Here’s an in-depth look at what’s been released and upcoming through the month of June 2020:
SharePoint – acronym answers, enable modern comms site experience on team sites, site analytics, cumulative analytics for hubs, new migration manager landing page, teal default site theme, fluent design updates, quick edit updates, bulk edit in forms, connected web parts, SharePoint Starter Kit v2
Teams – 7 x 7 + large gallery view, breakout rooms, multi-window meetings & calling, meeting attendee limit increase, new experience for launching instant channel meetings, organizer joins meeting directly, safe transfer calling, session border controllers, priority notifications, pulse surveys
Teams (cont.) – Bose teams peripherals, Teams phones updates, new features for Surface Hub, schedule meetings in Teams free, Teams mobile on-demand chat translation, Teams PowerShell, incoming webhooks, class insights (Education), updates for US GCC
OneDrive – add to OneDrive, update to sharing links, synced metadata, open in review mode, Teams sharing experience, move and keep sharing, comment notifications, address bar sharing, sync admin reports, enhanced file protection, streamlined admin experience
Power Apps – convert add-on portals to new license model, new AI Builder models enter GA, dynamic schema
Power Automate – RPA (UI flows) in a Day, UI flows June update, six new connectors, AI Builder dedicated actions
Power BI – ideas.powerbi.com SSO, enhanced connectivity for Snowflake, new looks for getting apps, on-premises data gateway update, data protection capabilities GA, dark mode iOS, desktop feature summary June, updated mobile authoring
Forms – Forms in Excel, specific user sharing, individual responses no longer limited to 300, one-click recycle bin, detailed mobile view for text questions,
Related – temporary live attendance increase in Yammer extended, Poll in Outlook, PowerPoint Presenter Coach, updated Groups management features
SharePoint
Acronym answers now available with Microsoft Search in SharePoint
Acronym Answers allows Search administrators and editors to create definitions for commonly used acronyms and abbreviations to help people discover their meaning – be them new or unfamiliar.
Find out more:
Enable the modern communication site experience on classic sites
This PowerShell cmdlet allows SharePoint admins and site owners to the modern communication site experience on any classic team site that meets the requirements, including the root site.
To start, run the “Enable-SPOCommSite” PowerShell cmdlet. This action does not change any site permissions or remove any content, nor does it create a new Microsoft 365 Groups membership.
Find out more:
SharePoint site usage analytics
Site usage is getting a new report that details the average time spent per user. You will see a trend line for the time people spend on site pages and news posts for 7-day and 30-day periods.
Note: the report does not yet include time on lists, in documents, site admin pages, or when pages are viewed via mobile.
Find out more:
Cumulative analytics for Hub sites
Hub site owners can now analyze aggregate usage analytics for their SharePoint hub sites, including all associated sites. This report displays usage data (including total visits, unique viewers, top sites, popular content) for all associated sites in the hub.
Find out more:
New Migration Manager landing page
Microsoft have consolidated their migration tooling with a one-stop-shop for access to Migration Manager for file share and Box migrations as well as the SharePoint Migration Tool and Mover.
Find out more:
Updating the default site theme from blue to teal
SharePoint’s new teal theme will automatically update new and existing communication sites and team sites. Group connected team sites, and sites that have been customized, will not be impacted.
Moving forward, new sites will automatically default to the new teal theme. The new teal theme can be changed to the former blue theme at any time in the Change the look panel.
Find out more:
- Roadmap ID: 60592
- Updates to SharePoint default site themes: Coming June 2020
- Change the look of your SharePoint site
Fluent design updates
The Fluent design system is being applied to SharePoint which will result in some visual changes like larger and bolder typefaces, increased opacity for drop shadows, and rounded corners for square graphical elements.
Find out more:
Improvements to the Quick Edit experience for SharePoint lists and libraries
Several new features have been added to the Quick Edit experience for lists and libraries in SharePoint, including:
- Save a view in Quick Edit – Users can save a view in Quick Edit for any SharePoint list or document library. Roadmap ID: 64229
- Quick Edit page size expanding from 30 items to 101 – Users will now see up to 100 items per page on their document library or list when using Quick Edit. Roadmap ID: 64231
- Create all column types directly within Quick Edit – Users will now have the ability to create all column types directly from Quick Edit. Roadmap ID: 64171
- Open a list or document library item within the view form from Quick Edit – Users will see their list and document library view forms inside of the Quick Edit experience. Roadmap ID: 64230
- New hyperlink field and date column editors in Quick Edit – Now when you add a hyperlink and text to an item or add or update it’s date and time, you’ll have a much better experience doing it. Roadmap ID: 63275
- Create a new list item via a form in Quick Edit – Users will see the “New” button on their command bar in lists when they are in Quick Edit to create new items via the default form. Roadmap ID: 64232
Bulk edit your list items and file properties in the form
You can now select multiple items and edit their list items or documents properties at once in the form.
Find out more:
List and library web parts consume dynamic data
Dynamic filtering allows you to filter the contents of a list or library web part on a page depending on a value selected in another list or library web part on that same page. Think of one being a source and the other being a way to visualize the item details.
Find out more:
Updated sharing links that block downloads for PDFs, images and audio files
You can now create sharing links that block the download of Office files. This sharing link allows recipients to read the file, but not download it.
Note: admins can control whether the “block download” setting appears only for Office files or whether it will allow additional file types by editing the BlockDownloadLinksFileType setting in the Set-SPOTenant or Set-SPOSite PowerShell cmdlets. The options are “enable for only Office files” or “enable for all supported files” (now the new default).
Find out more:
SharePoint Starter Kit v2
This is a comprehensive solution designed for SharePoint in Microsoft and SharePoint 2019 which provides numerous SharePoint Framework (SPFx) web parts, extensions, and other components, as well as PnP PowerShell driven provisioning which you can use as an example and inspiration for your own customizations.
Find out more:
- Announcing SharePoint Starter Kit v2
- How to provision and deploy the PnP SharePoint Starter Kit part one
- How to provision and deploy the PnP SharePoint Starter Kit part two
Teams
Large gallery view & 7 x 7 grid view
Coming to preview this month large gallery view expands the Teams grid view to 7×7, which will accommodate up to 49 participants at once on a single screen.
Find out more:
Virtual breakout rooms
Coming later this year, Breakout Rooms allow meeting organizers to split their Teams meeting participants into small groups. Teams facilitates this by assigning participants into a requested number of rooms, whether automatically directing people or prompting them to join.
Organizers can jump in between meetings on their own, or when requested by a participant, provide announcements to the individual rooms, and recall everyone back to the meeting at any time. Any collaboration and coauthoring done during the breakout can be shared back to the larger meeting once everyone is back together.
Find out more:
- Roadmap ID: 65332
- What educators have learned from remote learning prepares them for the new school year
Multi-Window for Meetings & Calling
Multi-window experiences are coming to Teams meetings and calling. You will have the ability to pop out meetings and calling into separate windows to help them optimize their workflow. These experiences can be turned on directly within Teams for PC and Mac clients.
Find out more:
Meeting attendee limit increases to 300 participants
Now generally available, Microsoft have the maximum number of participants allowed in a Teams meeting to 300.
Find out more:
New experience for launching instant channel meetings
The Meet Now buttons in Teams channels will have a new home. You will soon find them in the Channel header where you can easily find and launch a channel meeting.
Find out more:
PSTN participant phone numbers masked from external users
For customers with Audio Conferencing enabled for Teams meetings, PSTN participants’ phone numbers will be masked to all users who have joined from outside of your organization.
Find out more:
New lobby setting: only the organizer joins the meeting directly
A new lobby setting is coming to Teams. Microsoft are adding “Only me” as an option to the “Who can bypass lobby?” setting. Once enabled, only the organizer will be able to join the meeting directly.
Find out more:
Safe Transfer
You will now be able to transfer a call safely to any other user in your organization. Safely means that if the target user does not answer the call, it will ring back to the transferrer.
NOTE: The person transferring the call must be a Teams user and the person the call is being transferred to must be either a Teams or Skype for Business user in the same tenant or in a federated tenant.
Find out more:
New Session Border Controllers (SBC) certified for use with Microsoft Teams Calling
Microsoft have announced that both Cisco and Avaya will join the list of Session Border Controllers certified for Direct Routing.
Find out more:
Priority notifications
Priority notifications for Microsoft Teams grants you the ability to continually send notifications that repeat every two minutes for up to 20 minutes on all messages marked as urgent.
NOTE: Priority notifications are not currently available for GCC, GCC High, or DoD customers, however this is on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap for next month.
Find out more:
Pulse survey templates
We have designed several Microsoft Forms templates for sentiment, employee issues, challenges, and health status surveys and more. These surveys can then be deployed via Teams channels.
Find out more:
New Bose noise cancelling headphones Teams certified
Bose have released the new Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 UC as part of the Teams peripheral offering. With a USB Bluetooth adaptor and a Teams Button that lets users launch Teams to join meetings or check voice mails, NC700UC Teams certified headphones allow users to have reliable and instantaneous connection to Teams. Available August 2020.
Find out more:
New capabilities on Microsoft Teams phones
Several new features and capabilities on Microsoft Teams phones were released this month, including:
- People App for Microsoft Teams phones – allows you to easily connect and collaborate with teammates, colleagues, friends, and family.
- Live Captions – Microsoft Teams phones will now present real time captions in meetings and group calls.
- Raise Hand – You can raise a virtual hand from your Teams phone to let people know you want to contribute without interrupting the conversation.
- Transfer to Contacts – When transferring a call, Microsoft Teams phones will now suggest frequent contacts to easily transfer calls with a single touch.
- Seamless Lock/Unlock with your PC – With this new feature, your Teams phone and Teams PC client will have a coordinated and seamless lock and unlock experience.
- Auto Dismiss “Rate my call” and “Call ended” Screens – Support to auto dismiss “Rate my call” and “Call ended” screens for users to continue with their productivity after completing the call.
- Teams and Skype Interoperability – Users will be able to make and receive audio and video calls from Skype for Consumer (SFC) through Microsoft Teams phones.
Find out more:
New Teams features on Surface Hub
With the latest Surface Hub app update 0.2020.13201.0 there are several highly requested features to the Teams experience on Surface Hub:
- 3×3 gallery view – view up to nine meeting participants simultaneously in full screen mode, in the new 3×3 video grid
- External user search – Through the “Meet Now” feature on Surface Hub, you can now search and initiate 1:1 calls with federated Teams or Skype for Business users
- Incoming PSTN calls – in addition to making outgoing PSTN calls through Teams, Surface Hub you can now receive incoming PSTN calls
Find out more:
Scheduled meetings coming to Teams free
You can now schedule meetings and send out invitations in advance in Teams free. You will have the option of either copying the meeting link to send or you can send the meeting invite via your Outlook or Google calendar.
Find out more:
Teams Mobile On-Demand Chat Translation
Inline message translation ensures that everyone has a voice and facilitate global collaboration. With a simple click, people who speak different languages can fluidly communicate with one another by translating posts in channels and chat.
On-Demand Chat Translation has already been available on desktop and web, and now will be available on iOS.
Find out more:
PowerShell improvements for Teams
Two improvements to the Teams PowerShell modules have been released this month:
- Moving Teams Beta module to production gallery
- Refined technical documentation set
Find out more:
Incoming Webhooks for Adaptive Cards
Incoming webhooks in Teams now support Adaptive Cards and is generally available. Developers will now be able to take advantage of the rich and flexible capabilities within Adaptive Cards to send content via incoming webhooks in Teams from their web service.
Find out more:
Class Insights
Now generally available, Class Insights enables educators to see and understand student engagement using intelligent data analytics. You can see grades and track engagement in meetings, communications and assignments from the whole class or an individual student.
Find out more:
- 20 updates for Microsoft Teams for Education, including 7×7 video and Breakout Rooms
- Microsoft remote learning demo tours
Teams updates for US Government
Here are the new capabilities for US GCC customers:
- Live captions in Teams meetings
- Enable organizers to change lobby settings for PSTN meeting participants
- Announce when PSTN participants join/leave the meeting
- Shifts in Teams now available for GCC customers
Find out more:
OneDrive
Add to OneDrive
Rolling out in public preview Add to OneDrive makes it easy to add shared folders directly to your OneDrive. Shared folders include content that others shared with you through their OneDrive or content that is a part of your shared library in Microsoft Teams or SharePoint.
Find out more:
Teams sharing integration
Microsoft are beginning to roll out a unified file sharing and access control experience to Teams, that you will already be familiar with in other apps like OneDrive or Outlook.
So when you go to share a file from within Teams, you’ll have the option to create sharing links that provide access to anyone, people within your organization, people with existing access, or specific people, including those in a private or group chat.
Find out more:
Synced metadata
This is a big update for you SharePoint buffs! Currently shared libraries with mandatory metadata synchronizes as read-only.
Microsoft have announced that in the next few weeks they are rolling out an update to the OneDrive sync app supporting read and write sync for shared libraries that contain required metadata. This will enable business users to edit content in their synced libraries while working from their desktops.
Find out more:
Move and keep sharing settings
Coming later this year, business users can move files to shared libraries without affecting the files original access.
This means all business users who had original access to a file will be re-added to it if that file changes shared library locations. Those users will now receive a new link maintaining the same permissions they had before and receive a notification about the move.
Find out more:
Comment notifications
Also coming later this year, you will be able to have the option to turn off comment notifications for individual files. Doing so will only affect that file, not the entire files library.
Find out more:
Address bar sharing
If you access or work on a file in a browser, you’ll soon be able to share links copied from your browser address bar with your internal colleagues (if admin-enabled). These URLs will respect all sharing policies, empowering natural and easy collaboration within your organization.
Sync admin reports
Sync admin reports allow you to do just that by providing visibility and insights on adoption and health of the OneDrive sync app across your organization. Use this new dashboard to check sync app versions, sync status, and top sync errors on individual devices.
You can even monitor deployment progress of Known Folder Move, which we recommend implementing to help redirect your users’ known folders (Desktop, Documents and Pictures) on Windows to OneDrive.
Enhanced file protection and governance in OneDrive and SharePoint
Microsoft recently announced several features entering general availability for file protection and governance in OneDrive and SharePoint including Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels with protection, automatic classification with sensitively labels, sensitivity labels for SharePoint sites, and information barriers.
Additionally, admins will soon be able to implement automatic expiration of external access, multi-factor authentication policies, like prompting one-time passcodes (OTP), as well as extending continuous access evaluations to OneDrive and SharePoint.
Find out more:
- Announcing general availability of sensitivity labels with protection in SharePoint and OneDrive
- General availability of automatic classification with sensitivity labels in Microsoft 365 services
- General Availability: Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels in Teams/SharePoint sites
- Use information barriers with OneDrive
- Continuous access evaluations in OneDrive and SharePoint
Streamlined admin experience
Later this year, all OneDrive admin capabilities, including controls for sharing, access, sync, and storage, will be available in the SharePoint admin center, consolidating admin tools in one place.
Find out more:
Update to sharing links that block download
Microsoft are expanding the list of supported file types that users can create block download links for. This update includes support for PDF files, Images, Audio, and other non-text and non-video file types.
Find out more:
Open in “Review mode” in Word Online
Users can now choose to share Word documents with the new “Open in Review mode” option. When enabled, recipients can only open the Word file in the Word web app with the “Reviewing” mode enabled.
Find out more:
Power Apps
Convert existing add-on portals to new capacity-based licensing model
This feature allows users to seamlessly migrate from their portal add-on licenses to the new capacity-based licensing model. If your portal uses add-on based license, you’ll see “add-on” suffix to your portal type. You can check your portal type from the Portal Details page.
Find out more:
Three new AI Builder models now generally available
Three AI Builder preview model types are now generally available:
- Entity extraction prebuilt model – The Entity extraction prebuilt model identifies and classifies key elements from text into pre-defined entities.
- Entity extraction custom model – The Entity extraction custom model enables you to identify and classify key elements from text into your domain-specific custom entities that you define.
- Category classification custom model – The Category classification custom model helps you classify text into your own domain-specific categories. You can train the model with a small set of examples.
Find out more:
- New AI Builder models are now generally available
- Entity extraction prebuilt model
- Overview of the entity extraction custom model
- Overview of the category classification custom model
Dynamic schema in Power Apps formulas
The Power Apps team have announced the experimental feature release of the ability to work with dynamic schema in Power Apps formulas.
Now, as part of the formula authoring experience when a formula author encounters an warning indicating the return schema of a call is dynamic, an author may “capture schema”.
Find out more:
Power Automate
Microsoft RPA (UI flows) in a Day
The Power Automate team have announced the availability of Microsoft RPA (UI flows) in a Day. This beginner-level training is designed to on-board and train everyone on how to get started with UI flows in Microsoft Power Automate.
Find out more:
UI flows update June 2020
The June 2020 update for UI flows is now available. Here are the main features as part of June’s release:
- UI flows for GCC/ GCC High – UI flows are now available in Government Community Cloud (GCC) and GCC High.
- Retry/ timeout policy configuration from the portal – his feature provides the ability to configure timeout and retry policy for an individual step within UI flows.
- New WinAutomation connector in UI flows – Now you can have a cloud orchestration experience on WinAutomation Process from Power Automate.
- GetText action fix – fixed an issue where the GetText action in UI flows within (If-Else) Condition block fails when more than one Get Output actions were added in a nested scope.
Find out more:
Six new connectors released May 2020
With an additional six connectors released in May, there are now over 345 connectors available in the Power Automate platform. Here’s a look at the new comers:
- Azure IoT Central – With the IoT Central connector, you can trigger workflows when a rule has fired, and take actions by sending commands, updating properties, getting telemetry on devices, and more.
- Eduframe – This connector opens up the opportunity to easily integrate your existing software applications with Eduframe, like your CRM and accounting software.
- LIFX – The LIFX connector builds upon existing functionality to offer an even wider range of options than ever before, empowering you to leverage Power Automate and automatically tap into the extensive possibilities of your LIFX smart lights.
- Microsoft 365 message center – This connector enables you to sync your M365 admin center messages to Planner, helping you stay on top of your messages.
- Office 365 Groups Mail – This connector allows users to work with data located in an Office 365 Group mailbox.
- Virus Total – With this connector you can automatically leverage the power of Virus Total in your flows to help identify malicious content to keep you and your organization safe.
Find out more:
AI Builder dedicated actions in Power Automate
Released in May 2020, the Power Automate team introduced dedicated actions for AI Builder. You can find these actions when you search for the type of action you want to automate.
Find out more:
Power BI
Single sign on to Ideas.PowerBI.com
Navigate to your Ideas, connect with your Power Platform Community and other Power Platform sites using one identity. ow you can use your Active Directory (Work or School account) to connect across the entire Power Platform!
Find out more:
General Availability of enhanced connectivity for Snowflake
The Power BI team have announced the enhanced capabilities added recently to the Power BI Snowflake connector are now GA, including the ability to connect to Snowflake without an on-premises data gateway as well as support for Azure Active Directory (AAD) authentication and SSO in DirectQuery mode in the Power BI service.
Find out more:
- Announcing General Availability (GA) of enhanced connectivity for Snowflake
- USING SSO BETWEEN POWER BI AND SNOWFLAKE
New look for Power BI apps
There is now a new, unified view for Power BI apps. When you press Get apps (on the Power BI apps page) you will land in a brand-new gallery experience where you can get apps both from your organization and from the AppSource marketplace.
Find out more:
On-premises data gateway June 2020 update
The Power BI team have announced the release the June update for the On-premises data gateway (version 3000.45.7). This months update includes an updated version of the Mashup Engine, which will match the Power BI Desktop June update.
Find out more:
Power BI data protection capabilities generally available
The Power BI data protection capabilities are now generally available, meaning it’s now possible to:
- Classify and label sensitive Power BI data using the familiar Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels used in Office.
- Enforce governance policies even when Power BI content is exported to Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF, to help ensure data is protected even when it leaves Power BI.
- Monitor and protect user activity on sensitive data in real time with alerts, session monitoring, and risk remediation using Microsoft Cloud App Security.
- Empower security administrators who use data protection reports and security investigation capabilities with Microsoft Cloud App Security to enhance organizational oversight.
Find out more:
Dark mode for the Power BI iOS app
The Power BI team have added dark mode support to the Power BI iOS app. To change this setting go to the app’s Settings page, tap on Appearance, and choose your preference: Dark, Light or System default.
Find out more:
Power BI Desktop June 2020 Feature Summary
Several features are generally available as part of this months release including:
- Automatic page refresh
- Hierarchy slicer
- Modern ribbon, and;
- AI insights
Plus several new features and updates to improve your reporting: many enhancements to mobile layout authoring, visual updates and more!
Find out more:
Updated mobile authoring in Power BI Desktop
A new mobile layout authoring experience has been released in Power BI Desktop introducing new features such as the phone emulator and canvas grid, an updated visualization pane and overlaid visuals.
Find out more:
Forms
Forms in Excel now general available
Previously in preview, Forms in Excel is now generally available. With the GA release there have been additional improvements to the performance and reliability of the app.
Specific user sharing for collaboration
There’s now a new option to let you specify specific users or groups within your organization to collaborate with. You are able to specify one or more co-authors using their email address.
As this is more restrictive than existing collaboration styles, this setting is optimal for forms with more sensitive content. You do not have to worry about the collaboration URL getting loose as it will not work for anyone outside of the list you’ve specified.
Find out more:
Individual responses no longer limited to 300
The Forms team have announced the drop-down view for individual responses is no longer linted to 300. Users can now review, print or delete any single response, no matter how many responses they received.
Find out more:
One-click empty recycle bin
An update to the previous annoying process of deleting individually, you ca now empty your Forms recycle bin with just one click.
Find out more:
Detailed mobile view for text questions
The Forms team have enabled an option to double-click on ‘text’ based responses. Visit the response page, find the text question or text option, then click the “See all responses” link to review all the responses. Users can also sort the responses from newer to older, and vice versa.
Find out more:
Related
Temporary increase to 20,000 attendees for Live Events in Yammer extended
Microsoft announced earlier this year that a temporary limit increase would be enabled for Microsoft 365 live events to help better support customers, through to July 1, 2020. This will now continue to support until October 1, 2020.
Find out more:
Poll in Outlook
Now you can create a real time poll in seconds when composing an email in Outlook. Once sent, recipients vote directly in email or click on an included link and vote in a browser window.
You can then check poll results in real-time using the voting card. Poll is now pre-installed to your Outlook mailbox so you no longer need to install the add-in yourself.
Find out more:
PowerPoint Presenter Coach for Android
Microsoft have we are announced that Presenter Coach for web and Android is now generally available – in both the PowerPoint app and the new Office mobile app.
Presenter Coach uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide on-screen guidance on your pacing, use of inclusive language or profanity, and use of filler words and culturally insensitive phrases.
Find out more:
New Microsoft 365 Groups management capabilities
Microsoft have released several updates this month to improve the management of Microsoft 365 Groups, including:
- Team creation experience – an enhanced the team creation experience with an updated user interface and improved error messages.
- Group information – group information, including the Group ID, name, alias, and description, can now be exported as a .csv file using filtered properties or search results.
- Edit Group email addresses – email addresses for a Microsoft 365 Group can now be edited, enabling group names to continue to evolve as needs change.
- Restore deleted Groups – you can now restore a deleted group directly from the Deleted Groups page.
Find out more:
Resources
- SharePoint community blog – SharePoint roadmap pitstop June 2020
- Microsoft Teams blog – What’s new in Microsoft Teams June 2020
- Microsoft 365 blog – June 2020 update
- Microsoft PowerApps blog
- Microsoft Power Automate blog
- Microsoft Power BI blog
- Microsoft Forms blog
SharePoint Stuff 