In Microsoft Office 365 news this week, Microsoft Teams users are gaining several new features, including the ability to appear offline. Meeting organizers will also soon be able to stop attendees from unmuting themselves. Read on to learn more about upcoming features for Teams and other Office 365 apps.
New Features
- Designer in Word for the web
- What’s happening: Microsoft has announced the introduction of Designer, a feature that facilitates style variety and formatting consistency.
- Rollout date: Now for Targeted Release customers; Early November 2020 for Standard Release customers
- Designer in Word for the web
- Notifications for Yammer Communities app in Teams
- What’s happening: Yammer end users will soon receive notifications in Teams for announcements in Yammer Communities and @ mentions. This new feature will be included in the Yammer Communities app in the Teams app (mobile, web and desktop versions).
- Rollout date: Beginning of November 2020
- Notifications for Yammer Communities app in Teams
- Ability to appear offline in Teams
- What’s happening: Teams end users will soon have the ability to appear as offline.
- Rollout start: Mid-October 2020
- Rollout finish: End of October 2020
- Ability to appear offline in Teams
- 2020 Release Wave 2 features for Power Platform and Dynamics 365
- What’s happening: Beginning Oct. 1, 2020, Microsoft started enabling the 2020 Release Wave 2 features for the supplier’s global customer base. The deployment will continue through March 2021, and your environment will undergo automatic updates for Power Platform and Dynamics 365 apps during your regional maintenance window.
- 2020 Release Wave 2 features for Power Platform and Dynamics 365
- Microsoft SharePoint Syntex general availability
- What’s happening: Microsoft has announced the general availability of SharePoint Syntex, which transforms content into knowledge and automates content processing with machine teaching and AI. Please note that this only applies to the following SKUs: Microsoft 365 F1, F3, E3, E5, A3, A5; Office 365 F3, E1, E3, E5, A1, A3, A5.
- Rollout date: SharePoint Syntex became available for purchase as an add-on starting Oct. 1, 2020.
- Microsoft SharePoint Syntex general availability
- Outlook for the web OneNote feed
- What’s happening: Microsoft is making a OneNote feed available in Outlook on the web.
- Rollout start: Late September 2020
- Rollout finish: Late October 2020
- Outlook for the web OneNote feed
- Double Key Encryption for Microsoft 365 general availability
- What’s happening: Double Key Encryption for Microsoft 365 – a data protection solution – was released to public preview in July 2020. Microsoft is now transitioning this solution to general availability.
- Rollout start: Late September 2020
- Rollout finish: Early November 2020
- Double Key Encryption for Microsoft 365 general availability
- Stop participants from unmuting in Teams meetings
- What’s happening: Teams meeting organizers will soon be able to prevent attendees from unmuting themselves.
- Rollout date: Early October 2020 for Standard Release tenants; mid-October 2020 for GCC tenants; end of October 2020 for GCC-High and DoD tenants
- Stop participants from unmuting in Teams meetings
- Hide Teams mobile notification previews
- What’s happening: Teams mobile end users can now safeguard sensitive information by blocking data from showing in notification previews. This is available for Teams iOS (v. 2.0.22) and Android (v. 1.0.0.2020091301).
- Hide Teams mobile notification previews
- SharePoint organization chart
- What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to implement a web part in SharePoint that lets page authors create organization charts focused on an individual.
- Rollout start: Oct. 1, 2020
- Rollout finish: Mid-October 2020
- SharePoint organization chart
Updated Features
- Discover feed in Outlook for Android renamed as Recommended
- What’s happening: The Discover feed section on the Search home page in Outlook for Android will soon be called Recommended. The feed will also include access to recently recorded Teams online meetings as well as SharePoint news.
- Rollout date: End of October 2020 to early December 2020
- Discover feed in Outlook for Android renamed as Recommended
- Updated Teams meeting invitation formatting
- What’s happening: Microsoft is updating the formatting of the Teams meeting join details included in invitation emails. The new invitations will have clearer language to ensure a better experience for meeting participants.
- Rollout date: Mid-October 2020
- Updated Teams meeting invitation formatting
- Easier text addition in SharePoint modern pages for Targeted Release customers
- What’s happening: It will soon be easier for Modern SharePoint page authors to add text when creating new sections. This update only applies to Targeted Release customers.
- Rollout start: Early October 2020
- Rollout finish: End of March 2021
- Easier text addition in SharePoint modern pages for Targeted Release customers
- Microsoft 365 App updates available for Current Channel
- What’s happening: Microsoft is releasing updates for Microsoft 365 Apps to the Current Channel.
- Rollout date: A gradual rollout will take place starting Sept. 28, 2020
- Microsoft 365 App updates available for Current Channel
- Updated “In development for Microsoft Intune” page
- What’s happening: Microsoft has updated the “In development” page for Intune in their documentation. This page lists features in upcoming Intune releases to help with planning efforts.
- Updated “In development for Microsoft Intune” page
- Security and Compliance Center eDiscovery tool access to redirect to Microsoft Compliance Center
- What’s happening: Starting on Oct. 30, 2020, Microsoft will redirect customers who access content search, eDiscovery and Advanced eDiscovery via the Security and Compliance Center to the same solutions located in the Microsoft Compliance Center.
- Security and Compliance Center eDiscovery tool access to redirect to Microsoft Compliance Center
- Intune Plan for Change: Updated Help and Support experience in Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM)
- What’s happening: Microsoft plans to enhance the Help and Support experience in MEM to help end users access relevant content that will assist them in resolving issues as quickly as possible.
- Rollout date: The improved experience will roll out with the October 2020 service update.
- Intune Plan for Change: Updated Help and Support experience in Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM)
Announcements
- Upgrade needed for Microsoft 365 for Mac updates
- What’s happening: You must have macOS 10.14 Mojave or later installed to receive updates for Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word, starting with the Microsoft 365 for Mac November 2020 update. If you choose to use an older version of macOS, you will not receive updates, although your Office apps will still function.
- Upgrade needed for Microsoft 365 for Mac updates
- Delayed rollout for PowerBI search results in SharePoint and Office.com
- What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to update Microsoft Search in Office.com and SharePoint to include PowerBI results. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has delayed the rollout of this update.
- Delayed rollout for PowerBI search results in SharePoint and Office.com
- Delayed rollout for easy sharing of moved files
- What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to make it easy for end users to continue sharing a file with collaborators after moving it from a SharePoint site collection to OneDrive or vice versa. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has delayed this implementation.
- Delayed rollout for easy sharing of moved files
- Delayed rollout for Teams Meeting support for 20,000 participants
- What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to expand Teams Meeting support to acommodate up to 20,000 attendees as view-only participants. This is only for tenants with the Advanced Communications add-on. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has delayed the rollout of this enhancement.
- Delayed rollout for Teams Meeting support for 20,000 participants
- Adjusted rollout timeline for Teams meeting participant report updates
- What’s happening: In June 2020, Microsoft introduced participant reports including join and leave times for meeting organizers. The supplier then announced planned changes to those reports to offer more data and enhance functionality. The estimated completion date of the rollout of these updates has changed.
- Rollout start: Mid-September 2020
- Rollout finish: End of October 2020 (previously mid-October 2020)
- Adjusted rollout timeline for Teams meeting participant report updates
- Adjusted rollout timeline for Teams Desktop language-aware spellchecking
- What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to implement spellchecking relevant to the language an end user is actively typing in while using Teams Desktop. The supplier has released an updated rollout timeline for this feature.
- Rollout start: End of September 2020 (previously August 2020)
- Rollout finish: End of October 2020 (previously September 2020)
- Adjusted rollout timeline for Teams Desktop language-aware spellchecking
For more information about Microsoft Office 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 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.
