Microsoft 365 News 12-17-2021: Microsoft Teams Users Gain Control Over Activity Feed Notifications

Microsoft sign at the entrance of a building at Redmond corporate headquarters.In Microsoft 365 news this week, the supplier announced plans to give Microsoft Teams users the ability to configure which notifications show up in their activity feeds. Keep reading for details about that new feature and other news and announcements related to the Microsoft 365 suite.

New Features

    • Press to unmute in Microsoft Teams
      • What’s happening: This feature allows meeting attendees to stay muted most of the time and quickly unmute when addressed. You can now unmute by holding down Ctrl + Space (Windows) and Option + Space (macOS). Releasing the keys will mute you again. Note: This feature is only available for the Teams desktop application.
    • Sharing links that block downloads
      • What’s happening: Sharing links that don’t allow the recipient to download are now available for most audio and video files in SharePoint and OneDrive.
    • Send as a group functionality by default from group mailboxes
      • What’s happening: For end users with “Send As” permission for a group mailbox, Microsoft 365 Groups in Outlook will soon support sending as a group by default, in which the group ID will auto-populate the “From” address field. This feature will only take effect when a user is in a group mailbox where they have “Send As” permission.
        • Rollout start: Mid-January 2022
        • Rollout finish: Late February 2022
    • Support for Azure Active Directory Dynamic Groups as SharePoint Online target audiences
      • What’s happening: Microsoft has made it possible to utilize Azure Active Directory Dynamic Groups as audiences for SharePoint Online audience targeting.
    • Ability to manage channel connected team sites in SharePoint admin center
      • What’s happening: The Active site experience in the SharePoint admin center is adding channel sites provisioned when special channels are added to a Team.
    • Activity feed notification configuration in Teams
      • What’s happening: Microsoft plans to give end users control over the notifications they see in their activity feed. By right-clicking on a feed item, you’ll be able to switch all reactions off or stop certain app notifications from showing up in your feed.

Updated Features

    • Enforcement of policies blocking active content in Trusted Documents
      • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced a feature update that will allow the enforcement of policies blocking active content in Trusted Documents in Office apps. Active content could previously run in such documents even if an admin established a policy to block it.
        • Rollout start: Early February 2022
        • Rollout finish: Early May 2022
    • Outlook on the Web icon for Microsoft 365 Groups
      • What’s happening: Microsoft is changing the Groups icon in Outlook on the Web. This will improve consistency between the Outlook web and desktop versions.
        • Rollout start: Mid-December 2021
        • Rollout finish: Late January 2022
    • SharePoint pages text toolbar
      • What’s happening: Microsoft is enhancing end users’ ability to access simple text editing tools via the floating horizontal web part toolbar. The floating toolbar will automatically sync with the size of the Text web part to improve tool visibility.

Announcements

    • Retirement of quarantine notification configuration in Exchange Online Protection anti-malware policies
      • What’s happening: Beginning in March 2022, Microsoft plans to retire the recipient and sender notification configuration in the Exchange Online Protection anti-malware policies user interface. The supplier recommends relying on quarantine policies instead.
    • Delayed rollout of storage location update for Planner tasks
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to begin storing copies of some Planner tasks in your Exchange mailbox. To ensure the best possible customer experience, the supplier has altered the rollout timeline for this update.
        • Rollout start: Mid-November 2021 for standard release; mid-January 2022 (previously mid-December 2021) for GCC
        • Rollout finish: Late January 2022 (previously mid-December 2021) for standard release; mid-February 2022 (previously late January 2022) for GCC
    • Delayed rollout of SharePoint navigation switcher
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to add a new feature that allows SharePoint team site owners to switch navigation orientation from vertical to horizontal (or switch off site navigation visibility). To ensure the best possible customer experience, the supplier has altered the rollout timeline for this feature update.
        • Rollout start: Early November 2021 for standard release
        • Rollout finish: Mid-January 2022 (previously late November 2021) for standard release
    • Delayed rollout of SharePoint private drafts for news and pages
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to give SharePoint end users the ability to maintain private drafts of news posts and pages. To ensure the best possible customer experience, the supplier has delayed the implementation of this feature.
        • Rollout start: Late January 2022 (previously early November 2021) for targeted release; late February 2022 (previously late November 2021) for standard release
        • Rollout finish: Late February 2022 (previously late November 2021) for targeted release; mid-March 2022 (previously mid-January 2022) for standard release
    • Additional Teams app setup policy packages now include Bookings App
      • What’s happening: The following app setup policy packages in Teams now include the Bookings Application: Frontline Worker, Frontline Manager, Healthcare Information Worker, Small Medium Business – No Business Voice, and Public Safety Officer.

For more information about Microsoft 365, please take a look at our blog series detailing the business value of the suite. Our team has 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.

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