Microsoft 365 Updates: Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Office 365, Outlook, and Azure Active Directory
Key Updates and Announcements
Happy Friday everyone, and welcome to March!
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SharePoint will see the addition of multilingual publishing for modern SharePoint communications sites. The feature enables inclusiveness by enabling organisations to easily enable translation of SharePoint modern pages. This feature is expected to be rolled out to Microsoft 365 customers by end of March 2020. Note that this will not be available for tenants within China hosted by 21Vianet.
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Version history is to be enabled for OneDrive allowing document history and restores to be performed via File Explorer or Mac Finder. This new feature brings more functionality into the native file navigation tools for both PC and Mac and simplifies the file experience by removing the need to use OneDrive via a web browser to perform these file functions. The rollout of this feature is expected to be completed by end of March 2020.
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Several new Teams features expected to have been rolled out are delayed, have missed their rollout targets, and will be completed in the coming months. This includes the updated meeting scheduling experience for Teams ,the new chat button moving to a new location within Teams, and teams/outlook integrations.
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The Quick poll feature for Outlook will be included as part of Outlook by default, you will no longer need to manually download and install the add-in. The expected time frame for this change to occur is end of April 2020.
List of Updates
Note: Please ensure you’re signed into your Office 365 Administration portal to access the links referenced below. Also note, some tenants may not have all the below updates currently published to them
New Feature: Multilingual publishing for modern SharePoint
Click here for more information
MC205516, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 5, 2020
This feature enables the publishing and consumption of pages and news in multiple languages in a modern SharePoint communication site. This is an opt-in feature. Site owners must take action to enable this experience. See details below.
We will be gradually rolling out this feature to Targeted Release (entire organization) customers by the end of March 2020. The roll out will be completed for all customers, by the end of May 2020.
Note: The notifications experience of this feature will not be available for Office 365 customers in China, operated by 21Vianet. The other aspects of this feature will be available for China customers. Please see Office 365 services in China.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 50217
Updated Feature: end user access to phishing email
Click here for more information
MC200232, Stay Informed, Published date: Jan 14, 2020
This is an update to MC193076, adding ‘High confidence phishing email’ to the spam filter policy.
- We’ll be gradually rolling this out to customers starting in early February 2020.
Updated Feature: Teams @team and @channel for non-English users
Click here for more information
MC205585, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 5, 2020
@team and @channel features were localized in November last year. We heard from customers via the Microsoft Teams UserVoice that they wanted the ability to utilize these both localized as well as in English. We are pleased to announce that >we are updating Microsoft Teams to support both localized and English use of @team and @channel.
We have begun rolling this change out and expect to be complete by the end of March.
New Feature: OneDrive Sync Version History
Click here for more information
MC205517, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 5, 2020
Your Windows and Mac users will now be able to view and restore previous versions of their files directly in the desktop via File Explorer or the Mac Finder.
- We’ll be gradually rolling this out to customers in mid-March.
- The rollout will be completed by the end of March.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 61527.
Microsoft 365 preparedness for COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and guidance regarding best practices for Microsoft Teams
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MC205458, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 4, 2020
Major Update: Announcement Applies To: All
Microsoft takes a broad approach to service continuity, including potential effects of an outbreak such as COVID-19. While there is currently no foreseen impact to Microsoft’s operation of our services, we wanted to provide some detail regarding our preparedness should the situation change. Recognizing customers will have plans in place for enabling remote work in a situation like this, we are providing guidance regarding best practices under the “Actions you can take” section that will help maximize the benefits of Microsoft 365.
Microsoft has a comprehensive business continuity program, details of which can be found in a PDF here (file name: “Microsoft Cloud - Enterprise Business Continuity Management (EBCM) Program”). This document outlines our efforts across a multitude of scenarios including pandemic response.
Specific to COVID-19, we are providing an outline of key preparedness activities to ensure continued service delivery during this event. The three areas of focus during any situation that challenges normal operations are as follows:
- Impact to systems – does the event have a potential impact on our systems used to deliver and support Microsoft 365?
- Impact to location – are the locations from which we deliver and support service effected and what is our response?
- Impact to people – are we prepared should there be impact to the individuals responsible for delivering service to our customers?
While the following provides the high-level efforts in each of these areas, there are significantly more activities that relate to our business continuity efforts for Microsoft 365 that are beyond the scope of this communication.
Updated Feature: Microsoft Authenticator app shows fullscreen account pages
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MC205513, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 5, 2020
We’re updating the Microsoft Authenticator app user interface to show fullscreen account views.
- We’ll be gradually rolling this out to your end users who are iOS test flight customers in early March 2020.
- We’ll begin rolling it out to all iOS customers in mid-March 2020.
- We’ll be rolling this out on Android later this spring.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 61746.
New Feature: Enhanced scheduling experience in Teams
Click here for more information
MC200243, Stay Informed, Published date: Jan 14, 2020
Major Update: Announcement Applies To: All
Updated March 3, 2020: We are extending the roll-out timeframe for this feature to ensure the best experience. We apologize for the inconvenience.
We’re updating Microsoft Teams with an enhanced scheduling experience.
- We will roll this feature out in mid-February 2020 and expect to be complete by mid-March.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 54364.
Updated Feature: New Location of New Chat button in Teams
Click here for more information
MC196069, Stay Informed, Published date: Nov 18, 2019
Updated March 2, 2020: To ensure the best experience we have updated the roll out timeline for this feature. We apologize for any inconvenience.
We’re changing the location of the New Chat button in Teams, and moving the Contacts and Recent view options to a drop down in the Chat list header, as opposed to standalone tabs.
Rolling into general availability mid-March (previously mid-January), and the roll out will be completed by mid-April (previously mid-February).
This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID 58033.
The old experience:
The new experience:
Update available for Office 365 ProPlus on the Monthly Channel
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MC205277, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 2, 2020
We’ve released an update to the Office 365 ProPlus Monthly Channel to address an issue with Outlook interacting with third party applications.
We’ll be gradually rolling out this update of Office 365 ProPlus to users on the Monthly Channel starting March 1st 2020.
New Feature: SharePoint home sites
Click here for more information
MC195924, Stay Informed, Published date: Nov 16, 2019
Updated March 2, 2020: To ensure the proper experience we are postponing this release. We will provide an updated schedule via a new Message center post once it is available. We apologize for the inconvenience.
SharePoint home sites is a new Office 365 feature.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 26842.
New Feature: Teams-Outlook Email Integrations
Click here for more information
MC198124, Stay Informed, Published date: Dec 13, 2019
Major Update: Announcement Applies To: All customers
Updated March 2, 2020: The ability to share a conversation via email has been released. We are updating the timeline for sharing email to Teams and replying to teams missed activity emails. These two features will be rolled out by mid-April. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Teams-Outlook Email Integrations is a set of three new features designed to help you share information between Microsoft Teams and Outlook:
- Share email to Teams
- Share a copy of an email and any attachments from Outlook to a channel or chat in Teams.
- Share conversation via email
- Share a copy of a Teams channel or chat conversation via email directly from the Teams client.
- Reply to Teams missed activity emails
- Ability to respond to Teams missed activity emails directly within Outlook clients, as well as see the latest missed messages.
Rolling into general availability starting in mid-January and complete roll out by mid-April (previously early February).
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 57389
New Feature: Poll added to Outlook
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MC205124, Stay Informed, Published date: Feb 29, 2020
Your end users will no longer need to download the Quick Poll add-in from the store and manually install it in Outlook to create a poll after we pre-install the Poll add-in.
- We’ll be gradually rolling this out to Outlook for Mac and Outlook on the web (desktop) beginning in late March 2020.
- The rollout for Outlook for Mac and Outlook on the web will be completed in late April.
- We expect to release Outlook for Windows to Monthly Channel customers in late April and to Semi-Annual Channel customers in January 2021.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs 61203 and 61372.
New Feature: New features coming to the Office 365 app launcher and Office.com
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MC198313, Stay Informed, Published date: Dec 16, 2019
Updated March 2, 2020: We have rolled out the ability for users to manage pinned applications. We are updating the roll-out timeline to reflect the availability for admin to manage the pinning of 3rd party or line of business applications. >We apologize for the inconvenience.
We are modifying how your users access Office.com apps.
- We’ll be gradually rolling this out to targeted release customers in mid-January 2020.
- The rollout will be complete by mid April (previously February).
- This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 59667.