Microsoft 365 News 07-22-2021: Skype for Business Online Retires at End of Month

In Microsoft 365 news this week, the supplier issued a reminder about the imminent retirement of Skype for Business Online. Teams is now the core communications application for Microsoft 365. Keep reading for more announcements and details about new and updated features.

New Features

• • New sync mechanism for SharePoint site content types
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced the implementation of a new sync mechanism that migrates from a “push everywhere” model to a “pull as needed” model for improved reliability and greater speed.

• • Live components with inline editing in Teams chat
    • What’s happening: With the introduction of Fluid live elements in Teams chat, end users can send messages with live components that all chat participants can then edit inline and in real time.

• • Amplification of important announcements with SharePoint News Boost
    • What’s happening: Microsoft is introducing a feature that will allow you to prioritize the visibility of important news articles and announcements across everyone’s news feeds.

• • Exact Data Match (EDM) support for auto-labeling
    • What’s happening: Microsoft is introducing the ability to leverage EDM sensitive information types to configure existing or new client-side auto-labeling policies. This feature allows for greater control over sensitive content labeling.

• • Preview: Sensitivity label activity data in Activity Explorer
    • What’s happening: With this feature, Power BI will transmit sensitivity label activity data to Activity Explorer, where admins can review it.

• • Teams default settings for opening Office files
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced the introduction of a new feature that lets end users specify a default method (desktop, Teams or browser) for opening Office files shared via Teams. Note: The desktop setting is only available to users with Office version 16 or newer both installed and activated.

• • Microsoft 365 Apps for Business license now includes presenting to Teams from PowerPoint
    • What’s happening: Clients with the Microsoft 365 Apps for Business license can now present directly from the PowerPoint desktop app to meetings utilizing PowerPoint Live in Teams.

• • Preview: New Communication Compliance trainable classifier
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced the preview of a discrimination classifier for the Communication Compliance solution.

• • Teams support for streaming to large audiences with real-time messaging protocol (RTMP)
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced support for streaming Teams webinars and meetings through RTMP including external endpoints.

Updated Features

• • Alterations to SharePoint Server’s Hybrid federated search
    • What’s happening: Microsoft plans to update the infrastructure that Hybrid federated search utilizes. Subsequently, clients who leverage the Hybrid federated search and hybrid SharePoint deployments must adjust their configuration to facilitate continued use of hybrid search with SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server.

• • More info at top of embedded Yammer community feeds
    • What’s happening: To provide more context and create opportunities for engagement, Microsoft is adding additional information to the top of embedded community feeds – including the community name, description, and option to join/leave.

• • Updates released for Microsoft 365 Apps
    • What’s happening: The supplier has issued updates for Microsoft 365 Apps to all channels, including the Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview), and Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel.

• • Support for Outlook suggested replies in additional languages
    • What’s happening: Suggested replies for Outlook on the web and Outlook mobile now support Russian, Korean, Hungarian, Arabic and Hebrew.

Announcements

• • 2021 release wave 2 plans available for Dynamics 365 and Industry Solutions and Microsoft Power Platform
    • What’s happening: The 2021 release wave 2 plans include information on new features the supplier plans to release from October 2021 to March 2022.

• • Upcoming end of support for OneDrive sync client on Windows Server 2008 R2
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced that Windows Server 2008 R2 will no longer support the OneDrive Desktop application (sync client).

• • Reminder: Skype for Business Online to retire July 31
    • What’s happening: As previously announced, Microsoft will retire Skype for Business Online service effective July 31, 2021. Teams is now the main communications client for the Microsoft 365 suite.

• • Reminder: Outlook Data Files (PST File Type) version retention changes for OneDrive and SharePoint Online
    • What’s happening: As previously announced, effective August 16, 2021, the version retention service will begin retaining 30 days’ worth of versions of any PST files housed in SharePoint Online team site and OneDrive for Business document libraries.

For more information about Microsoft 365, please take a look at our blog series detailing the business value of the suite. Our expert techs also have extensive experience working with Microsoft 365, as well as other types of IT solutions. To learn more, give us a call at 877-599-3999 or email sales@stratospherenetworks.com.