Below are all of the latest feature updates coming to Microsoft 365
Microsoft Teams
1. New file image previews in messages
How this will affect your organization
Coming soon in Microsoft Teams: An enhanced content consumption experience in Teams chats and channels. We are about to release a series of features that will help you to identify, consume, and act on content such as files, lists, and SharePoint pages/posts. In this first release in the series, we will roll out file image previews in chats and channels, to help users better identify a file in the conversation stream. When a file (such as a JPG or PNG image file, a Microsoft PowerPoint file, or a PDF) is attached to a message in chat or a channel, users will see a small image of the file without opening the file.
When will this happen:
mid-June 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2024.
2. Draggable Presenter Toolbar when screensharing
How this will affect your organization
When sharing content during a meeting, presenters can reposition the Presenter Toolbar from its default location at the top of the screen to any other area of the shared screen by moving it to the preferred position.
When will this happen:
mid-June 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2024.
3. Ask to join a shared channel with a channel link
How this will affect your organization
In-tenant users who attempt to access a shared channel with a link will be able to request to join the channel. Channel owners will receive the join request and can decide to approve or deny request. Before the rollout, a user who selects a channel with a link receives a You don’t have access message.
After the rollout, a user who selects a channel with a link receives will be able to ask to join a channel:
When will this happen:
late June 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2024.
4. Unified settings and policies management in Teams admin center
How this will affect your organization
To simplify Microsoft Teams IT administration, we are introducing a Unified settings and policies management experience in the Microsoft Teams admin center. Now, you’ll find the search, locate, and manage settings and policies in one place, which means you won’t have to search under multiple locations in TAC to manage Teams for your users, groups, and organization.
When will this happen:
early June 2024 and expect to complete by early July 2024.
5. Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile: New “Call my phone” feature
How this will affect your organization
Coming soon for Teams Phone Mobile (TPM). A new Call my phone feature will allow TPM users (iOS, Android) to transfer an active call from the Teams app to their cell phone dialer on their SIM-enabled device, with no interruption to the call. Teams will use the user’s Audio Conferencing Subscription service to connect with the user’s cell phone dialer. This rollout will apply to calls to one person (and will not apply to group calls).
When will this happen:
early July 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024.
6. Auto-create Microsoft Loop workspaces to share meeting content
How this will affect your organization
Microsoft Teams meeting organizers of recurring meetings will be prompted in the chat to create a Microsoft Loop workspace after their meetings end. The Loop workspace helps gather shared meeting content into a central, durable Loop workspace to enable ongoing collaboration over time. As a recurring meeting series continues, additional content shared in the meeting chat will be added automatically to the initial Loop workspace.
When will this happen:
mid-May 2024 and complete by early June 2024.
7. New onboarding to teams and channels
How this will affect your organization
Before this rollout, a team owner could mark a standard channel as Show for members while creating the channel or later from the team management page. These channels appeared automatically in the teams and channels list on the left side of the screen for all team members.
After this rollout:
- A team owner will be able to recommend channels for team members to join. This functionality replaces Show for members.
- When joining a new team, team members will see only the General channel. On the team onboarding page, additional channels may be tagged as Recommended by the team owner. Members can review channel details and opt into channels of interest. This rollout is designed to help team members join the most relevant channels, for a more streamlined experience in Teams.
When will this happen:
mid-July 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024.
8. Organizers can manage access to meeting transcripts, recordings, AI-generated recap, and Copilot
How this will affect your organization
This new feature is a meeting option that you can access on the Recording and transcript tab > Who has access to the recording and transcript. Here’s how it works:
- Everyone: Anyone with the meeting link or nudged into the meeting has access.
- Organizer and Co-organizers: Only the people who organized the meeting have access.
- Specific People: Besides the organizers, you can choose specific individuals who have access.
When will this happen:
early June 2024 and expect to complete by mid-June 2024
9. Create avatars from photo
How this will affect your organization
In Microsoft Teams, you will be able to take or upload a photo and let our AI-enabled technology generate your digital avatar.
When will this happen:
Public Preview: We will begin rolling out early June 2024 (previously mid-May) and expect to complete by late June 2024 (previously mid-June).
10. Closed captions in the Walkie Talkie app
How this will affect your organization
In a busy frontline work environment, it can be challenging to hear Walkie Talkie transmissions. To address this, we’re launching live closed captions for any audible transmission in the Walkie Talkie app in Teams
When will this happen:
early June 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2024.
11. Speaker recognition and attribution for all Teams Rooms
How this will affect your organization
With speaker recognition, Teams Rooms on Windows can identify speakers during live transcription in shared meeting rooms, ensuring clear and precise voice capture for every participant. This allows you to effortlessly track who said what during the meeting through intelligent meeting recap and Copilot.
When will this happen:
mid-June 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2024.
12. Custom emojis and reactions
How this will affect your organization
In Microsoft Teams, users will be able to add their own custom emojis and reactions by uploading an image or GIF file, and their emojis and reactions will be accessible to all users in the tenant alongside the standard Teams emojis and reactions. Up to 5,000 custom emojis can be added per tenant.
When will this happen:
early July 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024.
Microsoft Outlook
1. Changes for updating the Windows Mail and Calendar apps to the new Outlook for Windows
How this will affect your organization
Microsoft is transitioning the default Windows Mail and Calendar apps to the new Outlook for Windows. Changes include updating Taskbar and Start menu pins, Desktop shortcuts, and relocating the toggle to switch back to Mail & Calendar within the new Outlook settings.
- Windows 10 and Windows 11 users in your organization who have the Mail app pinned to the Taskbar and/or Start menu will see the pins replaced with new Outlook, if they get new Outlook freshly installed on their device. Mail app shortcuts on the Desktop will also be replaced with the new Outlook app in this scenario.
- Users who are migrated into new Outlook from the Mail & Calendar applications will still have the ability to go back to those applications, like they can today. They will need to click the button in Settings > General > About Outlook, rather than clicking on the toggle in the Ribbon.
When will this happen?
early June 2024 and expect to complete by mid-June 2024.
Microsoft SharePoint
1. Archive feature for inactive sites on SharePoint
How this will affect your organization
Microsoft 365 will have a new feature to archive inactive sites on SharePoint. This archive feature will save on storage costs exceeding the quota limit.
When will this happen?
late April 2024 and expect to complete by mid-May 2024
2. SharePoint document libraries: Improved Version history controls
How this will affect your organization
We are introducing new version controls that help admins and content owners reduce storage footprint driven by low value file versions. Previously, document library owners could set count-based version limits at the library level. With this rollout, we are introducing new automatic version limits that consider important factors such as age and restore probability to offer more intelligent version deleting options. We’re also adding manual settings for version expiration and count limits.
- Admin documentation: Overview of Version History Limits for Document Libraries and OneDrive
- End user documentation: Enable and configure versioning for a list or library
When will this happen?
late August 2024 and expect to complete by mid-October 2024.
Microsoft Stream
1. New suggestions for including your Microsoft 365 content in Callouts
How this will affect your organization
Before this rollout, users do not receive suggestions in the Interactivity feature for relevant documents resources to add to their videos. They must leave Stream to search for resources.
After the rollout, users will receive suggestions from the Interactivity feature. For example, a user who is making a video presentation can use the Interactivity feature to add a Callout that links to their PowerPoint deck, Word document, or other reading material.
When will this happen:
mid-June 2024 and expect to complete by mid-July 2024.
Microsoft Intune
1. Platform single sign-on (SSO) has arrived for macOS device enrollment
How this will affect your organization
Platform SSO is a win for security and productivity alike. From a security standpoint, SSO integrates with Apple’s Secure Enclave technology. This means that organizations can enable phishing-resistant, hardware-bound, passwordless authentication on Mac through Intune. For organizations implementing Zero Trust, this is a big win, especially since Intune is cloud native.
End users get a more seamless out-of-the-box experience, now needing only one set of credentials, their Entra ID password, to set up their device.
Full Announcement: What’s new in Microsoft Intune May 2024 | Microsoft Intune Blog
When will this happen?
Public Preview (now)
2. Windows Autopilot device preparation
How this will affect your organization
Upgrades to the Windows autopilot service including combined profiles for device preparation, revised reporting, and enhanced end-user experience
Full Announcement: Windows deployment with the next generation of Windows Autopilot | Microsoft Intune Blog
When will this happen?
GA
3. Win32 app supersedence
How this will affect your organization
After you add a Win32 app to Intune, you can use Intune to create one or more supersedence relationships between apps. In general, supersedence is where you update or replace something. In Intune, supersedence enables you to update and replace existing Win32 apps with newer versions of the same app or an entirely different Win32 app. This article provides an overview of the supersedence feature.
More Info: Add Win32 app supersedence – Microsoft Intune | Microsoft Learn
When will this happen?
GA
4. Windows update distribution report
How this will affect your organization
Now, a new Windows update distribution report within Intune provides easy-to-read information on what quality updates are running on which devices. To access the new report, navigate to Reports, select Windows updates, and select Windows Update Distribution Report.
Microsoft Copilot
1. Team Copilot
How this will affect your organization
Team Copilot expands Copilot beyond a personal assistant to act as a valuable team member—participating and contributing along with the team. And of course, you’re always in control—assigning tasks or responsibilities to Copilot so the whole team can be more productive, collaborative, and creative, together. It’s available where you collaborate—in Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Loop, Microsoft Planner, and more
Full Announcement: New agent capabilities in Microsoft Copilot unlock business value | Microsoft 365 Blog
When will this happen?
Later 2024
2. Agents: New custom copilots that automate business process
How this will affect your organization
There are efficiencies to be gained and new value to unlock across every business process—and no two are the same. We’re announcing new capabilities in Microsoft Copilot Studio to build custom copilots that act as agents that work independently under your direction to:
- Automate long-running business processes.
- Reason over actions and user inputs.
- Leverage memory to bring in context.
- Learn based on user feedback.
- Record exception requests and ask for help.
Full Announcement: New agent capabilities in Microsoft Copilot unlock business value | Microsoft 365 Blog
When will this happen?
Later 2024
3. Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 experiences available in classic Outlook for Windows and New Outlook
How this will affect your organization
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 chat experience is coming to classic Outlook for Windows. Users with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license will see the Copilot icon on the left app bar in classic Outlook for Windows. Chat with Copilot in Microsoft Outlook. In this version, Microsoft Copilot in Outlook will be graph grounded, meaning that it will have the ability to respond based on find information and documents inside your organization that are stored in the Microsoft cloud. This rollout applies to new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web.
When will this happen?
Old Outlook: mid-June 2024 to Current Channel and finish by late June 2024.
New Outlook: early May 2024 and expect to complete by mid-May 2024
4. The Microsoft Copilot Dashboard in Viva Insights will become available with Copilot for Microsoft 365
How this will affect your organization
In the coming months, the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard will become available to all Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers at no additional cost and will not require a Viva or Viva Insights license.
When will this happen?
early July 2024 and expect to complete the rollout by late September 2024.
5. Copilot assisted hours update in Microsoft Copilot dashboard
How this will affect your organization
We are rolling out an update for Copilot assisted hours in the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard. For customers with a Viva or a Viva Insights subscription, the Copilot Dashboard will provide a breakdown of employees’ actions in Copilot that contribute to their company’s total Copilot assisted hours. There is no change to the existing metric calculation. Customers will have the additional ability to view the underlying details for Copilot assisted hours with this change.
When will this happen?
early May 2024 and expect to complete by mid-May 2024.
6. Use Draft with Copilot in Microsoft Word based on text, list, or table selections
How this will affect your organization
Users can use Draft with Copilot in Microsoft Word with the on-canvas Copilot menu when selecting text, a list, or a table to generate new content from Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 and engage in a more interactive experience.
When will this happen?
late April 2024 on web, in early June 2024 on Win32 and Mac, and in early July on iPad. Rollout is expected to complete by early August 2024.
7. Shifts plugin in Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365
How this will affect your organization
Within Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 users can now leverage the Shifts plugin to get information about their teams’ open shifts, shifts, and scheduled time off.
For more information, see Manage Plugins for Copilot in Integrated Apps.
When will this happen?
early June 2024 and expect to complete by late June 2024.
8. Shifts plugin in Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365
How this will affect your organization
AI fuels innovation and productivity but also poses risks – organizations are concerned about the risky AI use and sensitive data loss through AI apps. The AI hub is a central location in Microsoft Purview that helps organizations secure data in AI, including Microsoft AI applications such as Copilot for Microsoft 365 and non-Microsoft AI applications. With this set of capabilities, organizations can safely adopt AI without having to choose between productivity and protection.
When will this happen?
Public Preview: early May 2024 and expect to complete by early May 2024.
General Availability (Worldwide): mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024.
9. Introducing Copilot+ PCs
How this will affect your organization
Today we announced a PC for the AI era: the Copilot+ PC. These business-ready devices utilize powerful new silicon with a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of more than 40 trillion operations per second. As Secured-core PCs that come with the Microsoft Pluton security processor, Copilot+ PCs enable organizations of all sizes to benefit from advanced AI and hardware-based security. Like all new Windows 11 devices, Copilot+ PCs are easy to deploy and manage, compatible with your existing technology, and designed to be secure by default.
Copilot+ PCs offer new features that help organizations of all sizes to increase productivity and enhance communication, including:
- Recall, which enables you to find mission-critical information faster
- Live captions with real-time translation for video calls, recordings, and streamed content
- Windows Studio Effects to help people put their best face forward in video calls and minimize distraction
When will this happen?
Later this year
Microsoft Admin
1. Organizational messages (Preview)
How this will affect your organization
Organizational messages (preview) that will enable you to create and deliver short-form communications to people in your organization through the Microsoft products they use every day, like Microsoft Windows 11 or Microsoft 365 apps.
When will this happen?
early May 2024 and expect to complete by late May 2024.
2. MFA required for Azure
How this will affect your organization
Starting July 2024, Microsoft is requiring Multifactor authentication (MFA) for all Azure users.
Partner Center Announcement: May 2024 announcements – Partner Center announcements | Microsoft Learn
3. Releasing newer version of Security Alert API
How this will affect your organization
As a partner in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, you’re responsible for your customer’s Azure consumption; therefore, it’s important that you’re aware of any anomalous usage in your customer’s Azure subscriptions. Use Microsoft Graph partner security alert API to detect patterns of fraudulent activities and misuse in Azure resources to help reduce your exposure to online transaction risks. Mitigating and responding to the alerts within 24 hours can significantly minimize the financial loss that your customers might incur during the compromise.
PC Announcement: May 2024 announcements – Partner Center announcements | Microsoft Learn
4. Public preview: External authentication methods in Microsoft Entra ID
How this will affect your organization
External authentication methods can be used to satisfy MFA requirements from Conditional Access Policies, Privileged Identity Management role activation, Identity Protection risk-based polices and Microsoft Intune device registration. They’re created and managed as part of the Entra ID authentication methods policy. This gives consistent manageability and experience with the built-in methods. You’ll add an external authentication method with the new “Add external method” button in the Entra Admin Center authentication methods management.
Some of you might be familiar with custom controls. External authentication methods are the replacement of custom controls, and they provide several benefits over the custom controls approach. These include:
- External authentication method integration, which uses industry standards and supports an open model
- External authentication methods are managed the same way as Entra methods
- External authentication methods are supported for a wide range of Entra ID use cases (including PIM activation)
Full Announcement: Public preview: External authentication methods in Microsoft Entra ID – Microsoft Community Hub
