Microsoft Office 365 News 06-12-2020: New Features for Microsoft Stream, Teams Mobile and More

In Microsoft Office 365 news this week, the supplier introduces noise suppression for recorded videos in Microsoft Stream, suggested replies for Teams mobile, Yammer mobile video sharing, and more new and updated features.

New Features

• • SharePoint Auto-News Email
    • What’s happening: SharePoint will now send automated emails to clients’ employees including a selection of recent news posts they haven’t read yet. The curated selection of posts is assembled using Microsoft Intelligence.

• • Microsoft Stream noise suppression
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced that noise suppression for recorded videos in Microsoft Stream will soon become generally available.
    • Rollout start: Mid-June 2020
    • Rollout finish: End of July 2020

• • Teams mobile suggested replies
    • What’s happening: End users of Teams for iOS and Android will soon see three suggested replies they can choose from for selected messages.
    • Rollout start: Early July 2020
    • Rollout finish: Mid-July 2020

• • Yammer mobile video sharing
    • What’s happening: End users will soon be able to record, annotate, edit and post mobile videos to Yammer using the Yammer mobile app.
    • Rollout start: Mid-June 2020
    • Rollout finish: End of July 2020

• • Self-service purchase controls
    • What’s happening: Earlier this year, Microsoft introduced a self-service purchase capability allowing end users to buy Power Platform solutions directly from the supplier. This feature includes the ability for admins to disallow self-service purchases of particular products using Power Shell. Microsoft will soon grant IT admins new information worker subscription management abilities in their tenant.
    • Rollout date: July 2020

• • Teams info pane and pinned posts
    • What’s happening: Microsoft will soon introduce pinned posts and an information pane for Teams to help users find important info in channels.
    • Rollout start: Beginning of July 2020 for standard release tenants; Mid-August 2020 for government tenants
    • Rollout finish: Mid-July 2020 for standard release tenants; End of August 2020 for government tenants

• • Outlook for Windows roaming signatures
    • What’s happening: Outlook for Windows will soon use roaming signatures that are stored in the cloud, rather than on the end user’s Windows device.
    • Rollout date: Late July 2020 for Microsoft 365 Monthly Channel, Targeted; Late August 2020 for Monthly Channel, Production

• • New ways to hide/show groups in Outlook and address book
    • What’s happening: Microsoft 365 Groups now gives end users new methods for showing and hiding groups in the address group or Outlook (any client). Specifically, users can set Group visibility using not just PowerShell but also Microsoft Graph.

• • Outlook for Windows cloud settings
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced that Outlook for Windows will soon let users save some settings in the Microsoft 365 cloud.
    • Rollout date: Late May 2020 for the Microsoft 365 Monthly Channel, Targeted; Late June 2020 for the Monthly Channel, Production

Updated Features

• • SharePoint Online, OneDrive retention improvements
    • What’s happening: Microsoft is improving Microsoft 365 retention policies and labels for OneDrive and SharePoint. This will include the implementation of a new retention engine for policy processing.
    • Rollout start: July 2020
    • Rollout finish: August of 2020

• • Updated Company Branding component in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)
    • What’s happening: Microsoft will soon update the Company Branding component of the sign-in page for Azure AD to allow basic formatting and hyperlinks.
    • Rollout start: Late June 2020
    • Rollout finish: Late July 2020

Announcements

• • Teams channel system message removal
    • What’s happening: Microsoft plans to get rid of some system messages in Teams to make it easier for end users to focus on important information.
    • Rollout start: Mid-June 2020 for standard release tenants; Mid-August 2020 for government tenants
    • Rollout finish: Mid-July 2020 for standard release tenants; End of August 2020 for government tenants

• • Updates to Microsoft 365 Apps available on Current Channel
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has released updates to the Microsoft 365 Apps on the Current Channel (previously called the Monthly Channel).

• • Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module generally available
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has made the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module generally available to all Exchange Online tenants.

• • Removal of Intune support for Exchange On-Premises Connector
    • What’s happening: Intune will start the process of getting rid of support for the Exchange On-Premises Connector, starting in the 2007 (July) release. That means new clients and existing clients without active connectors will lose the ability to create new connectors or manage EAS devices using Intune.

• • Updated rollout timeline for Microsoft Secure Score improvement action updates
    • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced updates to Microsoft Secure Score improvement actions meant to deliver a more accurate depiction of security posture. The rollout timeline has been updated to ensure the best possible customer experience.
    • Rollout start: Early June 2020 (previously mid-June 2020)
    • Rollout finish: Mid-June 2020 (previously end of June 2020)

• • Microsoft Intune In Development page now available
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has updated the “In development for Microsoft Intune” page in its documentation.  

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