In this week’s edition of Microsoft Office 365 news, we’ll provide you with the essential details about new features, updates, retiring features and more for apps like Teams, Outlook and SharePoint.
New Features
- Microsoft 365 audit solution additions
- What’s happening: Microsoft is adding a few new features to the 365 audit solution. You’ll be able to find them in the Security and Compliance Center and via the Management Activity API.
- Rollout start: Mid-November 2019 (gradually in public preview)
- Rollout finish: End of December 2019
- Microsoft 365 audit solution additions
- Silent sign in of new Teams users
- What’s happening: Teams will start signing in new users automatically.
- Rollout start: Late October 2019 for Teams customers on select Windows systems
- Rollout finish: Mid-December 2019
- Silent sign in of new Teams users
- Mobile Outlook addition
- What’s happening: Microsoft is helping users prepare for meetings more effectively with Meeting Insights and time zone support features for Outlook mobile.
- Rollout dates: Mid-October 2019 for Meeting Insights and early November for time zone support.
- Mobile Outlook addition
- Additional SharePoint admin abilities
- What’s happening: SharePoint admins will soon be able to change site URLs.
- Rollout start: Mid-October 2019
- Rollout finish: End of October 2019
- Additional SharePoint admin abilities
- High-confidence phishing email addition
- What’s happening: The spam filter policy will soon include high confidence phishing email.
- Rollout start: Mid-November 2019
- Rollout finish: End of November 2019
- High-confidence phishing email addition
- Office updates signed using SHA-2
- What’s happening: For enhanced security, Office updates will soon be signed exclusively with the SHA-2 algorithm.
- Rollout date: October 31, 2019
- Office updates signed using SHA-2
- OneDrive Sync updates signed using SHA-2
- What’s happening: To improve security for those who use OneDrive and SharePoint, OneDrive Sync updates will be signed using only the SHA-2 algorithm.
- Rollout start: November 2019
- Rollout finish: November 29, 2019
- OneDrive Sync updates signed using SHA-2
Updated Features
- Modifications to Security and Compliance spam settings and Zero-hour Auto Purge (ZAP)
- What’s happening: Microsoft is updating the Security and Compliance Center Outbound spam settings and the ZAP.
- Rollout start: Mid-October 2019
- Rollout finish: End of October 2019
- Modifications to Security and Compliance spam settings and Zero-hour Auto Purge (ZAP)
- Addition of malware ZAP toggle to Security and Compliance Center
- What’s happening: The anti-malware policy in the Security and Compliance Center will soon have a malware ZAP toggle.
- Rollout start: Late October 2019
- Rollout finish: Early November 2019
- Addition of malware ZAP toggle to Security and Compliance Center
Retiring Features and Removals
- Discontinuation of some All Company system messages
- What’s happening: For integration and noise reduction purposes, Microsoft will stop posting All Company system messages about new users joining and the creation of new groups. Users are encouraged to get group and user creation info from the Office 365 Admin center instead.
- Rollout date: December 20, 2019
- Discontinuation of some All Company system messages
- Option to disable Microsoft Teams for users by license category
- What’s happening: Microsoft is getting rid of the ability to disable Teams for all users in a specific license category, except for Edu Faculty and Edu Student categories.
- Rollout start: November 22, 2019
- Rollout finish: Mid-December 2019
- Option to disable Microsoft Teams for users by license category
Policy Notifications
- How the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy applies to Teams
- What’s happening: Microsoft reminds its customers that the Teams desktop client updates every two weeks, and you’re expected to ensure you’re using the most recent version in line with the Modern Lifecycle Policy. You’ll receive a notification if your desktop client is out-of-date.
- How the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy applies to Teams
For more information about Microsoft Office 365, please check out our blog series about the suite. If you have any questions about this solution and/or any of the news included in this post, feel free to contact our team of expert techs at 877-599-3999 or sales@stratospherenetworks.com.
