We’re at the end of another week yet again, and that means that it’s time to recap everything announced as coming to Microsoft 365 this past week. Here’s everything you need to know:
Video Messaging in Outlook Mobile
Microsoft is looking to change how users interact with videos on Outlook Mobile by introducing Video Unfurl and Playback. Both are in place to “unfurl video links into a delightful thumbnail when reading an email that contains a video.”
Once the user taps on the thumbnail, the video appears on their mobile screen with full-screen playback. Both features will be rolled out to Android and iOS users soon.
Additionally, the company has also indicated that it will be introducing Video Capture and Upload on Android. The feature is designed to help users capture videos on their mobile phones within the Outlook Mobile app and allow them to easily upload the footage captured to the email being sent.
“Upload will leverage OneDrive for Business, allowing the user to share videos of large size and length with OneDrive,” says Microsoft. The features tagged 117588 and 117586 respectively in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap are expected to hit general availability by mid-May 2023.
Visual Refresh of Office apps for Windows
Microsoft has promised a Microsoft 365 Visual Refresh which will feature the Fluent Design principles with the aim of aligning it with the rest of Microsoft’s products and services. Microsoft pushed a similar experience to its Rewards program last year in December.
Microsoft released Visual Refresh alongside Windows 11 in June 2021 and has now started rolling out the feature via the Coming Soon pane and making improvements based on feedback from customers.
According to the company:
The Visual Refresh on Windows 11 is currently available for all Microsoft 365 Subscription and Perpetual 2021 users in Production Current Channel and Monthly Enterprise Channel. Windows 11 users can still opt-out via the Coming Soon pane. A bug in the rollout caused Windows 10 production Microsoft 365 Subscription and some Perpetual 2021 users to not receive the change.
The feature is already available in preview while the rollout phase is currently underway. It’s expected to hit general availability by mid-May.
Improved management of Teams apps with capabilities extended to Outlook and the Microsoft 365 app via Integrated Apps
Microsoft has announced that it will be introducing new controls that will help users establish better management at the app and tenant level. There’s already a feature that lets admins manage Teams Apps with certain capabilities that extend to Outlook and the Microsoft 365 App via the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
But with this new feature, admins will have control over which user in the organization can install and use these apps on Outlook and the Microsoft 365 App via Integrated Apps in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
The feature tagged 88942 in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap is expected to start rolling out to standard release in May and hit general availability during the same month.
In related news, Microsoft Teams Free (classic) hit its end-of-support date this week, and affected users are advised to Microsoft Teams (free). However, you run the risk of losing all your data and files. If you still need this data you’ll need to upgrade to a paid tier. Be sure to also check out last week’s recap in case you missed it.
That’s it for this week folks! Catch you next week.
