Microsoft 365 Updates: Microsoft Teams increasing maximum membership to 10,000 members, SharePoint, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Yammer, Office 365, and Exchange

Date:Friday, Apr 3, 2020
Author: Paul Maggs
Reading Time: 18 minutes
Tags: SharePoint Online Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Teams Yammer Office 365 Exchange Online
Categories: M365 Updates

Key Updates and Announcements

Happy Friday everyone. Another week, many more updated provided by Microsoft, here’s a few of note, with a full list provided in the list of updates section.

  • Create a SharePoint list from an Excel table: The ability to crate a SharePoint list from an Excel table, this will be rolling out early April with the targeted completion date early July 2020. You can find more information by clicking here here.

  • SharePoint File Delete Lockout override fixes an issue where you’ve access a document, maybe via an Internet browser, or another PC, and you are unable to delete the file. A change to be introduced by the end of April allows you to override the file lock for Office files such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This is an extremely annoying issue, looking forward to the release of this update. You can find more information You can read more about Teams media processors here.

  • SharePoint Spaces Preview is a web based, immersive platform allowing users to create mix reality experiences. This will allow for spaces to be created with 360 degree images, 3D objects, and be viewable via a mixed reality headset. You can find more information, including how to switch this feature on by clicking here.

  • OneDrive for Business on MacOS will have an additional authentication method available, including conditional access policies such as forced MFA, location based filtering, and device compliance. Users will also have a simplified method to add an additional synced account when already signed into Office 365 without the need to provide additional authentication. This new feature does not affect existing OneDrive for Business users for MacOS, they will need to unlink and then re-authentication the sync client to gain access to new features.

  • Microsoft Teams - Increasing team membership limit to 10K. Microsoft is upping the maximum membership level from 5,000 members to 10,000 members. The change is expected to be available for all tenants by end of May 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: Multi-Window Chat for Microsoft Teams

Click here for more information

MC207218, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 21, 2020

Updated March 23, 2020: The initial roll-out will be for Windows clients only. We will provide support for Mac and Linux clients in the coming weeks. Multi-Window Chat is a new Microsoft Teams feature which enables users to multitask more efficiently by popping out their chat conversations into separate windows.

We’ll begin roll-out to all customers starting in early April and expect to complete the roll-out by the end of May.

This enhancement is related to Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 57292.

Example:

New Feature: SharePoint File Delete Lockout override

Click here for more information

MC208414, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 2, 2020

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from people who are unable to delete a document because they had it open in another tab on a different computer, or because someone else had it open and forgot about it, effectively locking the document. This feature allows you to override that lock and delete an Office file (such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) when you or someone else has it open, whether intentionally or not. The new functionality will be available to people who want to delete items from their own OneDrive, and to all members of a document library who already have permission to delete files.

Example:

Update available for Office 365 ProPlus on the Monthly Channel

Click here for more information

MC208378, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 2, 2020

We’ve released an update to the Office 365 ProPlus Monthly Channel to address issues with OneNote and Project.

We began gradually rolling out this update of Office 365 ProPlus to users on the Monthly Channel beginning March 31st, 2020.

New Feature: Make All Company feed a connected community

Click here for more information

MC208373, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 2, 2020

Live events and Office 365 Resources will soon be accessible to your users in the All Company community if you have enforced connected groups.

  • We’ll be gradually rolling this out to all customers in early April.
  • The rollout will be complete by end April.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 62962.

Microsoft Compliance Score and Microsoft Compliance Manager changes in public preview

Click here for more information

MC208372, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 2, 2020

You are receiving this message because our records show that you have used the public preview of Compliance Score or Compliance Manager.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 62656.

Co-editor chat access directly from Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents has been retired

Click here for more information

MC207547, Plan For Change, Published date: Mar 24, 2020

Major Update: Announcement Applies To: All

Updated April 1, 2020: Based on customer feedback we have updated the message for clarity.

Updated March 26, 2020: Several days ago we announced that the ability to initiate a Chat directly with a co-editor of a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document would be retired over several weeks beginning mid-April (across web, Windows and Mac versions of Office). However due to continued issues with the feature, we made the decision to pull the retirement date in, rather than continuing to enable the current experience.

Moving forward, to communicate with others working in Office documents, we recommend using document Comments when you want to attach a comment to a specific selection within a document (on the Review tab on the ribbon), and Microsoft Teams Chat when you want to communicate with others immediately.

Updated Feature: Yammer uses your Office profile

Click here for more information

MC208357, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 1, 2020

Major Update: Announcement Applies To: All

As communicated originally in MC188875, August 2019, we’re updating how Yammer uses Office profiles. User profiles in Yammer will now use the Office profile rather than the standalone Yammer profile. To ensure the proper experience we had delayed this roll-out. We are now ready to proceed and the updated timeline is below. We apologize for any inconvenience.

We will begin roll-out of this feature in mid-April and expect to be complete by the end of June.

This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID 53554.

New Feature: SharePoint Spaces Preview

Click here for more information

MC208358, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 1, 2020

SharePoint spaces is a web-based, immersive platform which allows your users to create and share mixed reality experiences.

We are gradually rolling out SharePoint spaces (Preview) to Targeted Release customers in April 2020. We will update this post when we start the rollout for standard release customers.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 62752.

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Updated feature: Command bar menu updates for Power Automate (formerly Flow)

Click here for more information

MC208356, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 1, 2020

The Command Bar in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business is being reorganized to group automation features together. Branding is also being updated to reflect the product name change from “Flow” to “Power Automate”.

Microsoft Intune In Development for April is now available

Click here for more information

MC208343, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 1, 2020

The “In development for Microsoft Intune” page in our documentation has been updated for April 2020.

Full screen experience in Microsoft Endpoint Manager/Intune

Click here for more information

MC207933, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 27, 2020

We announced in MC180431 in May 2019 and MC199921 in January 2020 that we were rolling out new create and edit UI experiences to Intune. The new experience simplifies the existing workflows by using a wizard style format condensed within one blade. This update will do away with “blade sprawl” or any create and edit flows that require you to drill down into deep blade journeys.

New Feature: Outlook on the web, new editor capabilities

Click here for more information

MC208308, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 1, 2020

Your end users who enjoy Outlook on the web will soon have new tools to help refine their email messages.

  • We’ll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release customers in early April 2020.
  • The rollout will be completed for Standard Release customers by the end of May 2020.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 59642.

Updated Feature: Secure by Default

Click here for more information

MC208307, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 1, 2020

We’re implementing another phase in Secure by Default, which will affect any domains which fail authentication although they are implicitly allowed in your anti-spam policy.

-We’ll be gradually rolling this out in mid-April.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 62398.

Updated Feature: Sharing behavior for non-Office resources

Click here for more information

MC208305, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 1, 2020

We’re updating how sharing works for people who have existing access to non-Office shared resources.

  • We’ll be gradually begin rolling this out the first of April
  • The rollout will be completed by mid-April

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 62859.

Example:

Updated Feature: Blocked file types in Outlook on the web

Click here for more information

MC206009, Plan For Change, Published date: Mar 9, 2020

Action required by Apr 6, 2020

Major Update: Announcement Applies To: All

We will be adding some additional file extensions to the BlockedFileTypes list. The BlockedFileTypes parameter specifies a list of attachment file types (file extensions) that can’t be saved locally or viewed from Outlook on the web.

This change will roll out in early April and will be complete by the end of April.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 55100.

Updated Feature: Microsoft Secure Score provide better security posture visibility

Click here for more information

MC208163, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 30, 2020

We’re updating Microsoft Secure Score to provide better visibility into your organization’s security posture.

  • We’ll be gradually rolling this out to customers in late April 2020.
  • The rollout will be completed by late June 2020.

Introducing the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center for Intune management

Click here for more information

MC208118, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 30, 2020

At Ignite 2019, we introduced Microsoft Endpoint Manager, a unified platform that includes Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager. We are pleased to announce the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center experience with a new, simple URL – https://endpoint.microsoft.com/.

Updated Feature: Outlook mobile updates the Search experience

Click here for more information

MC208100, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 30, 2020

Microsoft is rolling out a number of updates to the search experience in Outlook for iOS and Android. These changes provide helpful ways to find email, people, events, and files faster and easier with more relevant results.

The updates are related to these Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs:

  • Actionable calendar search answers in iOS 55044 and Android 60856
  • Meeting Insights in Outlook for iOS Search home page in iOS 61149
  • Natural language search iOS 56821 and Android 56822
  • Search deleted folders in Android 58990
  • Speller in iOS 56819 and Android 59023
  • Suggested contacts and actionable search answers in iOS 53714 and Android 53122
  • Tabbed results in iOS 53118
  • Tasks from To Do in Search 58137
  • Top results in iOS 53120 and Android 53299

These changes will gradually roll out over the coming weeks and will take several weeks to reach all intended audiences.

New Feature: Change in header behavior for modern SharePoint sites and hub sites

Click here for more information

MC207968, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 28, 2020

We are changing how modern SharePoint site and hub site navigation headers function when a user scrolls up and down a page in a browser.

  • We’ll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release customers in early April and Standard Release customers in mid-April.
  • The rollout will be completed by late April.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 62754.

Microsoft Teams - Increasing team membership limit to 10K

Click here for more information

MC207957, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 27, 2020

Major Update: Announcement Applies To: All

We will soon be increasing Microsoft Teams team membership limit to 10 thousand members.

We will begin enabling this for all tenants at the end of April and will be complete at the end of May.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 62549

Kaizala endpoint URL changing for the Kaizala API

Click here for more information

MC207938, Plan For Change, Published date: Mar 27, 2020

Action required by Apr 30, 2020

Major Update: Announcement Applies To: All We’re making some changes to the Kaizala API configuration and updating the Kaizala endpoint-URL to https://api.kaiza.la.

If your organization is not using the Kaizala API you can safely disregard this message.

Limiting the Kaizala API usage to only org-mapped groups

Click here for more information

MC207939, Plan For Change, Published date: Mar 27, 2020

Action required by Apr 30, 2020

Major Update: Announcement Applies To: All

We’re making some changes to the Kaizala API and limiting the Kaizala API usage to only org-mapped groups, We will be making this change at the end of April.

If your organization is not using the Kaizala API you can safely disregard this message.

New Feature: New Authentication method for OneDrive on MacOS

Click here for more information

MC207944, Stay Informed, Published date: Mar 27, 2020

OneDrive on MacOS is incorporating new methods for authentication.

  • We’ll be gradually rolling this out to new OneDrive on MacOS customers in mid-April 2020.
  • The rollout will be completed in mid-May.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 16636, 59235.

Example:

New Feature: Create a SharePoint list from an Excel table

Click here for more information

MC208460, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 3, 2020

We are making it easy for your users to create a SharePoint list by importing an Excel table.

  • We’ll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release customers in early April.
  • The rollout will be completed by early July 2020.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 61013.

Example:

Updated Feature: Updates for time management and calendaring in Outlook mobile

Click here for more information

MC208463, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 3, 2020

We are making a few updates in Outlook for iOS that can help users easily schedule meetings, get additional calendar context at a glance, and show up on time.

These changes relate to the following Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs: 54450 and 61412.

Updated Feature: Get files and items from folders and subfolders

Click here for more information

MC208464, Stay Informed, Published date: Apr 3, 2020

Users can create flows that run on folders and target specific files in the folder using the “Get Files (property only)” action in Power Automate.

Similarly, users can create flows that run on folders and target specific list items in the folder using the “Get items” action in Power Automate.