In Microsoft Office 365 news this week, Microsoft announced the implementation of Cortana voice assistance in the Teams mobile app for U.S. users. Additionally, the supplier is rolling out new features for Outlook mobile and renaming 10 Azure Active Directory (AD) roles, among other news.
New Features
- Communications compliance support for Teams chat data analysis for users with on-premise mailboxes
- What’s happening: Microsoft has announced that communication compliance now supports monitoring Teams chat for users with on-premise primary mailboxes in Exchange hybrid deployments.
- Communications compliance support for Teams chat data analysis for users with on-premise mailboxes
- Cortana in Teams mobile app
- What’s happening: Microsoft has added Cortana voice assistance to the Teams mobile app for U.S. users. The supplier plans to expand this feature to more regions and languages with future releases.
- Rollout start: Mid-August 2020
- Rollout finish: Sept. 1, 2020
- Cortana in Teams mobile app
- Quarantine notification customization option
- What’s happening: Microsoft is adding the ability to customize quarantine notifications with a unique disclaimer, display name and company logo.
- Rollout start: Mid-July 2020 for Standard Release customers; End of July 2020 for government customers
- Rollout finish: End of July 2020 for Standard Release customers; Mid-August 2020 for government customers
- Quarantine notification customization option
- Microsoft Lists home
- What’s happening: The supplier has announced the first stage of the deployment of Microsoft Lists, a new Microsoft 365 app. Microsoft Lists home (web) serves as a central location for the lists end users access across various sites.
- Rollout start: Late July 2020 for Targeted Release customers
- Rollout finish: Mid-October 2020 for all customers
- Microsoft Lists home
- Microsoft Search in SharePoint gets acronym answers
- What’s happening: Microsoft is making acronym answers available with Microsoft Search for SharePoint Online users.
- Rollout start: Mid-June 2020 for Targeted Release customers; Late August 2020 for Standard Release customers
- Rollout finish: Early July 2020 for Targeted Release customers; Mid-September 2020 for Standard Release customers
- Microsoft Search in SharePoint gets acronym answers
- New Outlook mobile features
- What’s happening: Microsoft will soon roll out various new features for Outlook for iOS and Android, such as the ability to create tasks from emails, new formatting features, suggested meeting actions in the reading pane, a different location for the New Event and New Message buttons, and more.
- New Outlook mobile features
Updated Features
- New names for 10 Azure AD roles
- What’s happening: Microsoft plans to rename10 built-in roles in Azure AD to make them consistent across the Microsoft 365 admin center, the Azure AD Portal and Microsoft Graph. The current inconsistencies can disrupt automated processes.
- Rollout start: Mid-August 2020
- Rollout finish: Early September 2020
- New names for 10 Azure AD roles
- ATP Campaign View enhancements
- What’s happening: Microsoft is enhancing Office 365 campaign views.
- Rollout start: Mid-July 2020
- Rollout finish: End of July 2020
- ATP Campaign View enhancements
- SharePoint columns with required metadata to sync as read/write
- What’s happening: Previously, the sync client has treated SharePoint document libraries with custom columns containing required metadata as read-only. Microsoft is making an adjustment so those libraries will sync with read/write abilities.
- Rollout start: Mid-August 2020
- Rollout finish: End of August 2020
- SharePoint columns with required metadata to sync as read/write
- Microsoft 365 ProPlus update available on Current Channel
- What’s happening: Microsoft has issued an update to the Microsoft 365 ProPlus Current Channel.
- Rollout date: July 1, 2020
- Microsoft 365 ProPlus update available on Current Channel
- Microsoft Secure Score improvement action updates
- What’s happening: To deliver a representation of security posture that’s as accurate as possible, the supplier is enhancing Microsoft Secure Score improvement actions.
- Rollout start: Mid-July 2020
- Rollout finish: End of July 2020
- Microsoft Secure Score improvement action updates
Announcements
- Publication of 2020 release wave 2 plans for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform
- What’s happening: The supplier has issued the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 2020 release wave 2 plans, which include new features Microsoft will release between October 2020 and April 2021. These capabilities are intended to drive digital transformation.
- Publication of 2020 release wave 2 plans for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform
- Temporary rollback of SharePoint default page templates
- What’s happening: The supplier has temporarily rolled back this feature to fix a problem that stops end users from correctly setting default templates. The rollback only impacts Targeted Release customers, who will no longer have the ability to set default templates. Set default templates will switch to the Blank template.
- Temporary rollback of SharePoint default page templates
- Delayed rollout of Teams Admin Center room management feature
- What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to implement a feature allowing for the management of Teams room devices via the Teams Admin Center. To ensure the best possible customer experience, the supplier has delayed the implementation of this capability.
- Delayed rollout of Teams Admin Center room management feature
- Delayed rollout of SharePoint pre-publish overview feature
- What’s happening: The supplier previously announced the introduction of a pre-publish panel to give page authors essential info about news posts and pages. Microsoft has delayed the deployment of this feature to ensure the best possible user experience.
- Delayed rollout of SharePoint pre-publish overview feature
- Delayed rollout of updated layout and navigation for Office.com home page and Office app
- What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced planned updates to the application navigation and layout for the Office.com home page, as well as the Office app in Windows 10. To ensure the best possible customer experience, the supplier has delayed this deployment.
- Delayed rollout of updated layout and navigation for Office.com home page and Office app
- Delayed rollout of new Teams calling and meeting experience
- What’s happening: The supplier previously announced that Teams users would soon gain the ability to see meetings and calls in separate windows. To ensure the best possible customer experience, Microsoft has delayed the implementation of this feature.
- Delayed rollout of new Teams calling and meeting experience
- Retirement of SharePoint Classic popularity reports
- What’s happening: Microsoft would like to remind all users that SharePoint Classic usage and popularity reports will no longer be available after Aug. 7, 2020. After that, you can use the modern Site Usage report to access site usage data.
- Retirement of SharePoint Classic popularity reports
- Retirement of 2010 SharePoint workflows
- What’s happening: As Microsoft continues to invest in Power Automate as an overall workflow solution, the supplier plans to retire SharePoint 2010 workflows. Any newly created tenants will have these workflows turned off starting on Aug. 1, 2020.
- Retirement of 2010 SharePoint workflows
For more information about the Microsoft Office 365 suite, please take a look at our blog series detailing the business value of the suite. Our expert techs also have extensive experience working with Office 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.
