happen:]

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

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early January 2024 (previously mid-November) and expect to complete by mid-January 2024 (previously early December).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, users and investigators are not notified if policy matches occur for hidden text.

After this rollout, users will be notified if any policy matches in a message are concealed and not readily discernible in the main content.

This feature 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 admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

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

Updated November 14, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams admin center: For the existing Meeting chat control, we will add two new options that allow admins to disable meeting chat before and after a meeting, In-meeting only for everyone and In-meeting only except anonymous users.

This message applies to Teams for Windows desktops and Mac desktops, Teams on the web, and Teams for iOS/Android.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422808.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, admins will find the two new options in the Teams admin center > Meetings > Meeting policies > Meeting engagement > Meeting chat.

Admins can select from five Meeting chat options:

• On for everyone
• On for everyone but anonymous users
• Off
• In-meeting only for everyone (new)
• In-meeting only except anonymous users (new)

Admins can select the In-meeting only options to disable the ability of meeting participants to send messages in the meeting chat before or after the meeting, for meetings organized by specific users in their tenant. When one of the In-meeting only options is selected, participants can read past chat history, but they can only send messages in the meeting chat while the meeting is active.

The new options will be available for admins to configure. This rollout will respect the options selected by admins before the rollout. To use the new options, admins must select one of them.

[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: Manage chat in Teams meetings – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

Updated November 14, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

An updated feature in new Outlook for Windows and web will allow users to categorize individual emails within the conversation view, enhancing organization and tracking.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 416450.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early December 2024 and expect to complete by early January 2025.

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Categories will continue to function as they currently do. This new functionality will allow users to add categories to individual email items when the user is using the conversion view mode, consistent with the functionality from the previous version of Outlook.

[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 November 11, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Purview compliance portal | Communication Compliance: A notification banner designed to enhance transparency will alert users when keywords embedded in hidden content (such as hyperlinks or encoded strings) trigger a compliance policy match. With this rollout, investigators will be able to quickly recognize that some or all keyword matches are not immediately visible in the main content body, saving time and ensuring a more efficient triage experience.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 417483.

[When this will happen:]

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

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early January 2024 (previously mid-November) and expect to complete by mid-January 2024 (previously early December).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, users and investigators are not notified if policy matches occur for hidden text.

After this rollout, users will be notified if any policy matches in a message are concealed and not readily discernible in the main content.

This feature 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 admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

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

Updated November 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Forms is updating the end-to-end experience with a new appearance for the portal page, form creation, and response analysis. Users can toggle between upgraded templates as they create their form and then view insights and suggested actions when the responses come in.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 400715.

[When this will happen:]

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Employees who use Microsoft Forms will get the new UI experience after release.

In the portal page, templates are organized into four categories – Feedback, Registration, Research, and Quiz. 

As users enter the design page, they’ll find a wide selection of templates displayed in the left-side pane. They can browse and switch between different types/topics. 

In the right-hand pane, from the Style button, the users can select a style from our suggestions or personalize their own. Additionally, they can choose the layout for the cover page of the invitation.

The results page has also has a new design. Users can now quickly analyze responses with charts and graphs, making the data easier to interpret for more effective analysis.

This new feature is available by default.

Learn more: Revamped Forms experience is now available for commercial users.

[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 November 14, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Comings soon to Microsoft Teams: Users will be able to quickly and efficiently create hyperlinks in chat and channel messages by selecting the text and pasting the URL on top of the text, just like in new Microsoft Outlook for Windows, Microsoft Outlook for the web, and Microsoft Loop. Teams will automatically convert the selected text into a hyperlink, eliminating the need for the Insert link button or the Ctrl+K shortcut.

This message applies to Teams on Windows and Mac desktops.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 420942.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

This change will be 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 November 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: New DVR (digital video recording) functionality for all town halls. This new feature will allow town hall attendees on Windows desktop or the web to interact with a live streaming town hall in the same way they would interact with recorded content. DVR functionality in the town hall enables event attendees to pause and move forward or back in a town hall, navigate to any previous timestamp, and other abilities, making it more convenient to interact with a town hall more and easier to digest the content being presented. This feature is available for Teams town halls from all organizers, regardless of the license assigned to the organizer.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422804.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

After this rollout, the DVR controls will appear when attendees hover their mouse over the content being presented in the town hall. Attendees can:

• Pause, play, and skip 10 seconds forward or backward
• Control the volume of the content with the volume control
• Jump to any point in time, starting from the beginning of the event
• Catch up with the content and join the live event by selecting the Watch Live button next to the volume control

The DVR controls are at the bottom of the Teams window when the Q&A page is open on the right side:

We are committed to continuously improving the Microsoft Teams experience and are excited to bring this new capability to our customers.

This feature 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. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more: Plan for Teams town halls – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

Updated November 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We’re excited to announce that Microsoft Copilot is now available for Business-to-Business (B2B) members in Multi-Tenant Organizations (MTO). With this release, users with B2B (shadow) identities can now access Copilot if they have license in their host tenant during Teams meetings, enhancing collaboration and productivity across organizations.

A new policy setting in Teams Admin Center (TAC) will allow IT admins to manage and control Copilot access specifically for B2B members, ensuring that the feature aligns with each organization’s security and access policies. 

This change is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap Id: 423474

[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 (previously mid-December) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously late December).

[How this will affect your organization:]

If your organization has MTO setup, B2B member will have access to copilot during the Teams meeting.

The policy will be enabled by default. If you would like to disable access of Copilot to B2B member when the meeting is scheduled by your organization, you can go to TAC –> User–> B2B member access–> Disable allow copilot for B2B member.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

If you would like to disable access of Copilot to B2B members when the meeting is scheduled by your organization, you can go to TAC –> User–> B2B member access–> Disable allow copilot for B2B member.

Now users can quickly review files in Microsoft Teams chat and channel conversations using the file preview option. Using preview, users will be able to consume the file within the flow of work, minimizing the context switch and potentially enhancing the efficiency for the users. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421188.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

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

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

The stage 1 release of this feature will enable previews for single file attachments in Teams messages, starting with PDF files and gradually extending the support for other popular formats such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, and later Microsoft Excel. The preview option for files in messages with multiple files will be supported in subsequent releases.  

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.

Coming soon to Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management (IRM): We have enhanced these existing Microsoft Office 365 indicators:

• Downgrading sensitivity labels applied to SharePoint files
• Removing sensitivity labels from SharePoint files

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 466742.

[When this will happen:]

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

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

[How this will affect your organization:] Before this rollout, IRM only captures sensitivity label changes on the Microsoft SharePoint web app.

After this rollout, IRM will capture sensitivity label changes (downgrade or remove) when performed on Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Azure Information Protection, or endpoints (SharePoint files opened in an Office app or any sensitivity label change on the local files on a user’s device). Also, we will rename the indicators:

• Downgrading sensitivity labels applied to SharePoint files will become Downgrading sensitivity labels applied to files
• Removing sensitivity labels from SharePoint files will become Removing sensitivity labels from files

In Activity explorer, events that occurred before this rollout for these indicators will continue to show Labels of sensitive files on SharePoint downgraded or Label of sensitive files removed on SharePoint. Events that occur after the rollout will be shown as Labels of sensitive files downgraded or Labels of sensitive files removed.

No action is needed to enable these features. This feature will be on by default.

The renamed indicators in the IRM policy wizard:

Example of a new event for Downgrading sensitivity labels applied to files as shown in Activity explorer:

[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 admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

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.