The Microsoft 365 monthly update includes updates and recently recent features across all of Microsoft 365. Press a button to read about an individual technology or continue reading for more. You can take a look back at previous monthly updates here, plus take a look at our weekly roadmap roundup.
SharePoint
In SharePoint: SharePoint Syntex: Content assembly, management of content types, new taxonomy (managed metadata) column, list templates for MSA, top news card on Viva Connections dashboard, Viva Insights Enroll in Focus plan
SharePoint Syntex: Content assembly
With Content Assembly, you can build that new contract, invoice, letter, or other document from existing data sources, or, by leveraging AI, you can turn your existing document into a template to be used for your business-specific needs.
Find out more: Syntex content assembly and the content lifecycle
New Taxonomy managed metadata column
You will see a new Managed metadata option as a column type within the Add column menu in SharePoint lists and now libraries. On selecting the option, users will be able to specify the column information such as its name and description and select the desired term set or term that exists within your organization, to associate the column with.
Find out more: Enable management of content types and add taxonomy columns from modern libraries and lists view
Enable management of content types
SharePoint admin’s can now enable management of content types directly from SharePoint modern document library and list views, instead of having to navigate to classic library settings.
Admin’s will see the Content Type option in the Add Column menu, even when they have not enabled Allow management of Content types from the Advanced settings option of Library Settings. Once the admin selects the desired Content types for the library and clicks on Apply, we will enable content types for the library automatically and then sync the content types to the library or list.
Find out more: Enable management of content types and add taxonomy columns from modern libraries and lists view
New list templates for the Microsoft Lists – MSA Preview
Three new list templates recently launched in Microsoft Lists for MSA (consumer) preview:
- Gift ideas: Easily organize your gift planning for your family & friends in one list and make gift buying and giving a breeze.
- Expense tracker: We all have expenses. This template helps you record all your expenses in one place.
- Recipe tracker: Create your very own virtual recipe book. Preserve links for recipes to try and recipes you love and organize them with tags. Add images to the ones you’ve cooked and show them off in a customizable recipe card view.
Find out more: Microsoft Lists – MSA Preview
Top news card on Viva Connections dashboard
Authors can boost news posts to highlight important announcements to all employees. The update this month extends the value of the overall news service throughout Microsoft 365. Ensuring that important news expands its reach out to intended employees and peers.
Find out more: Boost SharePoint news from organization news sites
Microsoft Viva Insights: Enroll in Focus plan from the Insights app in Teams
Viva Insights is introducing updates to better enable users to protect time for focus from the Viva Insights Teams app. These updates to the protect time page will allow users to enroll in a focus plan and adjust preferences to auto book focus time on one’s calendar from within the Insights app in Teams. Users enrolled in a focus plan will also see insights about their progress towards their focus time goals.
Find out more: Microsoft Viva Insights
Teams
In Teams: New search results page, new search on mobile, customer lockbox, automated webinar invite + custom domain, calendar day view, auto-answer meeting invites with video iOS, live caption support on VDI, auto-expiration of meeting recordings, roaming bandwidth, hold music VoIP, casting from desktop to rooms
Teams admin: Admin search phase 1, export teams list, virtual visits usage report, list of joined teams per user
Teams (Government)
Teams (Education)
Teams (Firstline)
Teams (Healthcare)
Search results page in Teams
A new search results page experience from Microsoft Search in Teams will make finding messages, people, answers, and files faster and more intuitive. A new All page will show top results from each domain, Bookmark, and Acronym.
Find out more: New and improved search results experience on Microsoft Teams
New Search experience in Teams mobile app
When searching in the Teams mobile app, you will now have a new header, get suggestions as you type (top results show up as soon as you start typing and will be modified as typing progresses), and meetings will appear in search results as well. You also will be able to scroll to past and future dates in the calendar using a date picker.
Find out more: Download Microsoft Teams Desktop and Mobile Apps
Customer Lockbox
Customer Lockbox ensures that Microsoft cannot access your content to perform a service operation without your explicit approval. Already available for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business, Customer Lockbox brings you into the approval workflow for requests to access your content. This update brings the capability to Microsoft Teams as well.
Find out more: Customer Lockbox in Office 365
Automated webinar invite, custom domain for communications
Two new updates for webinars. First, as webinars are set up, invites are sent to attendees to register. When attendees register, the webinar invite will now automatically be added to the attendee’s calendar, making it easy to plan ahead and to remember when the event takes place.
Once attendees have registered for a webinar, as confirmation emails are sent to keep attendees informed, the sender name and domain email will now include the tenant’s name. This will make it easy for attendees to recognize who is sending communications for the event.
Find out more: Schedule a webinar
Day view in calendar on iOS and Android
View all hours of the day beyond scheduled meetings and events, which allows you to see when you’re available or busy throughout the day.
Find out more: Set up your Teams mobile apps
Auto-answer meeting invites with video on for iOS devices
The ability for iOS devices to automatically answer incoming meeting nudges or invites with their video on is now here. This is most beneficial in the healthcare industry, especially in ICU and/or patient virtual rounding scenarios where patient rooms require a no-touch join capability for incoming calls. In this scenario, the Teams device in the room would be invited to a scheduled or ad-hoc meeting where both AutoAnswerwithVideo and video are enabled. The AutoAnswerwithVideo setting is disabled by default.
Find out more: Set up auto answer for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android and Teams video phone devices
Support of Live Caption for Teams on VDI for Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365
Teams users on Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 on virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) are now able to enable live captions during a meeting. Live captions allow your audience to follow along with what is being said, providing additional clarity and inclusion.
Find out more: Microsoft Teams Live Captions is now generally available on Azure Virtual Desktop
Auto-Expiration of Meeting Recordings stored on OneDrive and SharePoint
Newly created Teams meeting recordings in OneDrive and SharePoint will be deleted automatically by the service based on a default Teams policy setting. Teams admins will be able to modify the default meeting recording expiration time via a setting in the Teams Admin Portal or by modifying policy attributes using Powershell scripts.
Newly created meeting recordings in OneDrive and SharePoint will be automatically deleted after this point unless the meeting owner extends the expiration. Meeting owners will be notified about expired recordings and may extend the expiration date in OneDrive/SharePoint. Compliance policies will override the expiration setting. This rollout will start in the March timeframe and will continue to roll out to tenants over the next few weeks.
Find out more: Admin doc: Meeting policies and meeting expiration in Microsoft Teams | User doc: Record a meeting in Teams
Roaming bandwidth control
Admins can now set dynamic bandwidth policies based upon the geographic location of users’ Teams clients. This capability allows admins to set more limited bandwidth controls and disable video calls when users are in remote or bandwidth-constrained locations to protect the reliability of the connection.
Find out more: New-CsTeamsNetworkRoamingPolicy
Music on Hold for VoIP Calls
Music on hold is now available for calls on hold and consult-then-transfer scenarios for both VoIP and PSTN calls. Music on hold is enabled by default. The music that is played for callers on hold is either the default music provided by Microsoft or custom music that administrators can upload and configure.
Find out more: Music on Hold
Casting from Teams desktop client to Microsoft Teams Rooms
Now you can use Teams casting to wirelessly connect to Teams Rooms and display content from your Teams desktop client. You also can broadcast your screen and cast content stored locally on your device or accessible via Office 365.
Find out more: Cast content from a mobile device to a Microsoft Teams Room
Teams admin
Team Search on Teams admin center – phase 1
Searching for a user call, a ‘team’ searching for an App by its name, or the name of the publisher. Search of the left navigation bar, allowing IT admins to easily find content from across the admin center and to be navigated to the corresponding page. The next phase that will be released in the coming month will introduce search for entities as documentation, policy, diagnostics and access the search history.
Export Teams list from Teams Admin Center
Administrators can export Teams and Users lists as a csv file from the Teams admin center.
Virtual Visits usage report in Teams Admin Center
Customers can view detailed activity for virtual appointments scheduled through the Bookings app and the Microsoft Teams Electronic Health Records (EHR) connector. Customers also will be able to understand virtual visit appointment volume and key associated metrics to improve virtual visit adoption, to understand wait time and appointment duration for a given period, as well as evaluate quality customer experience and manage ROI.
List of the joined teams per user in Teams admin center
Teams administrators can view the list of teams that a user has joined via the User detail page in the Teams admin center. Previously, in order to find out whether a user is part of a team or not, admins had to go to the individual teams and search for a user. Using this feature, admins can view the list of teams that a user is part of from a single place and then take actions like “removing from a team.”
Teams (Frontline)
Task publishing editing – Task publishing enables corporate teams to create and publish tasks through Tasks by Planner and To Do. With this feature, corporate teams can edit published tasks so they can make easy adjustments without having to recall the entire task list and disturb the execution of tasks already in action.
Teams Shifts connector for Blue Yonder – The Microsoft Teams Shifts connector for Blue Yonder Workforce Management (WFM), now generally available, extends the value of Blue Yonder WFM for organizations that rely on it for precise labor scheduling, accurate time and attendance tracking, reduced associate turnover, and simplified compliance with labor laws and corporate policies.
Walkie Talkie app in Teams is available on Sonim XP8 – The Walkie Talkie app in Microsoft Teams is now available on Sonim XP8, with a dedicated push-to-talk button. Learn more about how frontline workers can enjoy clear, instant, and secure communication at their fingertips and collaborate seamlessly with anyone from anywhere across geographic locations.
Global sign in and sign out – Teams iOS app will support global sign in and sign out to simplify the experience for frontline workers. Employees can now use any device from the shared device pool to sign in with their credentials and sign out of it at the end of the shift. This will remove all their personal and company information from the device.
Approvals app in Teams now available in Microsoft 365 F1 SKUs for frontline workers – Get faster approvals by streamlining frontline worker requests with Approvals app in Teams in Microsoft 365 F3 and now Microsoft 365 F1. Easily create, manage, and share approvals directly from a chat, a channel conversation, or from the app. Create approvals from scratch, company-created templates with easy, repeatable structures and preset fields, or with e-sign through Adobe Sign and DocuSign. Learn more about Approvals.
Teams (Education)
Introducing Parent Connection – Parents & guardians, students, and educators all want the same thing – for every student to reach their potential. Educators carry a heavy portion of this responsibility, but they can’t do it alone. Parent Connection is generally available to all Teams for Education customers (included in all Office365 A-SKUS). Learn more here, or talk with your IT administrator about setting up Parent Connection using School Data Sync.
Take action on behalf of your student – Available for both individual & group assignments, educators can now turn-in and upload documents in the Assignments grading tool on behalf of their students.
Notify me when students turn in late work – We have added the ability for educators to be notified when students turn in a late assignment. You can get notified for any assignment that’s turned in late, or only specific assignments.
Assignments Notification customizations – You can now customize the notifications associated with Assignments using the settings menu in Microsoft Teams (in the 3 dots menu to the left of your photo). And you can also get direct access to the assignment from your Teams activity feed.
Giving you space to grade with the mini grader – With this update to the grading experience in Assignments, you can choose to collapse or expand the grading view, allowing you to allocate your screen real estate as you see fit.
Reading Progress – Last week we announced several significant updates, together forming a more well-rounded solution which supports reading fluency and literacy instruction, allowing schools and educators to optimize teacher-student interactions, and delivering the education support each student needs in an individualized, practical, and equitable way. We’re excited to again share the product experiences that will be available in the coming days.
Actionable Insights and personalized Reading Progress assignments – Reading Progress enables readers of all types to practice their skills in a safe, student-centric environment while providing educators with deep insights on each student’s strengths, progress, and challenges. With Actionable Insights, we’re helping educators quickly generate assignments based on the words that students struggled with most.
Return for Revision – We’ve made improvements to the student experience when an educator returns a Reading Progress assignment for revision. Reading assignments can now be returned for revision so students can see fully marked up passages from their teachers to learn from their mistakes and re-do the assignment.
Video recording for Reading Progress on iOS and Android – With this update, students using Reading Progress across the desktop, web, and mobile Teams applications can all record themselves performing Reading Progress exercises.
Use OneNote Class Notebook pages as reading passages – Currently, educators can pick reading passages from ReadWorks, a Teams file, OneDrive, or uploading from their computer. We have now added the ability to pick a page from a OneNote Class Notebook in your Class Teams! This will be rolling out starting today.
New languages supported in auto-detect – When Reading Progress launched this August, the auto-detect feature was only available in English. With this update, auto-detect capability will be available in over 100 languages. Find a list of languages supported here.
See Aggregated reaction tags for sticky notes in whiteboards – Now, you can “like” your favorite ideas or provide feedback to your colleagues during brainstorms. Previously, this was done by dropping sticker-like emojis on the board but these new reaction tags are easier to use because they follow the sticky notes, are easier to see, are aggregated into buckets, and give you greater visibility into each reaction.
Add photos and files to whiteboards on mobile devices – Take a picture of your whiteboard or your teaching material with your phone and quickly add it to your digital Whiteboard. Now, users on mobile devices will be able to share content directly from the photo gallery or camera on their mobile device to a Whiteboard in Teams.
Teams (Government)
These features currently available to Microsoft’s commercial customers in multi-tenant cloud environments are now rolling out to our customers in US Government Community Cloud (GCC), US Government Community Cloud High (GCC-High), and/or United States Department of Defense (DoD):
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) for one-to-one Teams calls for GCCH and DoD – Recently we shared that E2EE for 1:1 Teams calls was generally available for commercial and GCC tenants on desktop and mobile clients. We’re happy to share that we have now extended E2EE for 1:1 calls for desktop and mobile clients to GCC-H and DOD tenants. For more information on how to enable and manage E2EE for your organization, please see our docs page.
Guest access support on mobile for GCC-High – Teams now supports guest access between tenants inside the GCC-H Cloud.
Pin or hide your own video in Teams meetings – We have now expanded the ability to pin your own video on the meeting stage. This way, you can see your own video in the increased size on your screen. Inversely, you can hide your own video during a meeting on others’ screens. Available in GCC-High and DOD.
Large Gallery and Together Mode in Teams Meetings on VDI – Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) users are now able to change the Teams meeting layout to Together mode and Large Gallery. With Large Gallery, you have the ability to see up to 49 participants in a single screen, enhancing your overall virtual meeting experience. In Together mode, participants are digitally placed in a shared background, making it feel like you’re sitting in the same room with everyone else even when you are apart. Available in GCC.
Video streams out via AJA or Blackmagic Design Hardware – Production teams now can better manage their workflow and use Microsoft Teams as a contribution source for their broadcasts. We have partnered with two industry leaders in the video and audio market, AJA and Blackmagic Design, to provide hardware-out functionality with Microsoft Teams and select hardware devices. When you connect a supported hardware device, Teams will recognize the hardware and enable sending of an individual’s media stream out to the hardware directly as a clean feed. Available in GCC. Learn more.
Isolated audio feed capabilities – Broadcasters can create a high-quality, clean audio mix with our new isolated audio feed capabilities in Microsoft Teams. As broadcasters use Network Device Interface (NDI) or hardware-out, they will be able to capture the isolated audio feed along with the isolated video feed from any Teams meeting, enabling full control of both the feeds going into their studio. This capability is enabled within the meeting settings and is available as a public preview in GCC.
Approvals templates for GCC-High and DoD – Looking to create an approval request quickly? There’s no need to insert your request approvers one by one. Now, users can choose a template provided by their admins or Teams owners to create a new approval request.
Teams (Healthcare)
Microsoft Teams EHR connector for Cerner—generally available – The new integration with Cerner expands the capabilities of the Microsoft Teams EHR connector, making it easier for clinicians to launch virtual appointments with patients or consult with other providers in Teams directly from their health record system. Organizations using Cerner can now easily integrate virtual appointments into their existing clinical workflows.
Virtual appointment device tester—generally available – The new device tester can help you reduce no-shows by allowing patients to test their hardware settings before their virtual appointment. This allows the patient and provider to focus on the appointment and spend less time on technical challenges. It’s now available through the Microsoft Teams EHR connector.
Teladoc Health Solo™ with Microsoft Teams—generally available – In collaboration with Teladoc Health, a global leader in virtual healthcare, we are announcing the general availability of Teladoc Health Solo™ with Microsoft Teams. This new offering transforms the virtual care experience by enhancing clinical collaboration, improving the user experience, increasing system efficiency, and expanding care delivery—making it easier for care teams to collaborate and manage their patients and resources at scale. Teladoc Health Solo™ with Teams simplifies the way healthcare organizations and care providers work by streamlining technologies and administrative processes.
OneDrive
In OneDrive: OneDrive/ SharePoint library dropdown, Sync activity center visual update
Library dropdown
A new dropdown has been added in OneDrive and SharePoint that allows you to easily switch between multiple document libraries associated with a Team or Site.
Sync activity center visual update
The Activity Center has received a visual update to more align with the Fluent Design language. This visual update applies a modern look to the Activity Center.
Power Apps
In Power Apps: Power Platform API, runtime localization support for Code Components, Power Platform Tools GA, pas-as-you-go Power Apps GA, model-driven apps offline for makers
Microsoft Power Platform API (preview)
The Power Platform team have announced the public preview of Power Platform API, beginning March 31st, 2022. Power Platform API acts as a gateway or a single API surface that harmonizes the internal APIs from feature areas of the platform. This results in a single endpoint (ex. api.powerplatform.com) for customers to use along with a unified set of Permissions and claims that can be requested from Azure Active Directory.
Find out more: Microsoft Power Platform API reference (preview)
Runtime localization support for Code components on Custom pages/ Canvas apps
The Power Apps team have announced the Public Preview of runtime localization for code components on custom page and standalone canvas applications. Inline with the model-driven application behaviour, custom pages and standalone canvas applications can now dynamically display themselves in user preferred language. This not just enables all code components to align seamlessly with the host application language but also provides significant runtime performance optimizations.
Find out more: Runtime localization support for Code components on Custom pages and Canvas apps
Power Platform Tools for Visual Studio Code general availability
The Power Platform team have announced general availability of Power Platform Tools for Visual Studio Code in addition to our monthly Power Platform CLI refresh. As well as the announced of the terminal interface for the Power Platform CLI in Visual Studio code, there are also added graphical elements, that lets you take advantage of the real estate that Visual Studio Code offers.
Find out more: Power Platform Tools
Pay-as-you-go Power Apps generally available
With a pay-as-you-go-option now generally available, customers now can use an Azure subscription to cover their Power Apps usage and Dataverse capacity costs based on actual usage. With the new pay-as-you-go plan, customers only pay for what they use, giving them more flexibility to get started with low code with low risk and then scale their investments over time based on the usage patterns of their solutions.
Find out more: Announcing the general availability of pay-as-you-go for Power Apps
Model-driven apps offline for makers (Preview)
In this preview, you’ll now also be able to choose the offline mode for your mobile apps. The new offline-first mode is optimized to improve your device performance and it works better in low-network conditions than “classic offline” mode.
Previously, only admins were able to create an offline profile. Now, in just a few clicks, you, the maker, can enable offline for your mobile users, and you no longer need to manage a separate user access list just for offline support. When you configure offline in the app designer, all users who have access to your app will be able to work offline.
Find out more: Model-driven apps offline for Makers (preview)
Power Automate
In Power Automate: Power Automate Desktop March 2022 update, 23 new connectors, new AI Builder homepage, Teams workflows
Power Automate for desktop – March 2022 update
Power Automate for desktop (version 2.18) has been released and a summary of the new features and updates can be found below:
- Support of Internet Explorer mode in Microsoft Edge browser
- Handling of Java version updates for installing Power Automate Java files
- Enhanced capabilities of extracting web data when handling large datasets
- Support of physical mouse interaction in ‘Click link on web page’ action
- User is informed when trying to interact with app running with elevated rights
Find out more: Power Automate for desktop – March 2022 update
23 new/ updated connectors
Last month saw the release of 23 new and updated connectors for Power Automate:
New
- Actsoft Mobile Workforce Plus – Actsoft Mobile Workforce Plus is an all-in-one service management platform that helps you more effectively manage your remote teams of employees and general business operations away from the office.
- Blackbaud Raisers Edge NXT Constituents – Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT is a comprehensive cloud-based fundraising and donor management software solution built specifically for nonprofits and the entire social good community.
- Blackbaud Raisers Edge NXT Documents – Use the Documents connector to create documentation locations used when storing physical attachments.
- Blackbaud Raisers Edge NXT Events – Use the Events connector to manage events and participants.
- Blackbaud Raisers Edge NXT Fundraising – Use the Fundraising connector to manage campaigns, funds, appeals, and packages.
- Blackbaud Raisers Edge NXT Gifts – Use the Gifts connector to manage gifts.
- Blackbaud Raisers Edge NXT Interactions – Use the Interactions connector to manage constituent actions.
- Blackbaud Raisers Edge NXT Lists – Use the Lists connector to manage lists.
- Blackbaud Raisers Edge NXT Prospects – Use the Prospects connector to manage prospects, opportunities, and ratings.
- Blackbaud SKY Add-ins – Use the Interactions connector to manage constituent actions.
- SECIB – The SECIB connector allows SECIB users to automate their workflow.
Updated
- Adobe PDF Services
- AvePoint Cloud Governance
- Cognito Forms
- Connect2All
- Connective eSignatures
- Encodian
- PDF4me Connect
- Plumsail Forms
- Resco Cloud
- SeeBotRun Link
- Staffbase
- WorkSpan
Find out more: Starting 2022 with the release of twenty-three new and updated connectors
New AI Builder homepage
The new AI Builder new home page is now available at https://aka.ms/tryaibuilder. The new homepage includes a getting started video, similar navigation to find models, plus lot’s more.
Find out more: Explore the new AI Builder homepage
Power Automate flows from within Teams store
Microsoft have announced they are providing easy to use workflow automation powered by Power Automate directly within the Teams Store. Creating new automated workflows can all be done with new pre-configured templates in the Workflows section of the store.
Find out more: Automate your work day with workflows in Teams
Power BI
In Power BI: Service principal profiles in Power BI Embedded GA, on-prem data gateway update, Power BI desktop feature summary
General availability of service principal profiles in Power BI Embedded
The Power BI team have announced a new method that allows a much larger number of customers per one service principal by introducing a new entity named service principal profile. Each service principal profile can administer a customer, and the number of profiles per service principal can reach hundreds of thousands.
Find out more: Announcing general availability of service principal profiles in Power BI Embedded
On-premises data gateway March 2022
The March update for the On-premises data gateway (version 3000.118.2) is out now. This month’s update includes:
- BitSight Security Ratings (New Connector)
- Bloomberg Enterprise Data and Analytics (Connector Update)
- Anaplan (Connector Update)
- FactSet Analytics (Connector Update)
- AssembleViews (Connector Update)
Find out more: On-premises data gateway March 2022 update is now available
Power BI March 2022 Desktop Feature Summary
This month’s update for Power BI desktop includes error bars for line charts, dynamic format strings support for all chart elements, plus updates to the Azure Maps visual and Sensitivity labels, datasets hub and Power BI Goals.
Find out more: Power BI March 2022 Feature Summary
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