Are you keeping up with Microsoft updates? The Microsoft Mondays: Microsoft Service Updates series from Total Solutions is here for your needs, and remember that Total Solutions also provides tailored, expert guidance during our consulting process. We are highlighting a few of the Microsoft announced upcoming updates from April:
- Viva Topics app in Teams
- Introducing New Look for Teams Admin Center
- Microsoft Viva: Auto-Categorization Coming to Meeting Category Insights in Viva Insights
- Message Reminders in Outlook for iOS and Android
- Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Optical character recognition in Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention
Keep an eye out for Microsoft Mondays for your Microsoft updates or speak with our technical team for your Microsoft needs.
* Updates posted here originally posted by Microsoft in the Microsoft 365 Message Center
Viva Topics app in Teams
[MC546937 · Published Apr 26, 2023]: The official Viva Topics app in Teams is rolling out to external customers.
Previously, Microsoft had built a Topics app for Teams as a script that Teams admins could upload. Now, the Topics app is available as a first party “Microsoft-built” app. This means the app is available in the app store for your tenant already, no upload or script-downloading required. Users in your tenant can either easily ‘add’ the app, like other Microsoft-built or Viva apps, or the Teams admins can select to have the Topics app pre-installed for users.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 118592
When this will happen:
Preview: Microsoft will begin rolling out late April and expect to complete by late April.
Standard Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out late April and expect to complete by mid-May.
How this will affect your organization:
The app is our Topic Center experience ported over into Teams. End users will be able to see the My Topics webpart. KMs and Admins will have access to Manage Topics and eventually the analytics. Any other added tabs in your Topic Center will reflect as well. There is also new navigation to allow users of Viva Suite to easily navigate between their Viva apps in Teams and give feedback.
ADMINS – What you need to do to prepare: There is no action needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.
Introducing New Look for Teams Admin Center
[MC546938 · Published Apr 26, 2023]: As part of ongoing efforts to provide the best possible experience for IT administrators, Microsoft is excited to launch a vibrant new look and feel to the Teams Admin Center. This is a significant improvement over the previous version, delivering several key enhancements that we believe will greatly benefit Teams administrators.
When this will happen:
Rollout has begun and is expected to be complete by early May.
How this will affect your organization:
One of the most notable changes is the visual redesign of TAC, which features softer colors for a more comfortable viewing experience. Additionally, the changes to the navigation menu and new micro-interactions makes Teams Admin Center easier and more intuitive to interact with. These changes are aimed at enabling administrators to focus on completing their daily tasks more effectively in Teams Admin Center.
ADMINS – What you need to do to prepare:
There is no action required from you at this time.
Microsoft Viva: Auto-Categorization Coming to Meeting Category Insights in Viva Insights
[MC546939 · Published Apr 26, 2023]: Meeting category insights in the Viva Insights app helps Viva Insights licensed users understand how they are allocating their time across meeting categories. Today, the feature uses the categories manually assigned by users in Outlook and Teams. In an upcoming update, meeting category insights will begin automatically categorizing meetings for users based on meeting size, cadence, and number of people in the meetings. Categories include:
- Long meetings – More than 1 hour long and 0-8 invitees
- Large meetings – At least 9 invitees and at most 1 hour long
- Large and long meetings – At least 9 invitees and more than 1 hour long
- Recurring meetings – Meeting series with multiple instances
- 1:1 meetings – Include 1 other participant
These categories can help users identify meetings that are expensive in terms of time spent, participants included, or both. Using these insights, users can assess whether meetings that fall under this category are a valuable use of time and resources as a step towards doing more with less.
Categorizations will show up in Viva Insights only and will not reflect in Outlook or Teams calendar.
With this update, users who are not currently categorizing in Outlook or Teams will be able to access meeting category insights and begin developing an understanding of how their meeting time is being spent. Users who are already categorizing will receive additional insights about their meeting time allocation according to well-known meeting attributes.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 117396
When this will happen:
Microsoft will begin rolling out in early May 2023 and complete rollout by late May 2023.
How this will affect your organization: All users with a Viva Insights license, including those who have not categorized any meetings before, will be able to view meeting category insights in the Viva Insights app. Those who have not categorized between the last 3 months and next 4 weeks will see auto-categorizations from Viva Insights only. Those with categorizations in Outlook and Teams will see both their own personal categorizations and auto-categorizations from Viva Insights.
Users without a Viva Insights license will not be able to view meeting category insights.
ADMINS – What you need to do to prepare:
Viva Insights documentation will be updated in sync with this release: Meeting category insights in Viva Insights. Review and assess impact for your organization. Consider updating documentation as appropriate.
Message Reminders in Outlook for iOS and Android
[MC546941 · Published Apr 26, 2023] Outlook for iOS and Android will soon roll out Message Reminders, a feature that pulls emails that users may want to reply to up to the top of their inboxes.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 126517
When this will happen:
This will begin rolling out in early May and complete in early June.
How this affects your organization:
Starting in early May, users will start seeing reminders appear at the top of their inbox for messages that Outlook detects may need a reply but that the user has not yet replied to after 3 days. These reminders disappear after users reply, or users can swipe to dismiss them. Users will also be able to disable this feature entirely in their app settings. If the user taps a reminder, they’ll see a notice in the reading pane explaining why it was surfaced at the top of the inbox.
ADMINS – What you can do to prepare:
There is no action you need to take to prepare for this change, but you might consider updating your user documentation and alerting your help desk.
Additional Information:
Deploying Outlook for iOS and Android app configuration settings in Exchange Online
Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Optical character recognition in Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention
[MC547641 · Published Apr 27, 2023] Optical character recognition (OCR) support extracts text from images and will help discover and protect sensitive data in images being shared across various services and devices. Coming soon to public preview, this release enables OCR support for images shared and stored in SharePoint Online and OneDrive, Exchange Online, Teams, and Windows endpoints.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 88860, 93233, and 106092.
When this will happen:
Rollout to public preview for Exchange and Teams is underway and will be complete by the end of April. You can sign up for preview on ODB, SPO, and Windows endpoint devices here.
How this will affect your organization:
With this update, you will be able to detect and protect sensitive content in images and subsequently apply Data Loss Prevention, Insider Risk Management, Auto labelling, and Data Lifecycle Management policies to prevent exfiltration of that sensitive data via Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Windows endpoint devices. This release supports key file types like JPG, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, and PDF (image only).
ADMINS – What you need to do to prepare:
To get started, please set up OCR billing by completing the pre-requisites mentioned here.
Get started with Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.
Learn about optical character recognition in Microsoft Purview (preview) Additional information
Check out previous Microsoft Updates that Total Solutions has posted here -> Microsoft Updates Archives – Total Solutions Inc.
