Office 365 Video was Microsoft’s first release of a cloud video portal for Office 365. Office 365 Video offered the basics of a video portal like YouTube, allowing users to create channels and upload videos. It was a great start for an organization’s foray into cloud-based video content, but Office 365 Video had some drawbacks. Office 365 Video lacked a native video player, offline playback options, the ability to embed video into SharePoint, and integration with Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft launched Stream (Classic) in 2017 to replace Office 365 Video. Microsoft Stream offered a native video player, embedding capabilities, auto transcription, better streaming to mobile devices, and much more. However, there were still some drawbacks with Stream (Classic). Our team saw a lot of confusion about where Stream stores videos and how Stream managed access to videos. It was also challenging to share a video outside of the organization. Sharing outside your organization required users to download the video and upload it to OneDrive or SharePoint to share externally.
With the rise of remote work, more organizations used video to engage and communicate with employees. This explosive growth in video led the Microsoft Stream team to re-envision Stream. This re-envisioning has led to the debut of Stream (on SharePoint). Yes, the naming is confusing at first, but we will get used to it!
What is Microsoft Stream (on SharePoint)?
Stream (Classic), though an improvement on Office 365 Video, still felt pretty disconnected from the larger Office 365 ecosystem. Stream (on SharePoint) treats videos like any other file, automatically storing them within the SharePoint files platform (SharePoint and OneDrive).
The storage of meeting recordings actually switched over to Stream (on SharePoint) in January 2021. This means that you have been using the new Stream (on SharePoint) unless your organization explicitly opted out!
How Does Stream (on SharePoint) Work?
With Stream (on SharePoint), there is a new start page. The start page helps you quickly find your videos and videos shared with you.
For now, the video player itself looks the same. However, you will find that you can now share, see version history, comment, and see activity and file information. This is just like you would find with any other file stored in SharePoint or OneDrive.
You are also able to feature video on a SharePoint page using the File Viewer or Highlighted Content Web Part. This means you can show video content alongside other Office files in a single web part or page experience.
Additionally, Stream (on SharePoint) stores video files the same way Microsoft stores other Office files. This allows users to find these videos (and transcripts) through Microsoft Search. On top of that, admins can also act on videos with Microsoft 365 information governance features. These features include eDiscovery, retention and Data Loss Prevention polices. Power users can even act on Stream (on SharePoint) videos with Power Apps and Power Automate!
There are some features of Stream (Classic) that are not yet available with Stream (on SharePoint). Microsoft says that these key missing features are coming soon to Stream (on SharePoint):
- Manually uploading a caption or subtitle file to an existing video
- Ability to change the playback speed
- Blocking downloads of Teams channel meeting recordings
- Trimming the beginning and ending of a video
- Video channels
I have included a link to the full feature list for Stream (on SharePoint) . This should help you understand what is available now, what is coming soon, and what is not on the roadmap.
Where do meeting recordings end up now?
I have experienced a lot of confusion around the storage of meeting recordings, and who has access to them with Stream (Classic). With the Stream (on SharePoint), the recording location and its permissions vary based on the type of meeting, and who clicked record.
The user who clicks record “owns” the recording, and Stream (on SharePoint) stores it in their OneDrive. Other meeting attendees will have Read access to the recording. External (in another tenant or guest user) call participants do not get access to any meeting recordings, and the recording owner will have to share the recording separately.
The Organizer of a scheduled meeting always keeps Edit and Share rights to a recording, no matter who clicked record. However, Stream (on SharePoint) stores the recording in the OneDrive of whomever clicked record.
If it is a Channel meeting, meaning the Organizer scheduled the meeting via the Teams Channel Calendar, or the “Meet Now” button in a channel, Stream (on SharePoint) stores the recording in the Channel’s SharePoint files. The recording member gets Edit rights to the recording, and the other members rights to the recording is based on their channel permissions. I put together the below diagram for quick reference on all the Stream (on SharePoint) recording scenarios.
Stream (on SharePoint) Rollout and Migrating from Stream (Classic)
Unless your organization explicitly opted out starting January 7, 2021, Microsoft 365 will save all new Teams meeting recordings to OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online. Even if your organization opted out, the new recording behavior will go into effect starting August 16, 2021.
This date could change, as Microsoft has said they would not retire Stream (Classic) until Stream (on SharePoint) has all the features of Stream (Classic), and a migration tool is available to migrate videos from Stream (Classic) to Stream (on SharePoint).
Microsoft is building the Stream migration tool on Mover, which is tied into the Microsoft Migration Manager. This will allow admins to migrate video content on their own schedule, with the ability to choose destinations if the default destination does not fit your needs. The tool will migrate permissions, and any Stream (Classic) links will redirect to the new OneDrive or SharePoint location.
Microsoft will not migrate any video content, and whatever admins leave in Stream (Classic) after the retirement date will be removed. This retirement date is 12-18 months away, but it is never too early to help users adopt Stream (on SharePoint). If you’re looking to drive Stream (on SharePoint) adoption, or want to plan your Stream migration, then reach out to Total Solutions to see how we can help.
