Below are all of the latest feature updates coming to Microsoft 365
Microsoft Teams
1. New Channels Experience
How this will affect your organization
A new channels experience in Microsoft Teams has been built with an intuitive design that allows teams to focus and stay on tasks, bring everyone up to speed, and actively engage in real-time. The following features will be rolling out:
- The compose box and recent posts will appear at the top of the page. It’ll now be much easier to start a new post, keep up with the latest conversations and participate – giving users the confidence that they’ve not missed anything.
- Every post is now a true conversation that users can focus on. Users can navigate to a conversation view that makes the discussion more engaging and synchronous, just like a chat. Users can also pop out the post, keep an eye on the discussion, while continuing to work on other topics.
- A streamlined information pane will include all the important contextual information like channel’s members and pinned posts so new team members can quickly on-board and for all members to find the information they need, right in the channel.
- Pin posts to make it easy for everyone to know what’s important in the channel and quickly reference it.
- Simplified badging is making it easier for users to understand when there are new unread activities in teams. In addition, the simplified design helps users focus on the specific channels which requires the most attention, like channels in which the user was @mentioned.
When will this happen:
Early June and expect to complete rollout by mid-June.
2. A new experience to search within chat and channels.
How this will affect your organization
The new in-chat and in-channel Search experience will now be available in the right handrail, making it possible to see your chat/channel list and your new search results in one single view.
When will this happen:
Early June 2023 and expect to complete rollout by early July (previously mid-June)
3. Set your Work Hours and Location
How this will affect your organization
We are highlighting Microsoft 365 features that will bring transparency and focus on where you and your colleagues are working: work hours and location. These features will appear in Outlook on the web and Teams and bring the flexibility of enabling users to share where they are working. You’re already accustomed to managing and sharing your schedule in Outlook and Teams. With these additional features, Microsoft 365 is now location-aware – giving more information to you and colleagues to work better together.
When will this happen:
early June and expect to complete rollout by early August.
4. Install apps based on user activity with Auto install approved apps (AAA)
How this will affect your organization
Microsoft Teams Auto install approved apps (AAA) uses activity from your users to install and surface apps that admins have already allowed for the tenant. An admin can enable AAA to help users naturally discover and use apps that are highly relevant to their needs within Microsoft Teams. Specifically, when a user signs into specific SaaS apps using Azure AD (e.g. in web browser), the app will be installed for that user on Teams.
When will this happen:
mid-May 2023 and we expect to complete by early June 2023.
5. New Lobby Policy for Webinar
How this will affect your organization
Currently in Public webinars, you are unable to distinguish registered users in the lobby. This means that you cannot allow registered users to directly bypass your lobby and enter your webinar. With this new change, we will be offering two new lobby options that will allow you to better control security in your webinar. These new lobby options are:
- A new ‘Allow registered users to bypass’ lobby policy that allows registered users to bypass the lobby in your webinar.
- A new ‘Reject users who cannot bypass the lobby’ that rejects users who cannot bypass the lobby.
When this will happen:
mid-May and expect to complete rollout by early June.
6. Block Anonymous Users’ Meeting Chat Read Access in Addition to Current Write Access
How this will affect your organization
Microsoft Teams IT Admins will soon be able to block anonymous users from accessing the chat in internally hosted meetings by disabling their read access on top of the existing disabled write access.
When this will happen:
mid-June and expect to complete rollout by late June.
Microsoft Exchange
1. Work Hours and Location
How this will affect your organization
To help organizations manage hybrid work, users can set up their work hours and location (WHL) in Outlook on the web, specifying when they’ll be remote or in the office. They can also setup different working hours per day, or multiple work slots in a day. Additionally, if your organization uses Teams and a user sets up WHL, their location will also be shown in their Teams profile card.
When this will happen:
late May 2023 and expect to complete rollout by early June 2023.
2. Report suspicious messages from shared/delegate mailboxes
How this will affect your organization
Soon, end-users will be able to report messages from shared mailboxes and delegate mailboxes using the built-in Report button in Outlook on the web.
When this will happen:
mid-May and should be completed by the early June.
Microsoft Viva
1. Yammer Rebranding to Viva Engage
How this will affect your organization
All Yammer surfaces will be undergoing a transformation and will now be known as Viva Engage. Users will experience the new Viva Engage branding across the remaining surfaces, including the website, integrations, SharePoint, Progressive Web App (PWA), embed, email notifications and email digest.
When this will happen:
late June 2023 and expect to complete rollout by mid-July 2023.
Microsoft OneDrive
1. Simplified Sharing
How this will affect your organization
We are completely revamping the Sharing control to help you and your organization share more easily and confidently. You can focus on the people you want to share with and how you want to share with them. The link scope is always shown at the bottom of the dialog and can be modified at the top-right, under the settings gear, to best fit your scenarios prior to sharing with others. The copy link section now returns a quick success toast when the link successfully copied to clipboard. The ability to share to Outlook is still available for users who enabled it in the top menu.
You can now view the extensive list of all the people who have gained access to your files, search for an individual or a group and manage their access with even more control. You can also drill down into the group or link information for more details.
When this will happen:
mid-June (previously early June) and expect to complete rollout by mid-July (previously late June).
Power BI
1. Microsoft Fabric
How this will affect your organization
Today we are unveiling Microsoft Fabric—an end-to-end, unified analytics platform that brings together all the data and analytics tools that organizations need. Fabric integrates technologies like Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI into a single unified product, empowering data and business professionals alike to unlock the potential of their data and lay the foundation for the era of AI.
Full Microsoft Build Announcement: Introducing Microsoft Fabric: The data platform for the era of AI | Azure Blog | Microsoft Azure
All Build Announcements: Microsoft Build 2023
When this will happen:
July 1, 2023
Windows
1. Windows Copilot
How this will affect your organization
We’re thrilled to introduce Windows Copilot. Windows is the first PC platform to provide centralized AI assistance for customers. Together, with Bing Chat and first- and third-party plugins, you can focus on bringing your ideas to life, completing complex projects and collaborating instead of spending energy finding, launching and working across multiple applications.
Full Microsoft Build Announcement: Bringing the power of AI to Windows 11 – unlocking a new era of productivity for customers and developers with Windows Copilot and Dev Home – Windows Developer Blog
All Build Announcements: Microsoft Build 2023
When this will happen:
Preview in June 2023
Microsoft Admin
1. Teams Audio Conferencing promo discount expiration
How this will affect your organization
Starting October 2020, a promotion that enables free Audio Conferencing for 12 months has been available to CSP Partners. This promotion ended June 2022. At the end of the 12 months, Partners who purchased this Audio Conferencing SKU (Product ID: CFQ7TTC0LHSL) will find their subscriptions renewing at the nonpromotional price of $2.50 USD per-user per-month.
Partners may purchase a supplemental $0 add-on SKU (Product ID: CFQ7TTC0JXCZ), which enables Audio Conferencing with unlimited toll dial-in minutes, 60 dial-out minutes per-user/month to United States and Canada phone numbers pooled at the tenant level regardless of tenant location, and Operator Connect Conferencing. Partners who wish to take advantage of the Audio Conferencing $0 add-on SKU will need to purchase the new SKU.
Despite the availability of the $0 add-on SKU, customers may choose to continue using their existing Audio Conferencing SKU at the nonpromotional price as the subscription includes unlimited toll dial-in minutes, 60 dial-out minutes per-user/month pooled at the tenant level to Zone A countries, and Operator Connect Conferencing. Partners who need dial-out beyond the United States and Canada should consider staying with their original Audio Conferencing SKU.