The Microsoft 365 monthly update includes updates and recently recent features across Microsoft 365. The free version includes updates to SharePoint, Teams and OneDrive, whilst subscribers get all of the updates, plus Power Platform, Copilot and more.
You can take a look back at previous monthly updates here, plus take a look at our weekly roadmap roundup.
SharePoint
New pay-as-you-go billing model for SharePoint agents
Microsoft are introducing a pay-as-you-go (PayG) billing model allowing organizations to use an Azure subscription to pay for the SharePoint agents service based on the number of queries used. With this update, admins can now provide users without Copilot licenses with the ability to use and create agents on any SharePoint site or document library they have access to. People with Microsoft 365 Copilot seat licenses can continue using SharePoint agents according to their license terms.
To use agents in SharePoint on a pay-as-you-go basis, admins must first set up billing and activate the service in the Microsoft 365 admin center. An Azure subscription and resource group are required to set up pay-as-you-go billing.
Find out more: Get started with SharePoint agents – Microsoft Support
Flexible sections
Flexible sections are a new section type that allow page authors to build without a strict column structure. You will see a new option when adding a section to a page, called “Flexible.” Within a flexible section, users can drag and drop web parts anywhere on the grid. Web parts will snap to the closest grid line when moved.
You can resize web parts, but card-based ones like Quick Links, People, or Hero only have four width options: full width, one-third, half, and two-thirds. Non-card-based web parts like Text, Image, and File & Media can be resized to any width on the grid.
Find out more: Add sections and columns on a SharePoint modern page – Microsoft Support
Updated Hero web part with new carousel layout
An updated Hero web part in SharePoint includes a new Carousel layout. This new layout features a slideshow and a selection of new styles with imagery, bold text, and a call to action, creating more engaging page experiences. Authors can create eagle-eye-catching carousel slides in any section type, with up to five slides in Carousel layout, you can beautifully highlight key content.
Find out more: Re-imagined Hero with the New Carousel Layout for SharePoint | Microsoft Community Hub
New “Editorial card” web part
The new Editorial card allows you to manually tailor the content presentation. You choose a background image, add a category name, type in a headline, add descriptive text, and light up an actionable, hyperlinked button with text. You can also choose from three layout options for image overlay, colour block, or a cool split view.
Find out more: Using web parts on SharePoint pages – Microsoft Support
Accessibility assistant tool for SharePoint pages
Microsoft have designed a new accessibility assistant tool to help content creators meet accessibility standards when authoring SharePoint pages and news posts. This tool offers guidance to ensure pages are accessible and inclusive, allowing authors to test accessibility during editing via an icon in the toolbar.
Find out more: Roadmap ID 470603
Lists: hide real-time collaborators via PowerShell
Microsoft have released a new PowerShell command admins can run the PowerShell command Set-SPOSite -Identity -HidePeopleWhoHaveListsOpen $true to disable this feature on a per-site collection basis, so users cannot see who is working on the List at the same time AND the lists still support co-authoring capabilities, just minimizes the visibility of your co-authors on that sites’ lists.
The visibility of people in a list is ON by default, now with an admins control via PowerShell to configure OFF.
Find out more: Set-SPOSite (Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell) | Microsoft Learn
Microsoft Syntex OCR now supports Microsoft Office files
SharePoint OCR feature now extends support to Microsoft Office files. Previously, OCR was limited to PDFs and images but with this update, you can seamlessly extract and utilize text from any embedded images within any Microsoft Office files like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
Find out more: Set up and manage optical character recognition in Microsoft Syntex – Microsoft Syntex | Microsoft Learn
Reminder: SharePoint 2013 workflow retirement
SharePoint 2013 workflows will be retired with new tenants affected from April 2, 2024, and existing tenants from April 2, 2026. Organizations should transition to Power Automate or other solutions, prepare users, and utilize resources like the Microsoft 365 Assessment tool for migration.
Find out more: Guidance – Migrate from classic workflows to Power Automate flows in SharePoint | Microsoft Learn
New setting to disable presence in the file viewer
Currently, when users preview files in OneDrive and SharePoint, they can see who else is viewing the file. Microsoft plans to disable this feature by mid-January 2025. Admins can turn it off for specific site collections using the SharePoint Online Management Shell. The feature is optional and doesn’t require any action before it is removed.
Find out more: Set-SPOSite (Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell) | Microsoft Learn
Viva Connections in the SharePoint app bar
There is now a new entry point for Viva Connections on the SharePoint app bar. This is the universal navigation element in SharePoint, enhancing the connection between your Intranet and Viva Connections. It sits next to existing navigation elements like Global navigation, My sites, My news, My files, My lists, and the Create experience.
Teams
Insert hyperlinks quickly with Ctrl+V
Seamlessly integrated hyperlinks improve readability and accessibility by blending links into the text. This feature makes adding links quicker and easier. To use it, copy the link, type your message, highlight the text for the hyperlink, and paste.
Find out more: Send and read messages in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
Forward channel messages
You can now forward messages between channels, allowing you to share important information with relevant team members with fewer clicks. To forward a channel message post, channel post reply, or chat message to another channel, 1:1 or group chat, select the message’s ellipsis menu and choose Forward. You can also add additional context to the message and @mention recipients for greater clarity and alignment.
Forward Loop components in Teams
You can now share chat messages with Loop components easily, enabling smooth collaboration across chats and channels. To forward a message, go to it, click the three dots, and select ‘Forward.’ When shared, Loop components keep their permissions, ensuring recipients have the right access. This feature works on both desktop and mobile.
Find out more: First things to know about Loop components in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
Meeting participants can move between breakout rooms
Meeting organizers can make the list of breakout rooms visible to all meeting participants and allow them to choose which room to join. Enabling this setting in breakout rooms allows participants to move freely from one room to another, simplifying breakout room coordination for meeting organizers and participants.
Find out more: Use breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams meetings – Microsoft Support
New calendar experience in Microsoft Teams GA
The Teams calendar has been redesigned for better reliability and familiarity. It integrates features from Copilot, such as drafting agendas and managing bookings, and Places features like recommended in-office days and a Places finder. The new Teams calendar also includes calendar sharing, month and multi-day views, print support, filtering, support for multiple time zones, and more.
Find out more: Get started with the new calendar in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
Meeting organizers can turn off live caption copying or forwarding, transcript, and recap for meetings
Microsoft is enhancing the ‘Turn off copying or forwarding of meeting chat’ feature for meeting organizers to also cover live captions, transcription, and meeting recap. Now, meeting organizers with Teams Premium licenses will find a control named ‘Turn off copying and forwarding of meeting chat, live captions, and transcript’ in the meeting options. When this control is active, participants won’t be able to copy the meeting chat, live captions, live transcript, or insights from the intelligent meeting recap.
Find out more: Meeting options in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
Support for town halls in Microsoft Purview
Microsoft Purview now supports eDiscovery for town halls in Teams, ensuring compliance by preserving and managing event data effectively. Effective data management helps in organizing and categorizing data, making it easier to search and retrieve specific information. This reduces the risk of data loss and ensures that sensitive information is protected and handled according to compliance standards.
Find out more: Town halls in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Adoption
Block malicious users from your organization
With this feature in Teams, admins can prevent users from collaborating with specific outsiders by creating a block list. If a user is on this list, people in the organization cannot chat with them in 1:1 or group chats. Any existing chats will remove the blocked user if they are added to the list.
Find out more: Restricting Third-Party Calls on Teams: Best Practices and Prevention Strategies – Microsoft Q&A
Brand impersonation phishing protection
This feature helps IT admins identify if an external user is targeting their enterprise users by impersonating a brand commonly targeted by phishing attacks. It monitors initial contacts in chat with individual users, and notifies the user that the message may be spam or a phishing attempt.
Find out more: Prevent spam or phishing attempts from external chats in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
Workplace check-in with workplace presence
Workplace presence facilitates in-person connections by allowing you to check in on the Places app and let colleagues know you’re in the office, confirm work plans, receive check-in reminders, and view which of your colleagues are nearby and who has planned to come in.
Find out more: Microsoft Places overview – Microsoft Places | Microsoft Learn
Workplace presence at building level upon peripheral connection
With work location in Teams now including buildings, make your presence known, coordinate with others, and take advantage of AI-assisted booking in the future. Once enabled and opted-in, your workplace presence can auto-update to a specific building when you connect to a peripheral at a bookable desk or BYOD room.
Audio support for screen sharing in Mesh events (Premium)
Audio support for screen sharing has now been added in Microsoft Mesh. Presenters will now be able to choose whether they’d like to include system audio when starting a screen share in a Mesh event. This feature is available for presenters in Mesh with a Teams Premium license.
Speaker recognition in BYOD rooms with Teams Premium or Copilot
You can now use speaker recognition and transcript attribution in any meeting space, even without a Teams Rooms system. This feature identifies participants in live transcripts with a unique voice profile for each person, allowing for better recaps and enhanced value from Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams meetings. Users can easily enroll their voices through Teams Settings. A Teams Premium or Copilot license is required for the meeting host.
Find out more: Tenant Administration control for voice recognition (voice profile) in Teams Rooms – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
Auto-association of BYOD room devices in the Pro Management portal
Manually linking peripherals to rooms can be a daunting task, especially in organizations with many BYOD rooms. IT admins can simplify this process and improve inventory visibility with a feature that uses meeting room invite data to smartly connect peripherals to these spaces. Once linked, users can more easily connect to and use shared peripherals in the rooms.
Find out more: Bring Your Own Device Rooms in Pro Management Portal – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
Frontline Workers
- App-Powered Tasks: App-powered tasks, currently in public preview, give your organization more control over what users see in Teams. Users will have a custom experience for each task instead of just standard fields. When a user selects an app-powered task, the related app opens directly to that task’s details, allowing employees to view all tasks in one location, even across different systems, and providing specific guidance for task completion within Teams.
OneDrive
OneDrive: Update for unlicensed accounts
OneDrive is updating storage policies for business and enterprise unlicensed accounts, effective late January to March 2025. Unlicensed accounts over 90 days will be archived and inaccessible to users but visible to admins. Actions include archiving, deletion, or renewal. Education tenants are currently exempt.
Find out more: Unlicensed OneDrive user accounts: What you need to know | Microsoft Community Hub
Improved filename and external drive support for Mac
Two new features for Mac OneDrive users. First, OneDrive for Mac now supports syncing files with special characters like “*:<>?/|”, which will sync to the cloud without renaming. Second, users can now sync OneDrive to an external (non-home) drive, allowing full use of external storage without occupying space on the home volume. These updates aim to enhance the user experience by addressing long-standing pain points and providing more flexibility in file management.
Find out more: Improved Filename and External Drive Support for OneDrive Mac | Microsoft Community Hub
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