1. Microsoft Teams: A New, Streamlined Chat and Channels Experience
Overview
Microsoft Teams is getting a new unified view to help simplify conversations by merging chats, teams, and channels. Microsoft has just taken the opportunity to make Teams more efficient to stay organized by introducing custom sections, additional filters for sorting your messages, and a consolidated @mention list with this update.
Beginning of the update’s availability: General availability began in mid-November 2024 and should be widely available by February 2025. This update will be received later by Education tenants.
Impact
The combined Chat view brings all conversations, chats, teams, and channels into one place, making it easier to navigate. Users can organize messages with custom sections and use persistent filters to focus on what’s most important.
A new @mention view helps users quickly find mentions across all conversations. There’s also a shortcut (Ctrl+G or Cmd+G) for fast navigation and settings to customize the experience, like toggling between combined and separate views.
Action Needed
No admin action is required for this rollout. Admins should review current setups though, and notify users about the new features.
2. Viva Engage Storyline Integration in Microsoft Teams
Overview
Microsoft is embedding the Viva Engage storyline into Teams to simplify employee communications. It provides a centralized hub offering updates, conversations and analytics so that collaboration and engagement around leaders can happen seamlessly in Teams. Rollout begins in February 2025 for Targeted Release users. March 2025 will see its General Availability.
Impact
Once rolled out, storyline notifications will appear in the Activity tab in Teams, and users should be able to navigate to storyline pages directly from within chats. With right permissions, leaders and their representatives can post updates, collect insights from analytics, and communicate with employees easily.
Viva Engage Premium or Viva Suite licenses will be required to use premium capabilities i.e., analytics and the ability to post on behalf of leaders. The update is for Teams on all platforms, including Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.
Action Needed
Ensure your organization has Viva Engage licenses. Verify access to required IPs and URLs, and confirm sign-ins for Viva Engage via Microsoft Entra ID. Admin settings from Viva Engage will automatically apply, but you can opt out.
3. New Feature: Connect Virtual Network to Hosted Machine Group in Power Automate
Overview
After Jan 31, 2025, Power Automate users can link their VNet to a hosted machine group (HMG). It enables users to run desktop flows, allowing execution of RPA jobs involving access to on-prem networks. They strengthen the security and reliability of the connectivity between groups of hosted machines and private networks.
Impact
With this update, you can easily connect your own VNets with hosted machine groups. This makes running desktop flows that automate tasks that need to connect to on-prem systems easier, providing a secure and reliable connection.
Action Needed
No action needs to be taken immediately. This announcement is for your information. You can start scheduling integration to use this feature if required.
4. Power Apps Update: Advanced Settings Redirect to Power Platform Environment Settings App
Overview
Microsoft is introducing the Power Platform Environment Settings app for Power Apps. This new modification will replace the legacy web client experience. Now, there will be a unified, modernized experience for developers managing app settings. General availability begins on Jan 31, 2025.
Impact
Advanced Settings links in Power Platform will now automatically open the new Power Platform Environment Settings app. The new streamlined app, which offers a much smoother experience, still retains the access control, security, and extensibility features that were present in the previous system.
Action Needed
No additional action is required. However, admins can still prefer the legacy experience by disabling this redirection by toggling the Advanced Settings Redirection option to “Off” in the admin center. No additional action is required.
5. New in Power Platform: Convert Owner Team to Access Team and Reassign Records
Overview
Beginning Jan 15, 2025, admins have the option to change an owner team to an access team and reassign the team’s records directly from the Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC). Microsoft is shifting teams functionality from the legacy Dataverse Web client and it will be available in PPAC under Environment > Settings > Users + Permissions > Teams.
Impact
Now admins can manage team roles in PPAC. Converting an owner team to an access team, admins need to first reassign all the records owned by the team. After conversion, the access team can no longer own records. And this action is irreversible. Admins can reassign records owned by an owner team to another user or team through the same interface.
Action Needed
No immediate action is required. Beware that the conversion process is irreversible. So ensure proper reassignment of records.
6. Streamlining Copilot Adoption with New Viva Engage Features
Overview
New capabilities are coming in Microsoft Viva Engage to streamline Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption. Using knowledge across the network, starting January 2025, users receive live recommendations for related questions and answers while drafting a query. Furthermore, admins can migrate adoption features from community to community to maximize engagement strategies.
Impact
Users will automatically see relevant answers to questions that have already been asked across Viva Engage, saving them time. This encourages quicker information sharing and less duplication.
Now admins can reallocate adoption features such as suggested content and setup checklists from one community to another while maintaining any existing content. These modifications will bring about a better user experience and Copilot Adoption initiatives with improvements.
Action Needed
No immediate action is required. Admins managing the Copilot rollout should review support documentation. Admins can unselect a community as the Copilot adoption hub via the community settings menu to transfer the Copilot adoption features.
7. SMS Chat in Microsoft Teams Calling Plans
Overview
Microsoft Teams adds SMS chat functionality to Teams calling plans in the U.S. and Canada. They have enabled users to send and receive SMS messages directly within Teams on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. The change rollout will commence in the middle of February 2025 and finish by the end of February 2025. The SMS feature needs to be enabled by admins for users.
Impact
After enabling the feature, PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) contacts will start appearing in Teams search results for users with calling plans, making it easy to launch SMS chats. This capability will be turned on by default, simplifying interaction for organizations using MS Teams.
Action Needed
Admins must enable SMS for 10DLC (10-digit long code) numbers to activate this feature. Ensure admin and user experiences are set up by the rollout date. No further action is required.
8. Enhanced Copilot Features for Dynamics 365 Field Service
Overview
Microsoft is beginning to roll out advanced Copilot features for the users of Dynamics 365 Field Service web app. These updates bolster the usability of technicians, dispatchers, and service managers by embedding Copilot into current workflows. The new Copilot side pane enables instant, seamless access to context-rich information that is stored in Microsoft Dataverse, such as work orders and bookings. It will then be available for general use as of February 03, 2025.
Impact
This enhancement provides field service teams with real-time, accurate information that improves productivity and decision-making. Centralized access to Field Service records allows users to interact with key tables and pull important information so that they do not have to switch between tools.
Action Needed
At this time, no action is needed. This update will be available automatically.
9. Retirement of Private Unlisted Groups in External Viva Engage Networks
Overview
All private unlisted groups in external networks (frequently known as “Secret Groups”) on Microsoft Viva Engage will be retired on January 13, 2025, and permanently deleted on February 10, 2025. This is being implemented in an effort to drive security and compliance. Following the retirement, users will no longer be able to create or export data from these groups.
Impact
Any organization making use of external Viva Engage networks that contain private unlisted groups will need to take some sort of action before the deadline. Groups that do not opt to convert by January 13, 2025, will see all data, including messages and files, lost permanently after February 10, 2025, with no options to recover.
Action Needed
If you wish to keep these groups and their data, you will need to convert them to listed groups so that they remain visible. You can do that by selecting “List in our network’s directory and search results” in the group settings.
10. Retirement of SSPM Recommendations in Exposure Management
Overview
Microsoft is retiring some of its SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) recommendations on the Defender portal to ensure an increasingly accurate security posture.
The phased rollout of these changes will take place from mid-Feb 2025 until mid-March 2025. Affected recommendations include password policies, device security, collaboration, and other settings.
Impact
Organizations using these SSPM recommendations may notice changes in their security posture scores when these recommendations go away. The updates focus on retiring recommendations deemed redundant, outdated, or of low-security value.
Action Needed
No action is required. The changes will be applied automatically.
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