O365 Weekly Digest - 04/22/2019

Every week I'll be posting a quick summary of O365 updates included in the admin weekly digest email that you can sign up for via the admin Message Center: https://admin.microsoft.com/AdminPortal/Home#/MessageCenter - these emails include items posted to the message center over the last week and come out every Monday.

New Features

• Microsoft Search is moving to GA (Roadmap ID: 34273) 
• OneDrive is getting full-fidelity shared libraries with the ability to sort and group by custom metadata (Roadmap ID: 49093) 
• Group connected Team sites created with the 2 web part homepage (News and Activity) will be updated to the new four web part homepage (News, Activity, Quick Links, and Documents). This will only impact homepages that have not been modified. 
• New shareable links option can block downloads of files users have read only access to (Roadmap ID: 27499) 
• Updates to Office 365 Group cards will be updated to include the ability to search members, renew group, and approve pending members (Roadmap ID: 49175) 
• New larger, and more flexible image types are going to be allowed for the Company Logo in the O365 Navigation Bar
• Teams will begin automatically moving you inactive Teams (Teams you haven't interacted with in 45 days) into the more category (Roadmap ID: 48621) 
• Personally I would like to see the ability to add your own custom groups, this has been suggested in user voice and is currently under review: https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/19169926-custom-group-categories-for-teams
• Updated release plan for Shareable links in Word and Outlook for Windows and Mobile

Admin Updates

• The new SharePoint Admin center will now be default for all organizations (Roadmap ID: 46375)
• Updates are coming to how Files Shared Internally is being counted
• Role changes for Information Protection Administrator and Privileged Role Administrator (Roadmap ID: 50424)
• Skype for Business will retire 3DES on July 10th as part of Microsoft's move to TLS 1.2+
• Authentication updates are coming to Azure AD sign-in pages (Roadmap ID: 33845)
• Custom branding is coming to Sign-Out and authentication error screens (Roadmap ID: 50476) 

You can check out the full list of update below

Email Text

Apr 20

Updated - We’re increasing access to Microsoft Search across Office 365 We’re updating Microsoft Search. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon.This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 34273.

Apr 19

Updated - Updated Feature: We’re changing your default SharePoint admin center experience Major Update: General Availability The new SharePoint admin center will be the default experience for organizations. We have completed rolling out to Office 365 organizations of 50 or fewer licenses, as communicated in MC173771, and are now rolling out more broadly.This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 46375.

Apr 19

Updated Feature: Changes to definition of Files Shared Internally We have identified telemetry issues with the Sharing Report that resulted in inaccurate counts for files shared internally and files shared externally. We are making updates that will address these issues and improve report accuracy. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. After the update, “Files shared internally” is the number of files that have been shared with users within the organization, or with users within groups (that might include external users). Also, “Files shared...

Apr 19

Updated Feature: Role changes: Information Protection Administrator and Privileged Role Administrator Major Update: General Availability We are making some changes to the Information Protection Administrator and Privileged Role Administrator roles.This enhancement is related to Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs 50422 and 50424.

Apr 18

New Feature: Full-fidelity shared libraries in OneDrive Full-fidelity shared libraries in OneDrive for Business is a new Office 365 feature. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon.This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 49093.

Apr 18

Office 365 Skype for Business will retire 3DES starting July 10, 2019 Act By: Jul 10 As previously communicated (MC171089) Office 365 Skype for Business is planning to move all of our online services to Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2+ to provide best-in-class encryption, and to ensure our service is more secure by default.As part of this plan, we’ll be retiring 3DES beginning July 10, 2019.

Apr 18

Updated feature: Group-connected team site homepage We’re updating group-connected team site homepages. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon.

Apr 18

Updated feature: Sharing links that block downloads for Office files We’re updating Sharing links that block download for Office files. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 27499.

Apr 17

New Feature: Office 365 Group card enhancements New feature: Office 365 Group card enhancements: search members, renew groups, approve pending members End users will soon be able to search members in the Office 365 Groups hover card that is available on Outlook on the web and SharePoint Online. As well, group owners will also be able to renew groups and approve pending members from the expanded view of the hover card. No net new functionality is being introduced--the functionalities already exist in other parts of Outlook on the web or...

Apr 16

New Feature: Busy on Busy in Microsoft Teams Busy on Busy in Microsoft Teams is a new Office 365 feature. We’ll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 49990.

Apr 16

Updates are coming to the authentication behavior on Azure AD (M365) sign-in pages There are updates coming to the authentication behavior on Azure AD (M365) sign-in pages. We'll begin rolling these changes out soon. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 33845.

Apr 16

Now use larger, more flexible image types to upload your company logo in the Office 365 navigation bar We are modernizing our navigation bar customization to help you represent your brand across Office 365. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 46636. Now, you’ll be able to upload your custom logo of any file size and of any format via a URL in order to improve the clarity of the logo image that your users see in their Office 365 navigation bar across their Office applications, like SharePoint Online and Office.com. After setting your custom logo you can configure it to...

Apr 15

Feature update: Focus on your active teams Major Update: General Availability Are too many teams cluttering up your left rail? Over the next few weeks, teams you haven't visited in more than 45 days will be automatically reordered and moved to the bottom "More" category so you can focus on teams you're more active in. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 48621. This change will does not apply to Office 365 subscriptions for Education. We'll be gradually rolling this out to all customers in early May, and the roll out will be completed worldwide by...

Apr 15

Updated release plan for Sharable links in Word and Outlook for Windows and mobile Major Update: General Availability Recently we announced, via MC175805, updates to Office 365 apps to ensure that document sharing by inserting links in Word, Outlook for Windows and Outlook for iOS uses the permission you’ve set at the organization level for OneDrive and SharePoint. We received feedback that our plan for when the organization sets the default permission to “Direct: Specific people” did not meet the expectations and needs of some customers. As a result, we are updating our release plans. This enhancement is...

Apr 15

New feature: Sign out and authentication error screens to show company branding Major Update: General Availability We’re updating the sign out and authentication error pages to show company branding. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. This enhancement is related to Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 50476.