In Microsoft 365 news this week, the supplier announced the introduction of SMS notifications for people who make appointments through Microsoft Bookings. Keep reading for details about that feature as well as other new and updated capabilities for Microsoft 365 apps.
New Features
- Join meetings across clouds anonymously via the Teams desktop app
- What’s happening: Currently, if you want to join a meeting hosted in a cloud other than your tenant’s, you need to utilize the Teams web experience. Microsoft has announced plans to allow end users to join meetings across clouds anonymously with the Teams desktop app.
- Rollout start: Mid-October 2021
- Rollout finish: Late November 2021
- What’s happening: Currently, if you want to join a meeting hosted in a cloud other than your tenant’s, you need to utilize the Teams web experience. Microsoft has announced plans to allow end users to join meetings across clouds anonymously with the Teams desktop app.
- Join meetings across clouds anonymously via the Teams desktop app
- View OneDrive data in Content Explorer
- What’s happening: The ability to see OneDrive data classification details in Content Explorer is currently in public preview and will soon become generally available.
- View OneDrive data in Content Explorer
- New sensitive information types (SITs) in the Microsoft 365 compliance center
- What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to introduce five new SITs and modify the definitions of some existing SITs for utilization in compliance solutions. New SITs will become available by the end of September 2021, and the updates to current SITs will start rolling out in early October 2021 and be fully implemented by late October 2021.
- New sensitive information types (SITs) in the Microsoft 365 compliance center
- Access to AIP client and scanner audit logs via Microsoft compliance center
- What’s happening: Azure Information Protection (AIP) admins will soon have the option to view data in Microsoft 365 compliance center Audit logs and Activity explorer. The supplier previously introduced this feature as a public preview.
- Rollout start: Mid-October 2021
- Rollout finish: End of October 2021
- What’s happening: Azure Information Protection (AIP) admins will soon have the option to view data in Microsoft 365 compliance center Audit logs and Activity explorer. The supplier previously introduced this feature as a public preview.
- Access to AIP client and scanner audit logs via Microsoft compliance center
- Teams Desktop option to respond to specific messages
- What’s happening: Microsoft Teams Desktop end users will soon have the ability to respond to specific messages via the message actions menu. This feature is already available to Teams mobile app users.
- Rollout start: Mid-September 2021 for Standard release; Mid-October 2021 for GCC
- Rollout finish: Early October 2021 for Standard release; Early November 2021 for GCC
- What’s happening: Microsoft Teams Desktop end users will soon have the ability to respond to specific messages via the message actions menu. This feature is already available to Teams mobile app users.
- Teams Desktop option to respond to specific messages
- Multi-stage disposition review in Microsoft 365 Records Management
- What’s happening: With the general availability of this feature, you’ll be able to construct a tiered content disposition experience involving as many as five stages of review. Note: This capability will be available to all E5 commercial clients.
- Rollout start: Late September 2021
- Rollout finish: Early October 2021
- What’s happening: With the general availability of this feature, you’ll be able to construct a tiered content disposition experience involving as many as five stages of review. Note: This capability will be available to all E5 commercial clients.
- Multi-stage disposition review in Microsoft 365 Records Management
- New command bar for OneDrive
- What’s happening: With the new command bar, end users will have an easier time accessing primary commands and finding the right file.
- Rollout start: Mid-September 2021 for Targeted release; late September 2021 for Standard release
- Rollout finish: Late September 2021 for Targeted release; early October 2021 for Standard release
- What’s happening: With the new command bar, end users will have an easier time accessing primary commands and finding the right file.
- New command bar for OneDrive
- Hub-to-hub associations in SharePoint
- What’s happening: With this new release, you can associate SharePoint hub sites with each other to allow end users to retrieve search results from multiple hubs.
- Rollout start: Mid-September 2021 for Targeted release; mid-October 2021 for Standard release
- Rollout finish: Late September 2021 for Targeted release; late October 2021 for Standard release
- What’s happening: With this new release, you can associate SharePoint hub sites with each other to allow end users to retrieve search results from multiple hubs.
- Hub-to-hub associations in SharePoint
- Microsoft Bookings SMS notifications
- What’s happening: Microsoft plans to allow SMS notifications to be sent to people who book appointments via the Bookings app in Teams, Bookings web app or the self-serve booking page.
- Rollout start: Early October 2021
- Rollout finish: Mid-October 2021
- What’s happening: Microsoft plans to allow SMS notifications to be sent to people who book appointments via the Bookings app in Teams, Bookings web app or the self-serve booking page.
- Microsoft Bookings SMS notifications
- Microsoft Information Protection encrypted document co-authoring
- What’s happening: Co-authoring is now generally available for PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents encrypted with Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels on Mac and Windows.
- Microsoft Information Protection encrypted document co-authoring
- Yammer Community posting restriction setting
- What’s happening: Microsoft is introducing an admin setting to restrict posting in Yammer communities. Enabling the setting will make it so only community admins can start threads and other members can only react and reply.
- Yammer Community posting restriction setting
- Option to switch SharePoint team site navigation orientation
- What’s happening: Microsoft is introducing a feature that lets the owners of SharePoint team sites change the navigation orientation from vertical to horizontal. They can also turn off navigation visibility.
- Rollout start: Mid-September 2021 for Targeted release; early November 2021 for Standard release
- Rollout finish: Mid-October 2021 for Targeted release; late November 2021 for Standard release
- What’s happening: Microsoft is introducing a feature that lets the owners of SharePoint team sites change the navigation orientation from vertical to horizontal. They can also turn off navigation visibility.
- Option to switch SharePoint team site navigation orientation
- General availability: View data loss prevention (DLP) data sets in Microsoft 365 compliance center
- What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced a public preview of a feature that allows you to view DLP data sets via the Microsoft 365 compliance center Activity explorer. This capability is now generally available.
- General availability: View data loss prevention (DLP) data sets in Microsoft 365 compliance center
Updated Features
- File types blocked by default via anti-malware policy common attachment filter option
- What’s happening: The anti-malware policy common attachment filter option has a pre-configured list of file types, some of which are selected to be blocked by default. Microsoft is adding three file types — .iso, .cab, and .jnlp – to the blocked by default list.
- File types blocked by default via anti-malware policy common attachment filter option
- Updates issued for all channels for Microsoft 365 Apps
- What’s happening: Microsoft has released updates to the following channels: Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview), and Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel.
- Updates issued for all channels for Microsoft 365 Apps
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.
