Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter en blogs updates van 27-06-2024

We will be retiring the Extended directory preview-only feature for Connected Chat in Microsoft Teams starting July 22, 2024, and ending July 31, 2024. Instead, we recommend admins use Teams connect chat supported by external access, where we will continue to invest our development resources. You can access the External access features in Teams admin center > Users > External access.

The Extended directory feature, which was released to public preview customers in February 2024, is being deprecated due to low feature usage and customer demand. As a result, we will gradually phase out the feature by disabling it in all interfaces. The retiring feature was accessed with the Manage external user profiles button:

This change will happen automatically by the specified date. No admin action is required. Conversations (chat) that were established with an Extended directory contact will continue to work if external access policies are enabled.

Learn more about the External access feature: IT Admins – Manage external meetings and chat with people and organizations using Microsoft identities – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (article will be updated around the time of retirement)

We are making it easier to migrate between phone number types by updating Microsoft Teams Phone license handling. With the new changes, Direct Routing and Operator Connect Numbers will no longer be unassigned when a Calling Plan license is added to a user. The user can also get any type of numbers (Direct Routing, Operator Connect, Microsoft Calling Plan) if the required license is present on the user account.

[When this will happen:]

For Teams PowerShell

General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): We will begin rolling out late July 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024.

For Teams admin center

General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): We will begin rolling out late July 2024 and expect to complete by early August 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout: Any existing Direct Routing and Operator Connect numbers assigned to a user account may become unassigned when a Calling Plan license is added.

After this rollout

The existing Direct Routing and Operator Connect number on a user account will not be unassigned when a Calling Plan license is added.

This new behavior is on by default and accessible to all Teams Phone admins with appropriate permissions.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Detailed instructions on licensing can be found in Manage user access to Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

Detailed instructions on Microsoft Teams Voice Solution can be found in Plan your voice solution in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

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 as appropriate.

In Microsoft Viva Amplify, access to templates that are user-created and specific to campaigns is changing. Previously, these templates were only accessible by opening View all templates. The changes are:

• Users can see user-created templates as Campaign templates in positions 1-3 on the campaign overview page (the 4th template is always a blank template to allow easy access to template creation). 

• The most recently created or modified template will be in the 1st position. Every time a template is created or modified, other templates will be pushed out by one position. 
• Additional Viva Amplify templates or Campaign templates are visible under View all templates and can be edited or deleted from this modal.   

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 398978

[When this will happen:] 

General Availability (Worldwide): We began rolling out mid-June 2024 and expect to complete by end of June 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

This feature update makes it easier for users of Viva Amplify to find their most recently used templates. 

For more information, see Create and use publication templates.

This feature update is available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Learning hub resources have moved for Microsoft Defender XDR. We’ve gathered training courses, tutorials, documentation, and other resources for you at Microsoft Learn.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early July 2024 and expect to complete by mid-July 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Updated learning resources are now hosted at learn.microsoft.com. Learning resources will be updated on an ongoing basis and are accessible from this Microsoft Learn for Microsoft Defender XDR page. 

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: We are introducing a new admin control to enable you to block external access (federation) with Teams trial-only tenants. Some malicious actors have used free Teams trials to launch phishing or abuse attacks against Teams users. With this setting you can add another layer of protection for users against some of these attacks.

By default, this new setting will block external access with trial-only tenants 30 days after the rollout is complete and will require explicit action from you if you wish to continue to federate with trial tenants.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): Available now.

Blocking external access with trial-only tenants based on this setting will occur on July 29, 2024. If you take no action, the default value (Blocked) will be applied.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Teams PowerShell will support a new Tenant Federation setting -ExternalAccessWithTrialTenants with the values Allowed or Blocked. When set to Blocked, all external access with users from Teams subscriptions that contain only trial licenses will be blocked. This means users from these trial-only tenants will not be able to search or reach your users via chats, Teams calls, and meetings (using the users’ authenticated identity) and your users will not be able to reach users in these trial-only tenants. If this setting is set to Blocked, users from the trial-only tenant will also be removed from any existing chats. The default setting will be to block external access with trial-only tenants.

Important Notes

• A “trial-only” tenant is defined as a tenant with a Teams service plan that has only Trial subscriptions (0 purchased licenses).
• Shared Channels, Guest access and Anonymous Meeting joins will not be affected by this setting.
• This new setting only controls external communication with trial-only tenants within the same Microsoft 365 cloud environment. When enforcement starts, users from trial-only tenants will be blocked by default from external communication with users in other Microsoft 365 cloud environments and with Microsoft Skype for Business server users. No admin control will exist to allow cross-cloud external communication with trial tenants.
• If your tenant has enabled Allow only specific domains and specified domains in the Allow list, and if -ExternalAccessWithTrialTenants is set to Blocked, trial-only tenants in the Allow list will be blocked. If this setting is set to Allowed, all domains in the Allow list will be allowed.
• If your tenant has enabled Block all external domains, the -ExternalAccessWithTrialTenants setting has no impact.
• If your tenant has enabled Block specific domains and specified domains in the Block list, and if the -ExternalAccessWithTrialTenants setting is set to Blocked, trial-only tenants not in the Block list will also be blocked. If set to Allowed, this setting has no impact.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Review your settings for external access to determine if you need to change the default value for this new setting. To change this setting, install the latest PowerShell package (6.4.0) and use the Set-CsTenantFederationConfiguration command to set the desired value when the setting is available:

1. Download or upgrade to the latest PowerShell package: https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/MicrosoftTeams/
2. To allow external communication with trial-only tenants, use this command: Set-CsTenantFederationConfiguration -ExternalAccessWithTrialTenants "Allowed"
3. To block external communication with trial-only tenants, use this command: Set-CsTenantFederationConfiguration -ExternalAccessWithTrialTenants "Blocked"

Learn more

• PowerShell cmdlet configuration: Set-CsTenantFederationConfiguration | Microsoft Learn
• Manage external communication: IT Admins – Manage external meetings and chat with people and organizations using Microsoft identities

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

The new Microsoft Teams on the web Progressive Web App (PWA) is now available on Windows and macOS for Microsoft Edge and Chrome browsers. This brings Windows and macOS into parity with our existing PWA experience on new Teams on the web for Linux.

The Teams PWA provides the same features as Microsoft Teams on the web, with the addition of these specific web app features: pin to taskbar, pin to Start, create desktop shortcut, and auto-start on device login.

[When will this happen:]

Available now.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Web users in your organization who would benefit from launching Teams on the web as a standalone app can now install the Teams PWA directly from the address bar of their browser.

Users can learn more about managing web apps at these links:

• Install, manage, or uninstall apps in Microsoft Edge
• Using progressive web apps in Chrome

App available icon in the address bar on Microsoft Edge:

PWA installation prompt on Microsoft Edge:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Admins can use the WebAppInstallForceList and WebAppSettings browser policies to install and manage PWAs for their web users, but no special preparation is required.

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

In Microsoft Teams, you will now see message result suggestions when formulating a query. You can also narrow down search results to “messages” to help you quickly find the Teams message content that is most relevant for you. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 398955

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early July 2024 and expect to complete by mid-July 2024.

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

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users can now easily search for Teams messages, as per their allowed admin policy.

New message search scope abilities and message suggestions are available during query formulation. Now, you can find message suggestions while typing your search term in the suggestions box or by selecting the message filter ability that is available. Message suggestions are from recent chats and contain details like sender name, profile pic, location of the message, title of the meeting or group chat, participants, date of message, and icons for any web links or file attachments to help evaluate and find the most relevant message.

If a relevant message is not in the suggestions, you have an option to click See more message results or press Enter in the message-filtered state to see all relevant message suggestions in the message domain of the Search Results page. 

These suggestions are crafted to enable you to find messages easily in Teams while typing the query. 

Use the below instructions to explore the new query suggestions feature:

1. Click in the search box in Teams, and in the first row you’ll find a filter to narrow down results for “messages” along with other domain scoping filters (e.g., Files, Group chat, Teams & Channels). You can select the message scoping filter at any point of formulating the search query to narrow down results and see most recent message suggestions. 
2. Continue to type in the search terms to find relevant message suggestions below top hits (if you haven’t selected the message scoping filter) or below powerbar in the filtered message state. 
3. If you don’t see any relevant results, click on See more messages in the un-scoped state, or View all messages at the bottom of the box or press Enter in the filtered message state to land in the message domain in the Search Results page to see all relevant message suggestions for the typed search term.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically and will available out of box (OOB). You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Currently, when you share a link with view-only permissions in Microsoft 365 apps, clicking on Copy link defaults to an “Only people with existing access” link that does not always target your intended people.

With this new feature, when you share a link with view-only permissions with other people, those people will now be able to copy that same link directly from the Share dialog when they attempt to share. If your only option to share with others is Only people with existing access, you will be able to send a request to the owner to share this file with specific people directly in the sharing control. The owner of the file will then receive a request and will be able to approve or reject the request.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late June 2024 and expect to complete by early July 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, and DoD): We will begin rolling out early July 2024 and expect to complete by mid-July 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

With this new feature, anyone who accesses a Microsoft 365 apps file with view-only permissions will see this new experience. 

Learn more: Sharing files, folders, and list items – Microsoft Support (content within will be updated before rollout begins).

[What you need to do to prepare:]

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

In Microsoft Clipchamp, the Brand kit feature enables users to create and share brand asset collections including colors, fonts and logos to use when creating videos. With this rollout, users with these subscriptions will have Brand kit as a standard feature in Clipchamp:

• Microsoft 365 E3 and E5
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Business Standard
• Microsoft 365 A3 and A5

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 398992.

This message applies to Clipchamp for Windows and for the web.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-July 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late July 2024 and expect to complete by late August 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

You are receiving this message because users in your tenants have licenses which enable access to these capabilities. This update will not impact any other parts of your Microsoft 365 license or Microsoft 365 admin center.

Before this rollout: Users with the subscriptions in this message had no access to Brand kit in Clipchamp and manually managed brand assets when creating videos.

After this rollout, your users can expect these changes in Clipchamp:

• Creation, sharing, and manual usage of Brand kits will become available via all work and education accounts. (Future Brand kit capabilities reserved for Clipchamp Premium license may include scenarios such as automation of brand application in video.)
• “Official” Brand kits for an organization can be made available to all users in a tenant by placing the Brand kits in the Organization Asset Library (OAL). Admins designate who can save to the OAL Brand kit document library. Learn more: Creating and distributing org-wide brand kits in Clipchamp – Microsoft Support
• Brand kit can now support extended elements beyond colors, fonts, and logos including up to 300 each of: videos, music, sound effects, images, backgrounds, and stickers. Users can store all assets in the Brand kit’s folder on Microsoft OneDrive or Microsoft SharePoint.

What users will see

• In Clipchamp, Brand kits can be created, used, or opened by anyone if the creator generates a link to share with them.
• User-created Brand kits can be stored in OneDrive or SharePoint.
• Up to 300 of these brand elements can be stored with the Brand kit: videos, sound effects, music, images, backgrounds, and stickers.

The default state of this feature is on and all users with the specified licenses can access it.

Clipchamp video editor with the Brand kit menu expanded to show example brand kits for Tailspin Toys and Microsoft. Select the Brand kit button from the left side of the screen:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

When this change takes effect, please make note of the new feature in Clipchamp for your administrative records and ensure that you update any relevant provisioning documentation, as needed.

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

Learn more: How to use brand kit in Clipchamp – Microsoft Support

Note: If your organization does not support iOS, you can safely ignore this message.

Currently, when viewing a Microsoft Outlook email, users can access the available actions in the top-right corner of the screen. We are updating these actions to be in a bar at the bottom of the screen, and users will now have the ability to customize the order and placement of the actions.

Additionally, users will now be able to access these actions from their Inbox view by long-pressing a message.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 398983.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability: We will begin rolling out in early July 2024 and will finish rolling out by the end of July 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

The functionality of conversation actions will remain the same. With this update, we are specifically changing the position of the actions, adding the ability to customize, and making actions available in the Inbox view on long-press.

Because these actions will now be at the bottom of the screen when viewing a message, the tab bar to switch between mail, calendar, and so on will no longer be available when reading a message. To get to the tab bar, a user simply has to go back to the Inbox view.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.