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: New site templates, new/ updated web parts, new site theme, Lists MSA Preview, most used SPFx solutions

New site templates for SharePoint team sites

Microsoft are introducing three new SharePoint team site templates so you can quickly create sites for your IT helpdesk, crisis communication team, and new employee onboarding team. These site templates expand what’s possible with content, pages, and web parts while helping you quickly get started building your own site.

*SharePoint site templates, left-to-right: IT Help Desk, Crisis communication, and New Employee Onboarding.*

Find out more: Apply and customize SharePoint site templates

New/ updated web parts

There is one new and three updated SharePoint web parts this month, including:

Assignments web part | Customers using Teams Assignments will be able to add the assignments web part to pages to provide students with a one-stop, personalized resource for all their class needs. The assignments web part can also be used on communication sites like a home site to display the upcoming assignments due across multiple classes.
Group calendar updates | The Group calendar web part is getting visual updates, an indicator informing users when a meeting is a recurring meeting, and the capability to join upcoming Teams meetings online.
Quick links in the toolbar | Users are now able to easily explore the different layouts available for the Quick links web part. We’re surfacing layouts as a dropdown option in the toolbar to make it easier for authors to get the look and feel they want.
Highlighted content web part | This dynamic web part now adheres better to a two-column section if you chose the ‘Compact’ layout – aka, the layout preference it retained.

New site theme

There is now a new, Periwinkle site theme in SharePoint. When applied, this new site theme option brings a ‘lavender blue’ visual site theme to your SharePoint site. It adjusts to dark or high-contrast mode when viewed in Teams, too.

Find out more: Change the look of your SharePoint site

Microsoft Lists – MSA preview for iOS (beta)

This month Microsoft are introducing Microsoft Lists – MSA Preview access from your iOS device – via a beta version of the app installed through TestFlight; once installed, it brings the lightweight version of the Microsoft Lists app designed for small business and individual use in conjunction with your Microsoft account (MSA).

Find out more: Microsoft Lists – MSA Preview

Teams

In Teams: Teams optimised for Apple silicon, language interpretation, together mode for everyone, pre-assign channel members to breakout rooms, transcription created automatically, ranking poll to re-order items, in-meeting notification improvements, leave a meeting on all devices, one-click convert Word/PDF to Forms,

Government
Education
Front line workers

Microsoft Teams optimized for Apple silicon

Microsoft are rolling out a production grade universal binary version of Teams, which means it will run natively on the entire Mac lineup, including those with Apple silicon. For Mac users, this means a significant boost in performance, ensuring efficient use of device resources and an optimized Teams experience even when using multiple high-resolution monitors during calls or meetings.

Find out more: Announcing Microsoft Teams optimized for Apple silicon

Language Interpretation

This feature allows language interpreters to translate what the speaker says into another language in real time without disrupting the flow and delivery of the speaker. This allows for more inclusive meetings where participants who do not speak the same language can still fully collaborate with each other.

Find out more: Use language interpretation in a Teams meeting

Together mode for everyone

Together mode makes virtual meeting participants feel more like they’re in the same room together during virtual meetings. Now, meeting organizers and presenters can also select Together mode for everyone in the meeting to have the same view.

Find out more: Now in public preview: Select Together Mode for everyone

Pre-assign channel members to breakout Rooms

Now, as the meeting organizer you can preassign participants within channel meetings for members not explicitly invited to the meeting.

Find out more: Now in public preview: Pre-assign channel members to Breakout Rooms

Transcription created automatically during recordings

You can now create meeting transcriptions automatically during meeting recordings. If IT admins enable transcriptions for the organization and the meeting organizer sets the Record automatically meeting option to on for a meeting, transcription of the meeting will start when the meeting starts.

Find out more: Transcribe your recordings

Ranking polls to prioritize or re-order items

Respond to a poll by clicking the up or down arrow or by dragging and dropping a selection. If you’ve enabled the results sharing, everyone can see the updated results as they come in.

Find out more: Rating and Ranking – Better engage with your audience with new poll types in Teams

Usability improvements to in-meeting notifications

Notifications show up in the top center of the meeting stage and notification bubbles stack on top of each other as new notifications pop up. This avoids notification overlaps, and you have a cleaner visual experience. In addition, you can also snooze repeat notifications like chat bubbles.

Leave a meeting on all my devices

When you join a Teams meeting using multiple personal devices, you typically want to leave the meeting from all of the devices. With just one click, you now can leave a meeting from all your devices.

One click convert a Word/PDF form or quiz to Microsoft Forms

Save time by converting your existing Microsoft Word or PDF surveys or quizzes into Microsoft Forms. Simply upload a PDF or Word document directly into Microsoft Forms and continue to edit until you’re ready to collect responses.

Find out more: Convert a Word/Pdf Form or Quiz to a Microsoft Forms

Education

These features are currently available for Teams for Education customers:

Parent Connection – With Parent Connection, educators can initiate a Teams chat with student guardians (information provided by School Data Sync) with a single click. Instead of the twice-yearly parent-teacher conference or sporadic email, educators and guardians can have more iterative conversations through Teams chat to help manage and track student progress.

LTI apps integration with Schoology LMS – Schoology’s Learning Management System (LMS) integration with Teams provides teachers and students an easy way to create, access, and collaborate using Teams meetings within the Schoology LMS.

Brightspace (D2L) LMS integration with Microsoft 365 – Microsoft has partnered with Brightspace (D2L) LMS to deliver more seamless integrated learning experiences. Educators can create a team for their Brightspace course using the roster information using the Teams Classes LTI.

Home page for Teams for Education class teams – With Home page, educators and students have a centralized an customizable place for announcements, resources, upcoming assignments, class files, and meetings for their specific class.

Activate a class from inside the Teams Classes LTI app within your Learning Management System (LMS) – Now educators can activate a class from the Teams Classes LTI app without leaving the LMS. Activation is intuitive and easy to discover. A notification banner highlights classes that have not been activated.

View video recordings and attendance reports inside LMS – Teachers and students can access video recordings and attendance reports directly in their LMS. The feature is available all the Learning Management Systems incorporating the Teams Meeting LTI app.

Timed quiz – Use a digital timed quiz instead of pen and paper to save time and increase consistency. A teacher sets a timer for a quiz which gives all students the same constraints, but allows them to take the quiz on their own schedule. Students learn time management and the experience is fair and consistent to all. Learn more about enabling time limits for students in your test.

Frontline

Deploy Microsoft Teams at scale for frontline workers – Deploy a large workforce of frontline workers in significantly less time. As a Teams admin, you can deploy up to 500 teams and add 25 users per team using one Teams PowerShell command and 2 csv files. You can also use add and remove members from existing teams at scale.

Additional filters added to the Approvals list – Within the Approvals app, you can use additional filters on approval lists. For example, you can filter on approval status or keyword in the title to find the right approval more quickly.

Government

Isolated audio feed for GCC-High and DoD – When using NDI or hardware-out in Teams, you can access an isolated audio feed along with the isolated video feed from any Teams meeting.

Attendance Dashboard for GCC-High and DOD – Measure meeting and webinar registration and attendance data in the Attendance Dashboard.

Power Apps

In Power Apps: Azure B2B maker, Experimental Application Insights Features, ESLint rules, canvas apps as dataverse solutions, table designer, Power App from REST API, modern command bar, install apps via CLI

Build apps across multiple tenants with Azure B2B maker

Makers can now build apps as a guest in another tenant: apps can be built in the Azure Active Directory tenant it is expected to be hosted. For example, it is now possible for maker@contoso.com to build apps directly in the ContosoSubsidiaryA.com tenant.

Find out more: Power Apps support for B2B guest maker (preview)

Application Insights features

Two new experimental features are now available for canvas apps connected to Application Insights. The first feature reports unhandled errors experienced by end-users. The second enables correlation tracing across canvas apps and connected custom connectors. Both features can be enabled in the upcoming features menu.

Find out more: Analyze telemetry of a canvas app using Application Insights

ESLint rules for Power Apps and Dynamics 365

The Power Apps team have announced the public preview of ESLint rules for Power Apps model-driven apps and Dynamics 365 CE. ESLint rules are configured in the eslintrc file, any violations in the code will be caught and listed in the problems console automatically. Hovering over the issue in code will show a detailed description of the violation, corrections needed, and a link to a document that provides more details.

Find out more: Announcing public preview of ESLint rules for Power Apps and Dynamics 365

Canvas apps as Dataverse solutions by default

The Power Apps team have announced the release of canvas apps creation as Dataverse solutions by default in public preview. Solutions are used to transport apps, flows, tables and other components from one environment to another and are a key mechanism for implementing healthy application lifecycle management (ALM) in the Power Platform.

Find out more: Creating canvas apps as Dataverse solutions by default (preview)

Table designer now in preview

You can now create new Dataverse tables and edit them using the table designer in the standalone model-driven app designer. This new feature allows you to have a one stop shop for all your table creation and data editing needs by saving you the time it takes moving between designers.

Find out more: Create and edit tables using the table designer

Automatically create a Power App from a REST API

With this feature, a single command line function will let developers generate a canvas app from their API definition. The app can then be imported into Power Apps Studio for further edits or customization. Makers and developers alike can benefit from the productivity of low code and Power Apps to quickly build rich user experiences over their APIs.

Find out more: Automatically create a Power App from a REST API

Modern command bar in Canvas

The modern command bar is now officially available behind the preview toggle in Settings for canvas page authoring. The new command bar not only has a modern look and feel but is also designed to improve your authoring experience. It allows a seamless customization experience of editing common controls by dynamically displaying the common properties directly within the command bar.

Find out more: Understand Power Apps Studio

Install Apps via Power Platform CLI & Install API

This capability enables automation of install and update experiences that are offered only through the Power Platform Admin Center experience today. Installs can also be automated for applications available from AppSource provided at least one such install of the said application has been made to another environment within the tenant.

Find out more: Announcing Public Preview for Power Platform App Install API & Tools Support

Power Automate

In Power Automate: New Android app GA, desktop update – August, 2 verified, 10 independent publisher connectors, SharePoint cloud actions in desktop

Power Automate Android app generally available

A new version of the Power Automate Android app is now available. The app has been redesigned to deliver a new UI that is more consistent with the look and feel of the Power Automate web portal, while also improving some existing experiences. You will also noticed some upgrades like quicker response times, easier navigation, and improvements to previous login issues that some of you encountered.

Find out more: Power Automate’s newest Android mobile app version is now generally available

Power Automate desktop update – August 2022

The August 2022 update of Power Automate for desktop (version 2.23) has been released with updates including a new excel action, cropping text action, SharePoint connector actions and much more.

Find out more: Power Automate for desktop – August 2022 update

2 verified, 10 new independent publisher connectors

New verified connectors:

Microsoft Bookings – Booking connector is a solution for these asks. With this connector we are exposing all appointment booking actions – like Create/Update/Delete of Bookings.
Secret Server – With Secret Server, you can automatically discover and manage your privileged accounts through an intuitive interface, protecting against malicious activity, enterprise-wide.

New independent publisher connectors:

ConvertKit by Troy Taylor – ConvertKit is the go-to marketing hub for creators that helps you grow and monetize your audience with ease.
CPSC Recalls Retrieval by Troy Taylor – The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission provides accessibility to recalls via this recall service.
Every by Troy Taylor – Use Every.org’s free fundraising services to create innovative nonprofit experiences.
File.io by Troy Taylor – Simply upload a file, share the link, and after it is downloaded, the file is completely deleted.
OK dokument by Solitea Slovensko a.s. – OK dokument delivers an easy to use and customizable electronic signature and digital document distribution platform that integrates seamlessly into your existing systems.
OneNote Consumer by Troy Taylor – Microsoft OneNote is your digital notebook. One cross-functional notebook for all your notetaking needs.
RescueGroups by Troy Taylor – Since 2002, RescueGroups.org has provided animal welfare organizations with easy to use, free and low-cost services like the Pet Adoption Portal to help maximize animal adoptions.
SchoolDigger by Troy Taylor – Get detailed data on over 120,000 schools and 18,500 districts in the United States.
SignUpGenius by Troy Taylor – SignUpGenius simplifies scheduling, volunteer and member management, event planning and fundraising.
Zenler by Troy Taylor – Zenler is an all-in-one course creation, delivery, and marketing platform.

Power BI

In Power BI: What’s new in Datamarts, Multiple Audiences Public Preview, DLP updates, PostgreSQL connector, Power BI August 2022 feature summary, Power BI app in Teams mobile

What’s New in Datamarts

Datamarts are a preview feature in Power BI Premium (and Premium Per User) that enable self-service users to securely collect, store, analyze, and share their data in a unified, low code, solution – delivering SQL and unified analytics – all in a web-based experience, for the first time.

Updates to Datamarts are shipped monthly, and several updates launched in May 2022, including: Datamart availability in new regions, Data connectivity and preparation updates, Collaboration enhancements and more.

Find out more: What’s New in Datamarts – August 2022

Multiple Audiences for Power BI Apps (Public Preview)

The Power BI team have announced the public preview of Multiple Audiences in the Power BI Apps, one of the highly requested features from the community. With multiple audiences for an App, now Power BI App author can create multiple audience groups within the same App and assign different permissions to each group.

Find out more: Announcing Public Preview of Multiple Audiences for Power BI Apps

Updates to Microsoft Purview data loss prevention policies in Power BI

Data loss prevention (DLP) policies help you govern the sensitive information managed in your Power BI tenant. Two significant enhancements to DLP policies have recently been released in Power BI:

CPU metering for DLP policy evaluation
Overriding policy tips and reporting false positives

Find out more: Updates to Microsoft Purview data loss prevention policies in Power BI

PostgreSQL connector for the virtual network data gateway

The Power BI team have announced a new PostgreSQL connector for the virtual network data gateway! You can now connect to all your PostgreSQL workloads in the cloud using basic authentication. Just select PostgreSQL in the connection type dropdown menu when creating a new connection to your virtual network data gateway from the manage gateways page on the PBI service.

Find out more: PostgreSQL connector for the virtual network data gateway

Power BI August 2022 Feature Summary

The Power BI August 2022 feature summary is out now with updates including conditional formatting for data labels, new “Select sensitivity label” dialog, DAX editor improvements and more.

Find out more: Power BI August 2022 Feature Summary

Power BI app is available in Microsoft Teams Mobile

Power BI in Microsoft Teams is available for Teams mobile. This helps users stay up to date and never miss activity in their Power BI reports and scorecards. Users who have the Power BI app for Microsoft Teams installed and have Teams Mobile installed on their phone or tablet will automatically get the new capability.

Find out more: Announcing: The Power BI app is available in Microsoft Teams Mobile

Microsoft 365 monthly update – August 2022