Happy Holidays everyone! 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: updates to site header, send Pages to Yammer, “SharePoint success” site template, new destinations in Migration manager, add Teams to SharePoint updates, Microsoft Lists adoption center
SharePoint site header updates
The SharePoint team have made some changes to the site header in modern sites, including changing the default to the compact header instead of the standard header.
Additional header options are also available within “Change the Look”, including minimal and extended header options. Minimal header has a reduced height and extended includes an optional background image, expanded site logo widths, and options for logo alignment – left, middle, right.
Find out more:
- Roadmap ID: 46990
- Change the look of your SharePoint site
- Build a Beautifully Designed Intranet: Tips and Tricks from the Product Team
Send SharePoint pages to Yammer
You can now send articles from SharePoint directly into Yammer and include questions, polls, praise, and rich text. It’s also possible to upload images and files to the post linked to the share.
Find out more:
“SharePoint Success” site template
The “SharePoint Success” site template is another great offering from the Microsoft Look Book. The “SharePoint Success” site template is a ready to deploy, customizable SharePoint communication site that comes pre-populated with site creation inspiration and training on how to create high quality and purposeful SharePoint sites. You’ll find Microsoft maintained SharePoint training content feed, success stories, and site creation guidelines.
Find out more:
- Introducing the SharePoint Success Site – Drive adoption and get the most out of SharePoint
- SharePoint Success Site – Microsoft Look Book
New destinations in the SharePoint Migration Manager
The Migration Manager now has been updated to include OneDrive & Teams as migration destinations. SharePoint admins can enter OneDrive usernames or URLs and/or select various Teams team and channels as migration destinations.
Find out more:
Add Microsoft Teams to a SharePoint site – wizard updates
Microsoft wants to make it easier to use the connected value of SharePoint and Teams. When you connect SharePoint to Teams, you can choose what lists, libraries, and pages you want to bring into Teams as tabs in the new, default General channel.
NOTE: By default, your team site home page will be selected, but you can change it to suit your needs. You can fully navigate the primary document library from the Files tab – just follow the new folder breadcrumbs from the channel folder up to the root of the library.
Find out more:
Microsoft Lists adoption center
Microsoft have created adoption materials to help onboard employees at scale while being confident that you are improving the employee experience. In the adoption center there is an adoption playbook, day-in-the-life guides, a quick start guide, a look book, internal communication templates, pointers to documentation and training, plus materials to help build an internal Lists champion program within your organization.
Find out more:
Teams
Microsoft Teams (all), Teams (Education), Teams (Government)
Microsoft Teams
Virtual breakout rooms
Breakout rooms are now generally available in Microsoft Teams! Breakout rooms allow organizers to divide the meeting into sub-groups to facilitate discussions and brainstorming sessions.
Meeting organizers can create up to 50 breakout rooms and choose to automatically or manually assign participants into rooms. Breakout rooms can be started within a Teams meeting or a Teams channel meeting.
Find out more:
End-of-meeting notifications
Now, Microsoft Teams notifies the participants in a meeting when there are five minutes remaining in the scheduled meeting time. The notification appears on screen for 10 seconds and disappears without any user action. Notifications are triggered for all scheduled private and channel meetings and does not cause the meeting to end automatically.
Find out more:
Teams meeting pre-join experience
The Teams pre-join meeting experience has been updated to including easier discovery of audio, video, and device configurations before joining a meeting. Previously, you had to go to settings to change meeting devices, but now these can be easily adjusted prior to the meeting in the pre-join experience.
Find out more:
New languages supported for real-time translation in live events
Live event attendees can view live captions and subtitles in up to six languages in addition to the language being spoken. Event organizers can select the languages from a list of over 50. New languages supported include: Japanese, Korean, French, French-Canadian, Spanish, Spanish-Mexican, Traditional Chinese, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, Hindi-Indian, Portuguese-Brazilian, and Russian.
Find out more:
Live events limit increases extended until June 30, 2021
Microsoft have extended limit increases for live events through to June 30, 2021. Increases include:
- Event support for up to 20,000 attendees
- 50 events can be hosted simultaneously across a tenant
- Event duration of 16 hours per broadcast
Additionally, events for as many as 100,000 attendees can be planned through the live events assistance program.
Find out more:
Multiple Number Dialing
With Teams Calling, you are now able to see a split button in the chat header for audio/video calling. This displays multiple numbers for a single contact making it easier to view available numbers to initiate a call.
Find out more:
Live Captions for 1:1 Calls
Live Captions display the text version of the audio in a Teams call. Admins can disable this capability if desired, and users have control to turn these off. For the most accurate captions possible, it is recommended to speak clearly into the microphone and avoid having multiple people speaking at the same time.
Find out more:
Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows updates
Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows version 4.7.15.0 is now available in the Teams Admin Center. The latest update includes the following new capabilities:
- Cortana Voice Assistance (Preview): In-room meeting attendees can now use voice assistance powered by Cortana to join and end their meetings without touch. Using natural language, people can simply state “Cortana, join/end my meeting” for a seamless hands-free experience.
- Control Spotlight from console: People in the meeting room can now control the Teams meeting Spotlight feature from the Teams Rooms console control. Once enabled, the individual identified as the spotlight will be the main video shown to all participants in the Teams meeting.
- Share HDMI audio: Users connecting to a Teams Room via HDMI can now share their PC audio into the Teams meeting.
Find out more:
Enhanced meeting experiences on Teams phones
Teams phones now support new video layouts such as 3×3 gallery view, large gallery view for more participants and Together mode. Several other updates have been released for Teams phones including meet now, screen sharing and spotlight.
Find out more:
Improved Search relevance in Teams messages
Now when searching for messages in Microsoft Teams, the top 3 messages are generated and ordered by a newly developed relevance model – previously messages were ordered chronologically with the most recent messages at the top of the search results.
Find out more:
Offline files on iOS
The Teams mobile app for iOS now allows you to access files even when you are offline or in bad network conditions. Simply select the files you need access to, and Teams will keep a downloaded version to use in your mobile app. You can find all your files that are available offline in the files section of the app.
Find out more:
Improvements to video playback experience
Now included in Teams is a faster-loading experience for embedded videos. You will now experience up to 25% reduction in the time it takes a Stream embedded video to load, and up to a 90% reduction in the time it takes for the video to start playing. This means a much faster Stream video playback experience within Teams.
Find out more:
Restricting Windows and Mac managed device sign-in to specific tenants
You can now restrict Teams sign-in for Windows and Mac managed devices to help ensure that employees cannot sign-in to another organization’s tenant using the other tenant’s credentials from the device they are authorized to use for work. This policy can also be used to configure access to personal accounts.
Find out more:
Manage Teams displays in Team Admin Center
Teams Displays are the latest device you can manage from the Teams Admin Center. You can view and manage the device inventory for your organization and do tasks such as update, restart, and monitor diagnostics for devices.
Find out more:
New lobby setting – People I Invite
A new lobby setting – called “People I invite” is being added as an option to the “Who can bypass lobby?” setting. Once enabled, only the participants invited by the organizer in the meeting invite can join the meeting directly. Everyone else is sent to the lobby.
Find out more:
Customer Key for Teams (public preview)
Customer Key is built on service encryption and provides an added layer of encryption at the application level for data-at-rest and allows you as the organization to control the encryption keys. Already available in Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive, Customer Key is now available in Microsoft Teams as a preview.
Find out more:
Teams (Education)
Virtual breakout rooms
As mentioned above, Breakout rooms are now generally available in Microsoft Teams! Read more about breakout rooms here.
Teams for Education policy wizard
With the new Microsoft Teams for Education policy wizard, T admins can now easily apply education tailored policies for a safe learning environment.
With the policy wizard you can easily apply the most relevant set of policies for students at a global (Org-wide default) level and apply a custom policy set to a group of educators and staff tailored to their needs. Expected availability, along with more details, will be available on January 7th.
Find out more:
Classroom Drop-in app
The new Classroom Drop-in app template for Microsoft Teams lets school leaders create “drop ins” to add a user to a Team without the need to bother IT or the instructor. The dropped in user can then check in on conversation, assignments, grades, class meetings and more!
IT admins can setup and install the Classroom Drop-in app from GitHub.
Find out more:
- What’s New in Microsoft Teams for Education | December 2020
- Classroom Drop-in app on GitHub
- Drop-in app webinar January 12 at 8am PST
mConnect app
The mConnect app by Skooler lets you use Moodle inside Teams to organize your courses and use Teams to learn and work together. The mConnect app allows you to:
- Have one workspace with access to Moodle courses, topics, assignments, and calendar in Teams
- Stay organized with collaborative Learning tabs in Teams channels
- Save time and be more in control with automated team and membership creation
Find out more:
- The mConnect app is enhancing the Online Student Experience
- Moodle and Teams together – with the mConnect app by Skooler
Teams (Government)
Virtual breakout rooms
As mentioned above, Breakout rooms are now generally available in Microsoft Teams! Read more about breakout rooms here.
Teams meeting pre-join experience
The improved meeting pre-join experience is now available for GCC customers. Find out more about the updated experience here.
PowerPoint file sharing
Available for GCC and GCC-High, PowerPoint file sharing in Teams allows you to share a PowerPoint file within a Teams Meeting without having to use Desktop or Window sharing. Participants can view the presentation at their own pace, navigate through slides on their own and sync back to the presenter at any time.
Find out more:
Multiple number dialing
As mentioned above, GCC customers can now see a split button in the chat header for audio/video calling. Find out more here.
Inline message translation (DoD)
Inline message translation is now available for DoD customers so that people who speak different languages can fluidly communicate with one another by translating posts in channels and chat.
Set presence status duration (GCC)
Let others know when you are available in Teams by managing your presence status. GCC customers can now change their presence status for a specific period.
New offline presence status (GCC)
GCC customers can now change your presence to “Offline”. This allows you to have full access to Teams while signaling to colleagues that you are unavailable.
Linux Client available (GCC-High)
The Microsoft Teams Linux client is now available in GCC-High.
Data loss prevention for Microsoft Teams
Data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities in Microsoft 365 government clouds is now extended to include Microsoft Teams chat and channel messages, including private channel messages.
GCC support for devices management in Teams Admin Center
Device management support in Teams Admin Center is now available in the GCC cloud environment. Admins can now control the entire lifecycle of their Teams devices, which include an increasing variety of supported device types – IP Phones, Collaboration bars, Teams displays, and Teams Meeting Room devices, all from one place.
OneDrive
- OneDrive: Android – Night time reading mode for PDF viewing. Roadmap ID: 72230
- OneDrive: Dialog on First-Time deletion of File(s). Roadmap ID: 70702
- OneDrive and SharePoint: Adjusting version retention for PST files. Roadmap ID: 72237
- OneDrive: Request Files for GCC High and DoD. Roadmap ID: 72228
- OneDrive and SharePoint for Business: Immersive Reader support in OneDrive and SharePoint. Roadmap ID: 81954
In OneDrive: Live photos in iOS, Add to OneDrive GA
Live Photos for OneDrive iOS
The OneDrive team have announced that the OneDrive iOS app now uploads and supports Live Photos. When you take a Live Photo, you capture a still image along with several seconds of before and after video.
OneDrive now stores and plays back the full motion and sound of your Live Photos, bringing your memories to life.
Find out more:
Add to OneDrive generally available
The Add to OneDrive feature is now generally available. Add to OneDrive makes it easy to add a shortcut to the shared folders directly to our OneDrive. Shared folders include content that others have shared with us through their OneDrive, which surfaces in the “Shared with me“ view or content that is a part of a shared library in Microsoft Teams or SharePoint.
Find out more:
- Add to OneDrive is generally available
- Add shortcuts to shared folders in OneDrive for work or school
Power Apps
In Power Apps: AI Builder capabilities now GA, Dataflows Power Automate Connector preview, Power BI dashboard in a model-driven app GA, Power Apps portals capacity consumption reporting, Dataverse support for Power BI Direct Query GA, new way to configure Azure AD B2C provider for portals
AI Builder capabilities now generally available
The Power Apps team have announced that two AI builder preview capabilities are now generally available; multiple outcome prediction and numerical prediction. Both are children of the Prediction model card in AI Builder, but enhance the model substantially. For example, multiple outcome prediction can be used it to predict more than 3 outcomes, like will a shipment arrive early, on-time or late. You can also predict a number, like how many days it would take to close a customer ticket.
Find out more:
Dataflows Power Automate Connector public preview
Now in preview, the Power Automate Dataflow connector comes with templates and sample scenarios that let you get started right away. The new connector provides a new way to react to dataflow events to take action on dataflows.
Dataflows are a self-service, cloud-based, data preparation technology available in Power Apps, Power BI and Dynamics Customer Insights products and portals. ataflows keep your data up to date, so it can be leveraged by Power Apps applications, Power BI reports and Dashboards, Dynamics Customer Insights and many more products and solutions that leverage Data stored in Dataverse or Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 accounts.
Find out more:
Power BI dashboard in a model-driven app now generally available
The Power Apps team have announced the general availability of Power BI reports as system dashboards in model-driven apps.
System and user dashboards in model driven apps support specific reporting features with predefined visualization and are more suited for transactional data that needs to be updated directly on the report, an action occurs on a record or fields are updated on a record in real time.
Power BI reports bring a host of visualization and data manipulation that we have all become accustomed to using with a Power BI report. The ability to quickly build reports using the Power BI tools, publish those reports and extend them to model-driven apps makes it easy to provide your organization with data in one place, removing the need to go outside your model driven or Dynamics application.
Power BI embedding in Power Apps builds on existing capabilities giving users access to shared reports governed by you through standard Power Bi practices that include who you share the report with and licensing.
Find out more:
- General Availability of Power BI reports as system dashboards in model-driven apps
- Create or edit model-driven app dashboards
Power Apps portals capacity consumption reporting
Power Apps admins can now get visibility of their Power Apps portals logins and page views consumption by downloading new reports from the Power Platform admin center. These Excel-based reports allow you to look at the capacity consumed in a 30-day period preceding the selected date.
Find out more:
- Power Apps portals capacity consumption reporting is now available
- Portals capacity consumption reports
Microsoft Dataverse support for Power BI Direct Query
The Power Apps team have announced that Microsoft Dataverse support for Power BI Direct Query is now generally available. With the combination of the new Dataverse connector for Power BI and tabular data stream (TDS) endpoint Power BI users have more options when connecting to Dataverse environments, including Dataverse for Teams.
The new connector supports Direct Query providing real-time data and support for the Dataverse security model. In addition, complex data types, such as lookups, choices, and currency are flattened for easy consumption in the model.
Find out more:
- Microsoft Dataverse support for Power BI Direct Query reaches general availability
- What is Microsoft Dataverse?
New way to configure Azure AD B2C provider for portals (preview)
Now in preview, A unique preview experience is available now to setup Azure AD B2C with portals using a wizard for a quick and complete configuration directly from the Power Apps portals authentication settings. With the new configuration wizard you are able to choose to add an Azure Active Directory login provider, create or select existing Azure AD B2C tenant, register your portal as an application (new or existing) with the selected tenant and Configure Sign-up & sign-in and Password reset user flows (new or existing).
Find out more:
- Power Apps portals: Configure Azure AD B2C provider for portals in a new way (Preview)
- Power Apps portals simplified identity provider configuration – generally available
- Configure the Azure Active Directory B2C provider (Preview)
Power Automate
In Power Automate: Process advisor (preview), RPA enhancements to Power Automate Desktop, planning a Power Automate project, Power Automate Desktop December release, invoice processing in AI Builder (preview), 8 new connectors
Process advisor (preview)
Process advisor is a process mining capability in Power Automate that provides a deeper understanding of how people work and provides insights about time-consuming processes best suited for automation. With process advisor, you can visualize, identify bottlenecks, and gain insights into the various processes being created across your organization.
In process advisor you can run simple process recorders, create rich process maps and get in-depth analytics simply and easily.
Find out more:
- Overview of process advisor (preview)
- Automating automation with RPA and process mining—available for Power Automate
- Process advisor (preview)
RPA updates to Power Automate Desktop
With Power Automate Desktop becoming generally available, several robotic process automation enhancements have also been released, including:
- Role-based sharing: Organizations can share desktop flows across multiple users to derive value from RPA.
- Lifecycle management: Manage end-to-end creation and movement of desktop flows across any tenant environment.
- Setting execution priorities: Prioritize which desktop flows to run on your machines first based on importance.
- Real-time run and queue monitoring: Oversee the health and success of your desktop flow runs with real-time monitoring.
Find out more:
Planning a Power Automate project
The Power Automate team have launched a series of documents to help understand how to automate business processes with Power Automate. In the articles, you’ll learn about the five basic steps of automating with Power Automate, using the best practices and knowledge from Power CAT (Customer Advisory team).
The articles focus on the non-technical aspects of automating business processes with Power Automate, such as how to plan your Power Automate project, how to discover automation areas, how to assess business value, etc.
Find out more:
Power Automate Desktop December 2020 release update
The December 2020 release of Power Automate Desktop is now generally available. This month’s update has several updates including; Execution logs are now available for console runs, input variables of sensitive text type availability, password fields now support the use of variables plus lots more!
Find out more:
- Power Automate Desktop December release update
- Take a tour of process advisor and new RPA enhancements
- Introduction to desktop flows (Power Automate Desktop)
Invoice processing with AI Builder (preview)
The Power Automate team have announced the introduction of a new prebuilt AI model in AI Builder: Invoice processing. With the new AI Builder invoice processing prebuilt model, you can minimize pain points usually found in traditional invoice processes and speed up your invoice processing time, delivering real value back to your business.
Find out more:
- Process invoices with AI Builder
- Invoice processing model (preview)
- Get started with invoice processing in AI Builder
8 new connectors released in November 2020
November 2020 saw the launch of eight new connectors to the platform that cover a wide range of industries, from communications, security, and more.
Find out more:
In Power BI: Quickly create reports in Power BI service (preview), Datasets Hub (preview), Anomaly detection (preview), Power BI December 2020 feature summary, DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services (preview), Small Multiples (preview), Information Protection Sensitivity Labels in Power BI Desktop (Public Preview), Admin APIs and Service Principal authentication, on-premises data gateway December 2020, large model support in Power BI Premium GA, Full report attachment subscriptions in Power BI Premium, upgrade classic workspaces, Automate configuration of a template app installation
Quickly create reports in the Power BI service (preview)
The Power BI team have announced there is a new way to quickly create reports in the Power BI service. Rather than downloading Power BI Desktop and importing the data, you’ll now be able to paste data straight into Power BI on the web and have visuals automatically generated for you.
Find out more:
Datasets Hub (preview)
The new datasets hub makes it easy to find, explore, and use the datasets in your organization. It provides information about the datasets as well as entry points for creating reports on top of those datasets or for using those datasets with Analyze in Excel.
Find out more:
- Announcing Datasets Hub (preview) to explore and analyze your business data
- Datasets discovery using the datasets hub (preview)
- Add the Power BI app to Microsoft Teams
Anomaly detection (preview) now supported in Power BI mobile apps
Report consumers can now view and understand anomalies directly from the Power BI mobile app. This capability is available on all apps (iOS, Android, Windows), in all supported form factors (phone, tablet, iPad, and laptop/desktop, including Surface Hub).
When you view a report that has anomaly detection enabled, you’ll see the same detected anomaly indications on the visual that you see in the Power BI service and in Power BI Desktop.
Find out more:
Power BI December 2020 feature summary
This month’s Power BI feature summary is out now and includes updates in data preparation, data connectivity as well as some new visuals and template apps.
Find out more:
DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services (preview)
The Power BI team have announced that DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services is now in preview. This new feature allows report authors to use DirectQuery to connect to Azure Analysis Services or Power BI Datasets and, if they want to, combine it other DirectQuery and imported data.
There is also an updated Power BI Desktop version 2.88.702.0, released on December 18, 2020 that addresses some common issues.
Find out more:
Small multiples (preview)
Small multiples, or trellising, splits a visual into multiple versions of itself, presented side-by-side, with its data partitioned across these versions by a chosen dimension (e.g., splitting a “sales by category” column chart across product lines or country). This feature is now available in preview.
Find out more:
Microsoft Information Protection Sensitivity Labels in Power BI Desktop (Public Preview)
The Power BI team have announced that they have extended Power BI’s sensitivity label capabilities by bringing Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels into Power BI Desktop, allowing creators to apply sensitivity labels just as they start building their datasets and reports in Power BI Desktop.
Find out more:
- Announcing Microsoft Information Protection Sensitivity Labels in Power BI Desktop (Public Preview)
- Enable sensitivity labels in Power BI
New Admin APIs and Service Principal authentication
The Power BI team have announced that now release new Power BI Admin APIs along with a .NET SDK that enable administrators to create their own custom-made solutions based on Power BI metadata and lineage.
They have also added service principal support for the scanner Admin APIs. Service principal is an authentication method that can be used to let an Azure AD application access Power BI APIs. With this authentication method, you no longer have to maintain a service account with an admin role. Rather, to allow your app to use the Admin APIs, you just have to give your approval once as part of the tenant settings configuration.
Find out more:
On-premises data gateway December 2020 now available
The on-premises data gateway December 2020 update is now available for Power BI. This months release includes; Azure Cosmos DB connector on Gateway, December Version of the mashup engine, .Net Framework Update plus lots more.
Find out more:
Large model support in Power BI Premium generally available
Power BI Premium support for large models is now generally available. With large model support, a dataset in Power BI Premium is limited in size only by the Premium capacity that hosts the dataset. Excluding memory for query execution and processing, this typically means a dataset can grow up to 70-80% of the capacity’s total memory.
Find out more:
- Announcing large model support in Power BI Premium General Availability (GA)
- Large datasets in Power BI Premium
Full report attachment for subscriptions for Power BI Premium
You can now now subscribe to any Power BI report in a premium workspace or app and choose to include the full report as a PowerPoint or PDF attachment. You can either create a new subscription for your report or simply update an existing one.
Find out more:
- Full report attachment for subscriptions for Power BI Premium reports now available
- Power BI Premium Per User FAQ (preview)
Upgrade classic workspaces in Power BI
Earlier this year the Power BI team announced a roadmap for upgrading classic workspaces to the new workspace experience. Now, Workspace upgrade has reached general availability, with tools being rolled out to Power BI admins to upgrade classic workspaces. The Power BI team are also providing a roadmap, including dates for removing the ability to create, update, and use content packs in classic workspaces.
Find out more:
Automate configuration of a template app installation
A a new capability is coming to Power BI that enables template app publishers to automate the configuration of a template app installation for their customers. Template app publishers can preconfigure the template app installation, making life much easier for your customers by eliminating that frequently encountered source of frustration.
Find out more:
- Automate configuration of a template app installation
- Automated configuration of a template app installation
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