Published 26 April 2023
Another month filled with updates across the Microsoft 365 platform! In this month’s blog, we cover a range of new feature rollouts, updated timelines to planned rollouts, and bite-sized learning snacks.
1. Microsoft Teams: Create offline meetings
What’s new?
Create a true appointment in Teams calendar by turning off the online toggle for a meeting.
Why is this important?
Minimise unnecessary chat and other features when setting up calendar events for personal appointments (i.e. lunch break slots, doctor appointments). Simply turn the toggle on/off to create an offline meeting in your Teams calendar. By doing so, no chat thread and other teams meeting artefacts will be created with an offline event is that usually coupled with an online meeting.
When is it coming?
Rollout commences late May.
2. eDiscovery (Premium): Discover the document version that has been shared
What’s new?
Automatically apply retention labels and retain the version of files shared as cloud attachments in email via Exchange and chat via Teams with the new Records Management capability that also supports the ability to discover the version of the document at the time that it was shared.
Why is this important?
Information workers in organisations benefit from quickly sharing cloud attachment files for visibility and collaboration, however this practice has been challenging for eDiscovery and legal professionals who are required to preserve and discover that content. With this feature update, eDiscovery (Premium) will support the ability to discover the version of the document at the time that it was shared. It will help ensure that the relevant version of the file is available to eDiscovery processes. This update will also provide the current live version of the document alongside the version at the time the file was shared. Learn more about cloud attachments in eDiscovery here.
When is it coming?
This is currently in public preview with general availability rollout commencing in late April and expected to be complete by end of May 2023.
3. Microsoft Intune: News feature in Windows Autopatch
What’s new?
The new feature will provide your IT admins the ability to customise Windows feature and quality updates in line with existing organisational structures and business goals.
Why is this important?
With Windows Autopatch, the following capabilities will be available to IT Admins:
- Windows Autopatch Groups
- Windows feature updates release management
- Windows quality updates granular controls
- Reporting
- Policy health and remediation
- Windows Update related alerts are in the Release management blade.
- Device configuration alerts are in the Tenant management > Alert actions tab
Learn more about Windows Autopatch here.
When is it coming?
Public preview begins 1st May 2023 with no confirmed timeline for generally availability rollout.
4. Microsoft 365 Admin Centre: Teams apps usage reports
What’s new?
M365 Admin Centre will soon support tracking on the usage of all Teams apps in usage reports.
Why is this important?
Stay proactive with your Microsoft security and app governance with insights gathered on Teams app usage with data for first-party, third-party store, and third-party tenant specific business applications. Your IT admins will have a first-hand view of monthly and daily active user counts of apps that are installed in Teams. Additionally, they will be able to monitor any active or blocked apps available for Teams users across your organisation. Learn more about the reports here.
When is it coming?
Rollout commences mid-April with expected completion by late April 2023.
5. Microsoft Edge: New Updater for macOS
What’s new?
Starting with Edge 113, Microsoft Edge for macOS will begin using a new updater called EdgeUpdater.
Why is this important?
If you are using Microsoft Edge on macOS, this update will impact you. If you don’t transition before the new feature is deployed with Edge 113, the new updater will default to updating Microsoft Edge automatically on your macOS devices. For further information about the updater, check out Microsoft’s documentation here.
When is it coming?
Rollout is scheduled to commence early May.
6. SharePoint: Updated timeline to pages authoring improvements
What’s new?
To improve SharePoint pages authoring, new improvements have been announced for the text web part and hero web part.
Why is this important?
Previously announced in February 2023, the rollout timeline for these improvements have been pushed back, mildly affecting your way of work if you were waiting for these updates. The changes are as follows:
Text web part:
- Multilingual Proofing – the Microsoft Editor Spellchecker, now integrated in SharePoint pages, will now be able to proof text in multiple languages. In addition to supporting the page language, Editor now proofs in the M365 language and the Edge browser language. Any word in any of these three languages, will be spell checked appropriately.
- Better control over line spacing – there are changes to the behaviour for line spacing in the text web part. After the end of a line, pressing enter will create a new line right underneath the previous line. This is a change from the previous behaviour where pressing enter created a new paragraph. This provides users more control over what their text looks like.
Hero web part:
- Update to how external images are handled in this web part – to improve rendering of the hero web part, there will be aligning to the image web part and removing support for external images. Instead recommend uploading the desired images to the site or leveraging the stock images. Existing hero web parts with external images will continue to work.
When is it coming?
Targeted release commenced and was completed at the end of February. Standard rollout commenced early March but now has expected completion by mid-April (previously mid-March).
7. Microsoft Teams: New Layouts Available in the View Only Experience
What’s new?
New ‘view-only’ layouts will be available for attendees who join a Microsoft Teams meeting where the meeting capacity has been reached.
Why is this important?
If you’re a large organisation (with relevant licencing) that regularly hosts all-company virtual events, this will be an end-user impact. Microsoft Teams allows up to 10,000 attendees to join a Teams meeting. After the capacity of the main meeting has been reached (which is when 1000 users enter a meeting), additional attendees will join with a view-only experience. With this change, Microsoft are updating the layouts that an attendee in this experience would see and the layouts that are produced by the Customer Streaming app or the Workplace Live app.
The following are the new layouts:
- Up-to 9 videos on stage at one time in a 3×3 fashion (with no content being shared)
- Side-by-side layout when the content is shared (up to 7 videos will be shown at a time with content)
For further information, read the Microsoft documentation here.
When is it coming?
New URL and naming convention has taken place.
8. Windows 10, Windows 11: Security updates now available
What’s new?
The April 2023 security update release is now available for Windows 11 and all supported versions of Windows 10.
Why is this important?
Keep your cyber security up-to-date with the latest Windows security updates to keep your organisation protected. Highlights include:
- Search on the taskbar is lighter when using custom colour mode
- PowerPoint is responsive when using accessibility tools
- Microsoft Narrator reads dropdown lists in Excel
- See available options in the Notepad combo box under Settings
- USB printers no longer misclassified as multimedia devices
For more information about the contents of this update, see the release notes, which are easily accessible from the Windows 11 and Windows 10 update history pages. Alternatively, watch Microsoft’s short Windows 11 update release notes video for this month’s tips.
When is it coming?
New updates available now – we strongly recommend you to install them after reading through the release notes.
9. Office Apps for Windows: A visual refresh
What’s new?
A visual refresh will be coming soon to all your Microsoft applications with this update.
Why is this important?
Bringing onboard feedback from their customers, Microsoft have delivered an intuitive, coherent, and familiar user interface, using the Fluent Design principles, across all their applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Project, Publisher, and Visio.
Microsoft have also ensured to align this visual refresh with the design of Windows 11 to provide seamless experiences on your PC. Learn more about this update here.
When is it coming?
Preview is available now. Standard rollout commences mid-April with expected completion by mid-May.
Note: This update will be initially released as an opt-in experience for Windows 10 production Microsoft 365 Subscription users via the Coming Soon pane. Perpetual 2021 Windows 10 and Windows 11 users will receive the Visual Refresh by default and can opt-out via the Coming Soon pane.
10. Windows skilling snacks: bite-sized learning for IT pros
What’s new?
New bite-sized learning topics are available.
Why is this important?
Announced in at the beginning of the year, this ‘snack’ library covers a variety of content, scenarios, and services in the big wide world of Windows. Previous topics include security fundamentals and analytics to app provisioning and update management. Keep your IT team upskilled with this special learning series that’s readily available and accessible.
When is it coming?
New skilling snacks are uploaded every week. Bookmark the series index to catch past and future topics here.
Your Viva reminder…
You may have noticed there are no Viva updates. A reminder that we’ve started a new blog series that breaks down Viva into bite sizeable chunks – much like our monthly M365 blogs! Read our April Microsoft Viva updates blog here.
It’s no secret we are one of the best when it comes to understanding your needs and how the Microsoft platform can reconnect, reinvigorate, and strengthen employee experience. Curious to know how Microsoft Viva can fast track your organisation’s digital strategy? Contact us to see how we can help.
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