Below are all of the latest feature updates coming to Microsoft 365
Microsoft Teams
1. Group Policy Assignment Rank Assistance
How this will affect your organization
Group policy assignment rank assistance information is available on the side panel, when the admin is creating a new group assignment. This doesn’t impact the existing capabilities and is intended to bring more clarity to admins while doing multiple group assignments. Effective policy for a user is determined by precedence rules. If a user isn’t directly assigned a policy of a given type, the policy assigned to a group that the user is a member of takes precedence. If a user is a member of multiple groups, the policy that has the highest (group assignment ranking) for the given policy type takes precedence.
The Group policy assignment rank assistance feature will help admins by displaying key pieces of information such as group user count, recommendation to give rank 1, and precedence rules, so that admins can make better decisions while managing policies for their user groups.
When will this happen:
Mid-August 2023 and expect to complete rollout by late August 2023.
2. Proactive Monitoring of Meeting Quality Using Real-time Telemetry (Premium)
How this will affect your organization
The Real-Time Analytics feature in the Teams admin center allows admins to view their users’ meetings and identify issues related to audio, video, content sharing, and network connectivity. As an admin, you can use this information to investigate and address any problems with the meeting experience while the meeting is ongoing. Currently, the troubleshooting process for admins is manual and requires continuous admin involvement.
This feature is part of the Teams premium add-on SKU. All admins will see the feature within the Teams admin center, but for users to be configured and enabled for monitoring notifications they are required to have a Teams Premium license assigned for this feature to work.
If you want to enable this feature:
- In the Teams admin center, navigate to the left side menu, select Notifications and alerts –> Rules
- Choose the appropriate rule based on the experience you want to monitor: ‘Audio quality for in-progress meetings‘ rule, ‘Video quality for in-progress meetings‘ rule, ‘Application sharing (VBSS) quality for in-progress meeting‘ rule
- If necessary, modify the default values of conditions and monitoring settings according to your organization’s network requirements.
- Specify the list of users you want to monitor in the rule (users must have Teams premium licenses).
- Enable or change the default Public Team and Channel information where you want to receive notifications as an admin and save the rule.
Once the above configuration steps have been completed, the system begins monitoring all future meetings involving the configured users to identify any quality issues. When a quality issue is detected, a notification is automatically generated and sent to the specified team and channel.
When will this happen:
late August 2023 and is expected to be complete by early September 2023.
3. Web links from Microsoft Teams chats to open in Microsoft Edge; Teams chat will open side-by-side with link
How this will affect your organization
By opening web links in Edge, users will be able to see those links side-by-side with their Teams chats—web links will open as new browser tabs and the Teams chats will open next to them in the Edge sidebar. This new, single-view Teams experience in Edge is designed to minimize switching between windows and to help users stay in the flow of work while referencing web links.
Use the Choose which browser opens web links policy to configure which default browser will be used to open web links and to set whether users will be able to manage which browser opens web links in both Teams (chat) and the Outlook for Windows app (email). You will not be able to manage each app individually using this policy.
The Choose which browser opens web links policy is available using the Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365 (formerly the Office Cloud Policy Service) or as part of the Administrative Templates for Microsoft 365 Apps.
More info: Multitask smarter with Microsoft 365 and Edge | Microsoft 365 Blog
When will this happen:
late September
4. Teams Premium Trial
How this will affect your organization
Beginning rollout in late September, users in your organization will be able to initiate a self-service trial of Microsoft Teams Premium using their Azure Active Directory (AAD) credentials with no requirement to input payment information, while providing complete visibility and control to their Microsoft 365 admin. Self-servicing allows end users to start the 60-day trial and generate signals on utilization for IT to identify users that would benefit from a Teams Premium license. These trial licenses are separate from your existing Teams Premium licenses.
You can learn more about Teams Premium here.
5. Improved Shared Line Experience
How this will affect your organization
We are launching a simplified experience for users who have set up call delegation which will be available on the Teams mobile app. Mobile users now have a Shared Line Appearance tab on the calls app. The new UI will allow delegates to easily view the different delegator lines they manage and their own delegates.
Users will have a tab dedicated to viewing their delegates and people they support, making it easier to manage/monitor their boss or admins.
When will this happen:
late August 2023 and expect to complete rollout by early September 2023.
6. Near Real-Time Calendar Sync and Updates in Teams Mobile Calendar
How this will affect your organization
Users will have a faster, improved and reliable mobile calendar. Users will be able to see near real time calendar syncs of all of their events(updated across Outlook and Teams), without having to refresh or switch tabs from chat to calendar etc,
When this will happen:
late August 2023 and expect to complete rollout by early September 2023.
Entra ID (Azure AD)
1. Conditional Access for Protected Actions is Now Generally Available!
How this will affect your organization
With Conditional Access for protected actions, organizations can now add an extra layer of protection to these sensitive operations by defining granular policies that specify the conditions under which users can perform protected actions. For example, organizations can require administrators to complete phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA), use a compliant device, or be in a trusted location before modifying a conditional access policy. This way, even if an attacker gains access to an admin account, they won’t be able to perform high-risk actions without meeting the additional security criteria. Here are some examples of policies for protected actions:
- Admins require a privileged access workstation and a FIDO2 key to delete Conditional Access policies.
- Admins need phishing-resistant MFA to define or modify custom rules that define network locations.
Full Announcement: Conditional Access for Protected Actions is Now Generally Available! – Microsoft Community Hub
2. Microsoft Entra API-driven provisioning is now in public preview!
How this will affect your organization
With today’s announcement, we’re expanding our support for HR-driven provisioning to address the most common customer asks, including:
- Automatically provisioning cloud-only users and hybrid users (users that require an on-premises Active Directory account) from any trusted source
- Importing data from sources like CSV files and SQL staging tables using the automation tool of your choice
- Simplifying the integration by using standard SCIM schema attributes to abstract schema differences across systems and provide a consistent mapping experience
Leveraging Lifecycle Workflows to automate joiner-mover-leaver workflows for users sourced from any system of record
Full Announcement: Introducing a New Flexible Way of Bringing Identities from Any Source into Microsoft Entra ID! – Microsoft Community Hub
When will this Happen:
Public Preview now available. General Availability TBD.
Microsoft Intune
1. Introducing anomaly detection device cohorts to improve the user experience
How this will affect your organization
**Requires Microsoft Intune Suite Add-On**
We’re introducing anomaly detection device cohorts, an enhancement to advanced Endpoint analytics. This Intune Suite capability enables IT admins to discover meaningful patterns among identified anomalous devices, which can include app-based, device-based, or blue screen anomalies. Use this feature to identify devices “at risk” in those cohorts and proactively take steps to improve the user experience. To learn more, see Anomaly detection in Endpoint analytics.
Full Intune Updates: What’s new in Microsoft Intune (2308) August edition – Microsoft Community Hub
When this will happen:
GA
Microsoft Edge
1. Bing Chat Enterprise available/default on in the Microsoft Edge mobile app in late August 2023 (iOS & Android)
How this will affect your organization
The Bing Chat button will be added to Microsoft Edge version 116 (iOS & Android). Users signed into the Edge mobile app with their work account will be able to access Bing Chat Enterprise using the Bing Chat button.
To provide mobile access to your users, you must have Bing Chat Enterprise turned on for your organization.
To turn on Bing Chat Enterprise, please use the link in the documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/bing-chat-enterprise/manage
If Bing Chat Enterprise is turned on for your organization, but you do not want it to be available on Edge mobile, you can use an Intune MAM policy to remove/add the Bing Chat button in the Edge mobile app:
com.microsoft.intune.mam.managedbrowser.Chat=true (default)/false
Learn how to manage Microsoft Edge on iOS & Android here: https://learn.microsoft.com/mem/intune/apps/manage-microsoft-edge
Microsoft Excel
1. Python in Excel
How this will affect your organization
Python in Excel allows you to bring the capabilities of Python directly into the Excel grid. As a part of this Public Preview, users with access to the Microsoft 365 Insiders program Beta Channel will be able to add Python formulas into their workbooks without any installation required. These Python formulas will be run by Excel in a secure container on the Microsoft Cloud with enterprise-level security as a compliant Microsoft 365 connected experience.
To learn more about Python in Excel, please visit the blog page and Python in Excel documentation.
When this will happen:
Public Preview: Rollout is expected to begin in late August 2023 and is expected to be complete by early September 2023.
Microsoft SharePoint
1. Microsoft Lists – Create a List From CSV and Export to CSV
How this will affect your organization
You will soon be able to create a new list from a CSV file. This new creation option is available as part of the list creation dialog, on any surface where you can already create lists, such as, SharePoint Sites, Lists web app, Teams etc.
When will this happen:
mid-September 2023 and is expected to be complete by late September 2023.
2. Clipchamp Video Editor Launching to Microsoft 365 Commercial Accounts
How this will affect your organization
Users with these licenses will have access to Clipchamp for work: Microsoft 365 – E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium.
Clipchamp for work will be available from the following locations:
- “New” and “Edit” menu in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint document libraries
- Office.com app launcher – Clipchamp app
Clipchamp enables capabilities such as trimming or joining video recordings saved on OneDrive or SharePoint, adding text overlays, recording screen or webcam and more. All videos are stored securely on OneDrive or SharePoint for sharing. Watch the product overview or review the FAQs for more information.
When will this happen:
late August 2023, and expect to be complete by mid-October 2023.
Microsoft Forms
1. Google Forms to Microsoft Forms Migration via Microsoft 365 Admin Center (MMP)
How this will affect your organization
Tenants who are migrating from Google service, will now be able to migration existing Forms and responses (if any) over to Microsoft Forms all at once. For users, they will not need to manually create the forms all over again, which saves tremendous efforts and time.
When will this happen:
late October and expect to complete by mid-November 2023.
Microsoft Admin
1. GDAP Updates
Milestones Reminder:
- Transitioning Delegated Admin Privileges (DAP) relationships to GDAP roles: Microsoft has begun transitioning DAP relationships to GDAP roles.
Partners get nine roles as part of the Microsoft-led transition. The roles are granted for a 1-year duration.
Read the frequently asked questions related to this milestone.
- Creating new customers: As of September 25, 2023, Microsoft will no longer grant DAP for new customer creation. Instead, Microsoft will grant default GDAP with specific roles.
- The bulk migration tool is available through the end of November 2023.
Coming soon:
- GDAP auto extend feature. In October 2023, Microsoft will launch the capability to extend existing GDAP relationships by 6 months. More details will be shared in September.
- Migrating from AAD to Microsoft Graph API. Azure AD Graph will be retired shortly. There will be no further investment in Azure AD Graph. Azure AD Graph application programming interfaces have no service-level agreement or maintenance commitment beyond security-related fixes. Investments in new features and functionalities will only be made in Microsoft Graph. All Partners must take action to move to MS Graph. To learn more, see our latest announcement.
- Exchange Online automation change. The Legacy Exchange Online Public Client ID (app ID a0c73c16-a7e3-4564-9a95-2bdf47383716) will be retired shortly. Any code that incorporates either the legacy public client or the Partner Center PowerShell module will no longer function. Going forward partners and customers should use Exchange PowerShell to manage Exchange activities. To learn more, see the Exchange Online PowerShell module.
Full Announcement: August 2023 announcements – Partner Center announcements | Microsoft Learn