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
Form updates in lists
Several new updates related to the new forms experience in Microsoft Lists went live this month, including subscribing to notifications, form scheduling, conditional branching, quick form creation, and additional field-type support:
- New creation experience: Users can now create forms directly from Lists home, SharePoint, and the Lists app in Microsoft Teams. This streamlined process automatically creates the underlying list for responses, saving time and effort.
- Conditional branching: Conditional branching allows you to show or hide questions based on previous answers, ensuring respondents only see relevant questions. You can branch questions to other questions or based on choices in a Choice field.
- Add logo: Enhance your forms with a relevant logo, making them look more professional and reinforcing brand identity.
- Support for Additional Field Types: Attachments, Image, Location, Lookup. Please note that for Lookup fields respondents need at least read access to the underlying source list to see and select the options.
- New response notification and scheduling start/end dates: Choose to get notified when someone submits a response to a form you own or have access to. Set specific start and end dates for your forms.
Find out more: Microsoft Lists forms: What’s New | Microsoft Community Hub
Document library updates
This SharePoint document library update enhances performance and the Edit in grid view feature, allowing improved editing of various field types and easier navigation through large libraries. New commands and features like creating items and clickable document titles have also been introduced. The redesigned Properties pane and right-click menu display context-aware options like Open, Edit, Share, or Delete when an item’s details are modified.
Find out more: The Enhanced “Edit in Grid” Experience for Document Libraries | Microsoft Community Hub
New preview mode for SharePoint Pages and News posts
The new Preview mode allows users to see how Pages and News posts appear on different devices. A Preview button in the command bar enables users to check the layout in view mode for the audience, with options to switch between Desktop and Mobile views for both Pages and News posts, including an email version.
Find out more: Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365
Filter SharePoint search results by “Messages”
The same Messages search vertical at microsoft365.com will soon be available for organization-wide search in SharePoint. Search verticals are tabs on the search result page that show results of a specific type or from select sources. If you have disabled the Messages search vertical for microsoft365.com, the Messages search vertical will also be disabled in SharePoint.
Find out more: Manage search verticals | Microsoft Learn
Enhancements to the Text web part
The Text web part in SharePoint Online enables users to add text, tables, and paragraphs to pages, featuring a new UI with both existing and new controls. It automatically adjusts based on the section layout, and when compressed, text options are moved to an overflow button. Users have access to customization options like styles, font size, and alignment, and future text enhancements will also be supported.
Find out more: Add text, tables, and images to your page with the Text web part – Microsoft Support
Updates to font management capabilities in SharePoint
Microsoft is introducing updates that provide capabilities for managing custom fonts for Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Viva Connections. This includes the ability to hide the From Microsoft font packages from Change the look, the ability to apply a font package in your site templates, and updated availability for the From Microsoft font packages.
Find out more: Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365
Retention based on “last accessed” for OneDrive and SharePoint files
Microsoft Purview Admins will be able to apply a retention policy or retention label in SharePoint and OneDrive for files that have not been accessed by anyone in your organization for a specified period of time. This feature will help delete obsolete data, which will improve the quality and relevance of Microsoft 365 Copilot responses.
Find out more: Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365
Search, eDiscovery, and DLP policies now enabled on files with custom permissions labels in SharePoint
SharePoint now enables content search, Microsoft Purview eDiscovery, and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies for files with user-defined permission labels. Only files uploaded after the feature update will support this search capability, and existing files with labels will need to be re-edited to appear in search results. New and edited files will also be included in Purview eDiscovery searches, with label names shown in Content Explorer, and are applicable to DLP policies.
Find out more: Enable sensitivity labels for files in SharePoint and OneDrive | Microsoft Learn
On-demand classification of files in SharePoint and OneDrive
On-demand classification of files in Microsoft SharePoint Online and OneDrive allows users to identify sensitive content in historical data, including unscanned files. It is a pay-as-you-go feature, not included in the E5 license, and prior to this, classification only applied to new or modified items after a new classifier was created in Purview. This new feature will help in the following situations:
- Discovering sensitive content in historical data that has not been classified by Purview.
- Retrospectively discover and classify sensitive content in historical data, due to updates or changes to custom classifier definitions.
- Application of Microsoft Purview | Data Loss Prevention (DLP), a Microsoft Purview | Information Protection (MIP) label, or Microsoft Purview | Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) policies to historical data at rest that was previously unclassified.
Find out more: Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365
Retirement: Creating personal pages from SharePoint start
Almost a year to the date of an ill-advised launch, Microsoft have announced that starting mid-March 2025 and ending early April 2025, we will retire the ability for SharePoint users to create personal pages from SharePoint start (Preview). The other features in SharePoint start (Preview) will continue to work after we retire the ability to create personal pages from SharePoint start (Preview).
Retirement: SharePoint spaces
Microsoft will retire the spaces feature from SharePoint starting March 10, 2025, when it will be turned off by default. Users can still access it on previously used sites and enable it for individual sites until May 15, 2025. After this date, enabling the feature will no longer be possible, but sites with it already enabled will remain functional. The feature will be fully disabled by August 11, 2025, preventing users from viewing, editing, or creating new spaces.
Find out more: SharePoint spaces – Microsoft Support
Retirement: “Shared with Us” feature in teams sites
Microsoft have announced it will retire the “Shared with Us” feature in SharePoint Teams sites, starting in April 2025 and due to be completed by May 2025. Users can use OneDrive’s “Shared with me” and Microsoft Teams or email notifications as alternatives. While there is no direct replacement for this feature, users can leverage existing tools in OneDrive and SharePoint to manage shared content effectively.
Find out more: Sharing & permissions in the SharePoint modern experience – SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn
Retirement: “My Feed” web part
On March 12, 2025, the My Feed web part will be removed from Microsoft SharePoint, and support for it will end on April 14, 2025. Site editors are encouraged to use alternatives such as News, Viva Engage, File and Media, Highlighted content, and video pages. Any My Feed web parts not been replaced or removed by April 14, 2025, will result in an empty web part that no longer displays content. Visitors to the site will see an error message
Find out more: Use the My feed web part – Microsoft Support
Teams
Add agents or bots in Teams chat
Agents and bots in Teams help save time on tasks, allowing users to focus on what’s important. You can add an agent or bot in 1:1 or group chats by clicking on ‘Add people, agents and bots’ -> ‘Add agents and bots’ and searching for your desired agent. Once added, everyone can interact with the agent by ‘@mentioning’ it, and the agent’s responses will be visible to all chat participants. This feature is available on Teams for Windows desktop, Mac desktop, and the web.
Find out more: Chat with a bot in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
Scheduled message delivery in channels
You can now manually schedule the future date and time for a channel message in Teams, similar to chat messages and emails. By clicking the plus icon and selecting “schedule message,” you can open a date picker to choose the desired publishing time. This feature offers flexibility and control for sending messages, especially across different time zones or after meetings.
Find out more: Schedule channel messages in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
Customize notification location on screen
Enhance your focus and productivity by customizing Teams notifications’ location, now adjustable to the bottom right, top right, bottom left, or top left of the screen. To change this, go to settings > Notifications and activity > Display, then select your preferred location.
Find out more: Change settings in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
Users can easily discover apps previously used
Easily access previously used apps in group chats, channels, and meetings, as this enhancement simplifies the app installation by showing a personalized list based on each user’s app history. Apps can be pinned to Teams for easy access. Users can pin apps on their own if their setup policy allows and if an admin allows the app for usage.
Find out more: Know about apps in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
Intelligent Meeting Recap for events (Premium)
Intelligent recap is now accessible for town hall and webinar events, similar to the experience in meetings. Organizers and presenters can easily navigate meeting recordings by speakers and topics, while accessing AI-generated notes, tasks, and name mentions. These features are available with a Teams Premium license and a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Find out more: Intelligent meeting recap in Teams Premium, now available | Microsoft Community Hub
Meeting recap can be shared via link
Meeting participants can now share a link to the meeting recap from the meeting thumbnail in chat and the recap tab, making it easier to reference and share the meeting recap insights with others. Meeting participants can share the meeting recap link with anyone in their organization. Users who don’t have access to the recording or transcript, can request recording and transcript access.
Find out more: Recap in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
Meeting organizers, co-organizers, and transcript initiator can change spoken language setting
The permissions for setting the spoken language in meetings have been updated. When transcription is enabled, only the organizer, co-organizer, and transcriber can change the spoken language to ensure accurate transcription. If transcription is not enabled, all participants can change the language.
Find out more: Use live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings – Microsoft Support
New Teams admin policy to enable Copilot for multi-tenant organizations
The new admin policy in the Teams admin center allows admins to enable or disable Copilot access for Business-to-Business (B2B) members in Multi-Tenant Organizations. By default, the setting is on, enabling B2B members with Copilot licenses to use Copilot in meetings hosted by their organization.
Find out more: Manage Copilot access for B2B members within multitenant organizations (MTO) in Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
Government
- Copilot in Teams meetings now available for GCC: Copilot helps you run more effective meetings, get up to speed on the conversation, organize key discussion points, and summarize key actions so it’s clear what you need to do next. Users can type any question or use predetermined prompts during or after the meeting, and their interactions with Copilot are only visible to them. This feature is already available in worldwide multitenant and is now available for customers in GCC.
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
Protect PDF with Password on OneDrive for web
SharePoint Premium users can protect their PDF files via OneDrive Web by setting an open password for access and an owner password for permissions like printing or editing, ensuring that only authorized individuals can access the files. Password protection limits actions to “Save as,” preserving the original PDF. Permissions set on the PDF will be visible in other apps, and Microsoft Syntex users have this feature at no extra cost.
Find out more: Roadmap ID 482193
Microsoft to prompt users to back up their files in OneDrive
Eligible users in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Windows will see a prompt in the Message Bar to enroll in OneDrive Known Folder Move (KFM) and select folders to back up in OneDrive. Users not enrolled will see a message encouraging them to back up documents. After clicking the Open OneDrive button, they can choose the folders for backup, and enrolled files benefit from cloud file advantages:
- Access to cloud-specific features like AutoSave and Version History
- Copilot support: Files are Copilot-enabled, making it simple and intuitive to access and leverage Copilot.
- Easy collaboration: Cloud files enable sharing, commenting, and easy collaboration, with AutoSave ensuring changes are frequently and consistently saved.
- Access from anywhere: Cloud files can be accessed from Windows, Mac, the web, iOS, and Android with synchronized changes.
- Increased security and compliance: Enterprises can increase security and compliance, because all cloud files are subject to default classification, labeling, and protection (CLP) policies and auto-labeling.
- Backup: Protection from data loss due to device failure.
Find out more: Redirect and move Windows known folders to OneDrive – SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn
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