In Microsoft Office 365 news this week, My Apps will end support for Internet Explorer starting in November 2020. Read on to learn more about other updates and new features coming soon to Office 365 apps.
New Features
- New Microsoft Forms start page
- What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to introduce a new Forms start page located at Office.com as a replacement for the current Forms portal page at forms.office.com.
- Rollout start: Now for Targeted Release customers; Early November 2020 for Standard Release customers
- Rollout finish: Late November 2020 for Standard Release customers
- New Microsoft Forms start page
- New Teams meeting organizer ability to adjust the meeting experience in desktop app
- What’s happening: Microsoft is making it possible for Teams meeting organizers to view and adjust meeting options from within the in-meeting experience when meetings have their own window in the desktop version of the app.
- Rollout date: Mid-October 2020
- New Teams meeting organizer ability to adjust the meeting experience in desktop app
- Duration for Teams presence status
- What’s happening: Teams end users will soon be able to specify a duration for their presence status.
- Rollout start: End of October 2020
- Rollout finish: Mid-November 2020
- Duration for Teams presence status
- Freehand by Invision whiteboarding experience in popped-out Teams meetings
- What’s happening: Microsoft is introducing support in the new Teams popped-out meeting experience for Freehand by Invision whiteboarding.
- Rollout start: Mid-October 2020
- Rollout finish: End of October 2020
- Freehand by Invision whiteboarding experience in popped-out Teams meetings
- Personal query history for Microsoft Search
- What’s happening: Microsoft Search end users will soon gain the ability to view and manage their personal search history.
- Rollout start: Late November 2020 for Targeted Release customers; Late December 2020 for Standard Release customers
- Rollout finish: Late March 2021 for all customers
- Personal query history for Microsoft Search
- SharePoint My Feed web part
- What’s happening: Microsoft is introducing the option to make SharePoint pages and sites more relevant to individual end users with the addition of the new My Feed web part.
- Rollout start: Mid-October 2020 for Targeted Release customers; Late October 2020 for Standard Release customers
- Rollout finish: Early November 2020 for all customers
- SharePoint My Feed web part
- New Outlook for Mac preview toggle
- What’s happening: End users will soon have access to a toggle to preview the new Outlook for Mac.
- Rollout date: Outlook for Mac Build 1013 became available in the Microsoft Store and Apple App Store on Oct. 13, 2020.
- New Outlook for Mac preview toggle
- Power Apps web part static parameters
- What’s happening: End users who have editing privileges on a SharePoint page will soon have the option to append parameters to a Power Apps web part web link.
- Rollout date: Early October 2020 through mid-October 2020 for Targeted Release customers; Mid-October 2020 through end of October 2020 for Standard Release customers
- Power Apps web part static parameters
Updated Features
- Easy survey response collection from specific users or security groups in Microsoft Forms
- What’s happening: Microsoft has announced an update that will make it easy for Forms owners to collect responses from specific security groups or end users.
- Rollout start: End of October 2020
- Rollout finish: End of November 2020
- Easy survey response collection from specific users or security groups in Microsoft Forms
- PowerPoint for Mac slide show recording improvement
- What’s happening: Microsoft plans to introduce a new workflow and tools to PowerPoint for Mac. These enhancements will make it easier to record a rich slide show session.
- Rollout date: Mid-November 2020 to early December 2020
- PowerPoint for Mac slide show recording improvement
- Update to Exchange Online voicemail notifications journaling
- What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to implement the ability to stop voicemail and call notifications journaling in Exchange Online. This is for organizations that leverage email journaling to relay emails to a third-party archiving solution.
- Rollout date: Early November 2020
- Update to Exchange Online voicemail notifications journaling
- Microsoft Lists update: Ability to create choice columns with formatting
- What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to update Lists so end users can create choice columns with formatting.
- Rollout start: Mid-October 2020
- Rollout finish: End of October 2020
- Microsoft Lists update: Ability to create choice columns with formatting
Announcements
- End of My Apps support for Internet Explorer
- What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to shift its focus to modern browser support during the next year. Subsequently, the supplier will end support for Internet Explorer starting Nov. 13, 2020, for My Apps, My Access, My Account and My Groups. Instead of Explorer, Microsoft recommends utilizing Firefox, Chrome or Edge.
- End of My Apps support for Internet Explorer
- Updated rollout timeline for new Teams meeting pre-join experience
- What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to implement a new pre-join experience for Teams meeting participants to make it easier for end users to select video and audio sources. The supplier has updated the rollout timeline for this new experience.
- Rollout start: End of October 2020 (previously early October 2020) through end of November 2020 (previously mid-October 2020)
- Updated rollout timeline for new Teams meeting pre-join experience
- Updated rollout timeline for seamless sharing of lists in To Do
- What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to introduce support in Microsoft To Do for sharing lists between personal Microsoft accounts and work or school accounts. The supplier paused the deployment of this feature to respond to end user feedback and is now ready to continue with implementation.
- Rollout date: Mid-October 2020 (previously late September 2020)
- Updated rollout timeline for seamless sharing of lists in To Do
- Updated rollout timeline for admin control of PSTN meeting participant phone number masking
- What’s happening: Earlier this year, Microsoft implemented a feature for Teams meetings that automatically masks PSTN participant phone numbers to end users outside your organization in order to protect the privacy of participants joining via audio conferencing. The supplier later announced the planned addition of an admin control for this feature. To ensure the best possible user experience, Microsoft has delayed the deployment of this control.
- Rollout start: Mid-October 2020 (previously early September 2020)
- Rollout finish: Mid-November 2020 (previously end of October 2020)
- Updated rollout timeline for admin control of PSTN meeting participant phone number masking
- Updated rollout timeline for SharePoint average time spend per user report
- What’s happening: Based on learnings from early rings, Microsoft has decided to adjust the code before moving forward with the implementation of an average time spent per user report on the SharePoint site usage page.
- Rollout start: Mid-November 2020 (previously mid-July 2020)
- Rollout finish: Mid-December 2020 (previously early September 2020)
- Updated rollout timeline for SharePoint average time spend per user report
- Updated rollout timeline for public preview of retention policies for Yammer messages
- What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to introduce the public preview of retention policies for end user and community messages in Yammer. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has updated the rollout timeline.
- Rollout start: End of October 2020 (previously beginning of October 2020)
- Rollout finish: End of November 2020 (previously early November 2020)
- Updated rollout timeline for public preview of retention policies for Yammer messages
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.
