Microsoft Office 365 News 12-17-2020: Microsoft Teams Introduces Presenter View

In Microsoft Office 365 news this week, Microsoft Teams is introducing a presenter view. The supplier has also announced the implementation of a dark mode for OneDrive for web, support for text predictions in Outlook for Windows, and many more new features and enhancements. Keeping reading for details about the latest Microsoft news.

New Features

• • At-a-glance feature for Word files shared via email
    • What’s happening: Microsoft will soon include a summary of key points and estimated reading time in sharing emails for Word files.

• • Microsoft 365 compliance capabilities for card content created via apps in Teams messages
    • • What’s happening: Microsoft compliance capabilities are currently available in Teams for file and chat content. The supplier will soon extend these compliance capabilities to card content created through apps in Teams messages:
        • Legal hold
        • eDiscovery
        • Audit
        • Retention

     

  • Public preview: Yammer (native mode) guest support
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced the public preview of guest support for Yammer networks aligned to native mode. Admins will gain the ability to allow external collaboration and let Yammer community admins invite guests to their communities.

• • Outlook for Windows text predictions
    • What’s happening: Text prediction technology that makes suggestions during composition is already available for Outlook on the web. Microsoft is now extending support for this feature to Outlook for Windows.

• • Text predictions in Outlook for iOS
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to extend support for text predictions to Outlook for iOS for clients in Canada and the U.S.

• • Yammer Community Insights
    • What’s happening: Microsoft is introducing a Community Insights feature in Yammer to allow community managers to enhance engagement. The supplier is also introducing a Questions & Answers insights feature to gauge the volume of knowledge generated by end users in Yammer communities.

• • Teams presenter view
    • What’s happening: During Teams presentations, the person presenting can now see a presenter view.

• • New Migration Manager destination options: Teams and OneDrive
    • What’s happening: Migration Manager now allows SharePoint admins to select a OneDrive username or URL as a migration destination, in addition to a Teams channel for admins with Teams licenses.

• • OneDrive for web dark mode
    • What’s happening: Microsoft plans to implement a dark mode option for OneDrive for web.

• • Teams chat multiple number dialing
    • What’s happening: Teams will soon support multiple numbers when dialing from the chat header for any given end user.

• • Microsoft compliance center Exact Data Match (EDM) enablement
    • What’s happening: As an alternative to utilizing PowerShell, Microsoft is introducing the ability to manage Exact Data Match (EDM) via the Microsoft 365 compliance center.

• • Microsoft Forms text formatting
    • What’s happening: To help survey and quiz creators emphasize content, Microsoft Forms will soon have text formatting options, including bold, italic and underline.

Updated Features

• • Updated URLs for user, communities and network photos
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to change how they return photos for Yammer communities, users and networks. This won’t involve any end user changes, but you might need to update any applications that use Yammer APIs.
    • Rollout date: Jan. 11, 2021

• • Updated Outlook for Windows and Microsoft 365 connectivity
    • • What’s happening: Microsoft plans to update the versions of Outlook for Windows that are able to connect to Microsoft 365 services. Beginning Nov. 1, 2021, the following versions of Outlook will no longer be capable of connecting to Office 365 and Microsoft 365 services:
        • 15.0.4970.9999 and older for Office 2013
        • 16.0.4599.9999 and older for Office 2016
        • 1705 and older for Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise and Microsoft 365 apps for business

     

  • Enhanced SharePoint Online search experiences
    • What’s happening: Microsoft will soon make improvements to classic search experiences in SharePoint Online.

• • Additional Planner tasks storage location
    • What’s happening: Starting in January 2021, copies of some planner tasks will soon be stored in end users’ Exchange mailboxes. The Planner Service will continue to serve as the storage location for all Planner tasks.

• • Improvements in how updated message center posts sync for Planner end users
    • What’s happening: Microsoft will no longer append the title of updated posts with “(UPDATED)” or generate duplicate tasks of the same message during the syncing process.
    • Rollout date: January 2021

• • Microsoft 365 Apps Updates available
    • What’s happening: Microsoft has released updates to all channels for Microsoft 365 Apps. A gradual rollout of updates began on Dec. 8, 2020.

Announcements

• • Updated rollout timeline for Teams on the web dark theme and Fluent icon updates
    • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to update the default dark theme colors in Teams on the web, in addition to changing Fluent icons for consistency across Microsoft 365 apps. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has updated the implementation timeline for these changes.
    • Rollout date: Mid-January 2021 (previously late November 2020) for public preview; Mid-February 2021 (previously mid-January 2021) for Standard Release clients; End of February 2021 (previously mid-February 2021) for Government cloud clients

• • Updated rollout timeline for Windows 10 and macOS native notifications for Teams
    • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to give end users the option to choose to receive Teams notifications via their native OS notification system. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has updated the rollout timeline for this feature.
    • Rollout date: Mid-December 2020 through mid-January 2021 (previously mid-November 2020 through late November 2020)

• • Updated rollout timeline for Teams end of meeting notification
    • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to notify Teams meeting attendees when there are five minutes left in a scheduled meeting. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has updated the implementation timeline for this feature.
    • Rollout start: Late November 2020 (previously late October 2020)
    • Rollout finish: Late December 2020 (previously early December 2020)

• • Updated rollout timeline for Cortana briefing email Spanish support
    • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to introduce support for Spanish for the Cortana daily briefing email for end users with an Exchange Online license. To ensure the best possible user experience, the supplier has updated the implementation timeline.
    • Rollout start: Early December 2020 (previously mid-November 2020)
    • Rollout finish: End of February 2021 (previously December 2020)

• • Rollout paused for updated enablement process for Teams 1:1 call recording
    • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to change the enablement process for 1:1 call recording so it’s controlled by the -CsTeamsCallingPolicy / allowCloudRecordingForCalls attribute instead of the -CsTeamsMeetingPolicy / AllowCloudRecording attribute. Based on learnings from early rings, the supplier has decided to make changes to the code before moving forward with implementation.

• • Rollout paused for meeting chat membership updates
    • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to alter participants’ access to meeting chat based on how they were invited. Based on feedback from early rings, the supplier has decided to make alterations before continuing with the rollout of these enhancements.

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