Microsoft February 2025 Update Digest
A. Microsoft Copilot
1. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat in Microsoft Edge Mobile will support page summarization
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat in Edge Mobile for Android and iOS will soon re-enable page summarization features, allowing users to summarize open webpages or PDFs.
When this will happen:
Rollout will occur in two phases, beginning in mid-February and ending in late March 2025.
Phase 1: Page summarization only:?General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rollout mid-February 2025 for non-EU regions and expect to complete by late February 2025.
Phase 2: Full contextual chat and summarization:?General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rollout mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
After this rollout, the Copilot Chat icon next to the address bar will be displayed by default to all Microsoft Entra ID users. Users can disable Copilot Chat in?Settings > General.
In this screenshot: a. Select the Copilot icon to initiate Copilot. b. In Phase 1, selecting the Copilot icon will initiate Page summarization. c. In Phase 2, selecting the icon will initiate Copilot Chat with Page summarization prompt:
2. Microsoft Outlook: Prioritize my Inbox by Microsoft 365 Copilot
How this will affect your organization?
When this change happens, users in your tenant with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses will be able to opt-in to Prioritize my inbox and enable it on their mailbox.??
Prioritize will appear in the Copilot dropdown in the top corner of Outlook email. If selected by users, a set-up wizard will appear walking them through enabling this feature.?
Prioritize only works on your main inbox not in folders.?
Prioritize my inbox does not work on other mailboxes (shared or group).?
The feature will be opt-in, users will have to specifically request the feature and go through a wizard to opt-in. For now, you can’t choose which of your users get Prioritize, it will be available on a first-come/first-serve basis while we continue to roll out broadly.?
3. Greater summarization and coaching in more languages with Copilot in Word
Copilot can now summarize documents up to about 1,500,000 words (about 3,000 pages), in the summary box above your document content. This is a significant increase from the previous limit of 80,000 words (about 160 pages). This feature rolled out on the web in February and will roll out on Windows and Mac in the coming months.
Coaching with Copilot supports reviewing content beyond grammar and spelling by giving suggestions to clarify ideas and improve impact through additions, organization, style and tone, supporting information, and more. To get coaching, users can now choose a section of text (or even the entire document), select the Copilot icon on the canvas, then select “Get coaching.” Learn more about Copilot coaching in Word. This feature started rolling out in February and is available for the following languages: English (United States), English (United Kingdom), French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico), Chinese (Simplified).
4. Translating, rewriting, and speaker note drafting with Copilot in PowerPoint
Translation can be time-consuming and costly, even for a quick presentation for internal training or team meetings. With Copilot translation in PowerPoint, users can?translate an entire PowerPoint into one of 40 languages, maintaining the design integrity of each slide. Languages include those?currently supported by Copilot, with the small nuance of non-location specific English and Spanish. Copilot can translate the text in text boxes, shapes, tables, charts, speaker notes, comments, and smart-art. This feature rolled out in January.
Copilot in PowerPoint can now help users quickly improve text on slides. They can rewrite, condense, and make text more professional. Copilot can also fix grammar and spelling errors and improve readability without changing the meaning. This feature rolled out in February.
?After typing a prompt and seeing the narrative’s outline, users can?add topics that include a Word doc (including encrypted Word docs). This helps users fine-tune a story, by using Copilot to create a first-draft deck with relevant topics and information. This feature rolled out in January. ?
Creating speaker notes for PowerPoint presentations can be a daunting and time-consuming task, especially for long presentations. Users can now add speaker notes using Copilot. Copilot will automatically generate notes for all slides, providing a solid first draft for presentation notes that users can refine as needed. This saves time and effort, helps ensure consistency across the presentations, and makes it easier to deliver a polished, professional presentation. This feature rolled out in February.?
5. Use Copilot chat to gain insights from images
Users can now chat with Copilot to easily gain insights from uploaded images. Whether using the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, Teams, Outlook, or the Edge sidebar, Copilot helps users understand and iterate on uploaded content. This feature rolled out in February.
6. Discover agents in Microsoft Copilot iOS/Android
The Agent UX, previously available on Microsoft 365 Copilot desktop and web, is now being enabled on mobile endpoints. This new feature will allow end-users to discover installed agents, add new agents, and chat with agents in mobile Copilot on Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Outlook, and the Copilot app (formerly Microsoft 365 app).
When this will happen:
General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
Copilot users will be able to discover, add, and use agents.
7. Copilot Pages are now available on mobile
Copilot Pages are now available in the Microsoft 365 Copilot mobile app, so users can continue working with Copilot and colleagues while on the go. Users can view, edit, and share existing Pages on mobile now, and soon they will be able to create new Pages on mobile as well. This feature rolled out in February.
8. Microsoft Copilot Studio – Add SharePoint as a knowledge source
Microsoft is announcing the SharePoint as a knowledge source for generative answers feature. When a user asks a question and the agent doesn’t have a topic to use for an answer, this feature allows the agent to search the SharePoint URL and all subpaths, and generative answers will summarize this content into a targeted response.
9. Upcoming Changes for M365 Copilot Chat with Link Safety
Microsoft is excited to announce some important updates to M365 Copilot Chat that will enhance security and user experience, following:?
When this will happen:
General Availability (Worldwide): Microsoft will begin rolling out in late March 2025 and expect to complete by late May 2025.
Rollout will start on desktop and web and will complete with mobile versions. Microsoft plan to extend these updates to Copilot Chat experiences in Office apps in the future.
How this will affect your organization:
These updates are designed to enhance the security of the links included in M365 Copilot Chat response, ensuring that users are protected from malicious URLs.
What you need to do to prepare:
You may consider updating your training and documentation as appropriate to ensure users are aware of the change in behavior with hyperlinks in M365 Copilot Chat.
10. Microsoft 365 Copilot: Chat sessions will have titles generated by large language models (LLM)
Coming soon for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat: To enhance the organization and discoverability of the user's Copilot chat sessions, Microsoft will use a large language model (LLM) to generate titles for new chat sessions.
A Microsoft 365 license is required to use this feature.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID?388373.
When this will happen:
General Availability (Worldwide): Microsoft will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
Before this rollout: The default title is the same as the first prompt.
After this rollout: After Copilot responds to the first prompt, titles will be generated by LMM for all new chat sessions. Users will still be able to delete session chats and rename their sessions.
Note:?Titles generated before this rollout will not be changed.
Chat titles generated by LMM on the Copilot tab display in all products that include a Copilot tab: Microsoft 356/Office, Microsoft Teams, new Microsoft Outlook for desktop and web, and the Microsoft 365 for Windows desktop and web:
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11. Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android: Microsoft 365 (Office) app is now the Microsoft 365 Copilot app
The Microsoft 365 (Office) app has become the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. After this rollout, users will notice changes in the Microsoft Outlook apps for iOS and Android. Also, when Outlook for iOS and Android users view their account list in?Settings, they will notice a new icon for their Microsoft account.
When this will happen:
General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): Microsoft will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
Before this rollout, Microsoft 365 (Office) app and Microsoft 365 accounts in the Microsoft Outlook apps for iOS and Android have this icon:
After this rollout, the app for iOS and Android will be called Microsoft 365 Copilot and will have this icon:
Microsoft 365 accounts will be represented by the Microsoft logo:
This change will be available by default.
What you need to do to prepare:
This change will happen automatically by the specified date. No admin action is required. Please notify your users about this change and update relevant documentation.
B. Microsoft Teams
1. Microsoft Teams: Customize the location of notifications in Teams for the web
Microsoft Teams will soon allow users to personalize the placement of notifications on their screens. Users will be able to choose from four options (bottom right, top right, bottom left, or top left) to make notifications more convenient and less disruptive, enhancing both focus and productivity. This message applies to Teams for the web.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID?480720.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out early April 2025 and expect to complete by mid-April 2025.
General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-April 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
Before this rollout, Teams notifications were limited to the bottom right corner.
After this rollout, users can customize notification placement in Teams settings in?Settings > Notifications and activity > Display.?Select the option for notification location that best suits your needs and preferences:?Bottom right, Top right, Bottom left,?or?Top left:
2. Microsoft Teams: New Search feature in channel posts
Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: A new experience to search within Channel Posts. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Mac desktop, and web.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.
General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): Microsoft will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025.
General Availability (DoD): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
Key enhancements include:
1. The new in-post Search experience will now be available in the right handrail, making it possible to see your post and your new search results in one single view. The initiation can be done using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F(win) or Cmd +F (Mac)
2. In-post search experiences will have enhanced captioning and keyword highlighting to aid the discernment of results:
3. In-post search will now also be available in pop-out window:
3. Chat and Collaboration: Add agents or bots in Teams Chats
Whether answering questions or taking care of mundane tasks, agents and bots in Teams save you and others time so you can focus on what's most important. You can now add an agent or bot in your 1:1 or group chat and access it directly from that chat. To add, click on ‘Add people, agents and bots’ -> ‘Add agents and bots’ and search for the agent or bot you want to add. Once added, everyone in the chat can interact with the agent. Users can '@mention' the agent along with a relevant prompt, and everyone in the chat will see the agent’s response. This update is available for Teams on Windows desktop, Mac desktop, and the web.
4. Share files faster in Chat and channels
Users will be able to share a file from a Chat conversation, a Chat?Shared?tab, or a channel post to 1:1 chats, group chats, or channels with fewer clicks.???
5. Chat and Collaboration: Scheduled message delivery in channels
Similar to delaying the delivery of chat messages in Teams and emails in Outlook, you can now manually select the future date and time for a channel message to be published. To schedule a channel post or a message reply, click on the plus icon and select schedule message from the menu. This will open the date picker, where you can choose the desired publishing time. This feature allows you to send channel messages confidently, knowing they will be delivered at the right time. Whether you're coordinating with team members across different time zones or scheduling a message to be sent after a meeting, scheduling channel messages provides flexibility and control over your messages.
6. Microsoft Teams: 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.
7. Microsoft Teams: Access chats while sharing a screen
Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Microsoft will add a control to the meeting presenter toolbar so presenters can more easily access the meeting chat while sharing a window or a screen.
This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop and Teams for Mac desktop.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID?467445.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-April 2025 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously late March).
General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-May 2025 (previously mid-April) and expect to complete by early June 2025 (previously late May).
How this will affect your organization:
After this rollout, a compact view of the meeting chat (visible to presenter only) will open when the presenter selects the?Chat?icon on the presenter toolbar:
Closeup view of the chat icon:
8. Microsoft Teams: Updates to the Teams system tray icon and menu
Microsoft is improving the Microsoft Teams app icon and menu in the Microsoft Windows system tray (taskbar notification area) for ease of use and to reduce the number of steps to perform routine tasks.
This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025.
General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.
How this will affect your organization
After this rollout, these changes will affect all users:
Changes that will impact users who are signed into both personal and work accounts:
Before this rollout, if a user is signed into both personal and work Teams accounts, the system tray will display two Teams icons and corresponding menus. After this rollout, users will have one Teams icon in the system tray for personal and work accounts:
9. Microsoft Teams: Meeting participants can request collaborative annotation sessions
Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: Meeting participants will be able to request an annotation session while someone else is sharing their screen.
This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop and Teams for Mac desktop. (Users can view and annotate in Teams on the web but cannot initiate annotations.)
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID?89975.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out early April 2025 and expect to complete by mid-April 2025.
General Availability (WW, GCC, GCC High, and DoD): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-April 2025 and expect to complete by early May 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
After the rollout, meeting participants who are not sharing their screens will have the ability to request an annotation session. This request will be sent to the presenter sharing their screen who can choose to accept or deny it:
If the request is accepted, the annotation session will start for everyone in the meeting:
Anonymous users in the meeting will not be able to send a request.
This change will be available by default.
What you need to do to prepare:
This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.
10. Microsoft Teams: Ratings and reviews for apps within outlook.com and office.com
Within Microsoft Teams, apps that are found in outlook.com and office.com will show ratings and reviews in the app store listing page and the details page.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025.
General Availability (Worldwide): Microsoft will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
Users will be able to see their apps' ratings and reviews in outlook.com and office.com.
11. Microsoft Teams: New keyboard shortcut for adding emojis
Coming soon: Microsoft is excited to announce a new feature in Microsoft Teams that allows users to insert emojis in the compose box by typing a word surrounded by colons. For example, :smile: will turn into the smiling face emoji. Users can soon add any emoji, including custom ones, for faster and easier personal expression.
This feature applies to Teams for Windows desktop and Windows for Mac desktop.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID?369345.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out early April 2025 and expect to complete by mid-April 2025.
General Availability (Worldwide): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-April 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025.
General Availability (GCC): Microsoft will begin rolling out early May 2025 and expect to complete by mid-May 2025.
General Availability (GCC High): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-May 2025 and expect to complete by late May 2025.
General Availability (DoD): Microsoft will begin rolling out early June 2025 and expect to complete by mid-June 2025.
General Availability (Gallatin): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-June 2025 and expect to complete by late June 2025.
General Availability (USSec, USNat): Microsoft will begin rolling out early July 2025 and expect to complete by mid-July 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
This feature will be available by default.
Watch the video: Use colons to insert emojis?(0:04 minutes)
What you need to do to prepare:
This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before or after the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.
12. Microsoft Teams: Distinguish invites among Attendee, Presenter, and Co-organizer emails
Microsoft?Teams Events invite emails will be separated based on the role of the participant. Event organizers will get an email explaining the specific roles of participants in the event. Similarly, each presenter will get a separate calendar invite, allowing the organizers of town halls to maintain separate invites for attendees.?
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID?476488.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025.
General Availability (Worldwide): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.
General Availability (GCC, GCC High): Microsoft will begin rolling out early April 2025 and expect to complete by mid-April 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
This feature update allows the organizers of town halls to maintain separate invites for attendees.
What you need to do to prepare:
This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.
13. Microsoft Skype interoperability with Microsoft Teams will retire
Microsoft will retire Microsoft Skype interoperability from Microsoft Teams on May 1, 2025. Teams users will no longer be able to communicate with Skype accounts after this change is implemented.
This retirement will happen automatically by the specified date. No admin action is required. Please notify your users about this change, update relevant documentation, and share information about continuing communication through Teams free interoperability.
C. Microsoft 365 Apps
1. Microsoft OneDrive: Protect PDF with Password on OneDrive for web
Coming soon to Microsoft OneDrive: OneDrive web users can protect their PDF files with User Password and Owner Password. The User Password is required to open and view a PDF file. The Owner Password is used to set operation permissions on a PDF file, such as allow printing, copying, or modifying the content. This enhancement provides an additional layer of security for sensitive documents, ensuring that only authorized individuals can access the content.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID?482193.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025.
General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
Users will be able to use the password protection function by following these steps in OneDrive for web:?
What you need to do to prepare:
This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.?
Before rollout, Microsoft will update this post with any relevant documentation.?
2. Microsoft Outlook: Delivery and read receipts for iOS and Android
Coming soon to Microsoft Outlook for iOS/Android: Users will be able to request delivery receipts and read receipts while composing an email. Users will also easily be able to respond to requests for read receipts on emails they receive and set preferences for future read receipts.
When this will happen:
General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-April 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
Users will have a new option for?Receipts?in the toolbar while composing emails where the user can choose delivery and/or read receipts:
When users first receive an email that has a read receipt requested (left), they will be prompted to make a choice to send a receipt for that email (middle), and to select a preference for future read receipt behavior for that account (right).
3. New Outlook for Windows and Web: Outlook Newsletters
Coming soon to new Microsoft Outlook: Newsletters in Outlook enable customers to create, distribute, and track success for their internal email newsletters. This message applies to the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook for the web.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID?328282
When this will happen:
Public Preview: Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025. Rollout will begin in Targeted Release and will proceed to Standard Release.
General Availability (Worldwide): Microsoft will begin rolling out early August 2025 and expect to complete by early September 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
After this rollout, users in your organization using the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook for the Web can create professional and engaging email newsletters with a variety of rich elements and leverage built-in tools to manage reader engagement. Readers can discover and subscribe to newsletters that interest them using the new Explore page in the Outlook Newsletters module, accessible in the left-side navigation menu. The new module also includes pages for users to view their drafts.
4. New Microsoft Outlook for Windows and web: New None color category for Mail and Calendar
Coming soon to new Microsoft Outlook for Windows desktop and Microsoft Outlook for the web: A?None?color category?that users can apply to Mail and Calendar items. This update provides parity with classic Outlook and more flexibility and customization for users to categorize their emails and calendar events. By selecting the?None?option, users can choose to have items without a designated color, allowing for cleaner organization and more control over which items stand out visually.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID?469035.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: Microsoft began rolling out late December 2024 and expect to complete by late February 2025.
General Availability (Worldwide): Microsoft will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.
General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): Microsoft will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
Before this rollout, the?None?color category displayed as gray.
After the rollout:
D. SharePoint Online
1. Microsoft SharePoint: Microsoft will retire creating personal pages from SharePoint start (Preview)
A new Start experience?(published May 2024, updated June 2024), Microsoft announced the new Microsoft SharePoint start?(Preview) experience, featuring a user-friendly approach that reduces the effort required for creating sites and pages. Microsoft has received feedback regarding concerns about the content policy, specifically in relation to personal pages. Starting mid-March 2025 and ending early April 2025, Microsoft 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 Microsoft retire the ability to create personal pages from SharePoint?start?(Preview).
As an alternative, Microsoft recommend that SharePoint users create pages that are connected to sites from SharePoint?start (Preview).
How this will affect your organization:
When the retirement has been implemented for your tenant, this notification will display at the top of the SharePoint user page:?Publish your pages to sites. Creating new personal pages that aren’t connected to sites is no longer supported.
To create a new page from a page template in SharePoint?start?(Preview) that is connected to a SharePoint site
1. In SharePoint?start?(Preview), go to?Create a page?and select a page template:
2. On the right panel, choose a SharePoint site or enter the name of a SharePoint site to begin creating a new page on that site.
FAQs
Can users still access personal pages they have created before the retirement?
Can users move these personal pages to another location?
Can users convert a personal page to a page connected to a SharePoint site?
2. Retiring Shared with Us Feature in SharePoint Teams sites
Microsoft is retiring the "Shared with us" feature on SharePoint Teams sites, which provided a centralized view of files and folders shared with site members.?
When this will happen:
Microsoft will begin retirement early April 2025 and expect to complete by early May 2025.
Are there any recommended alternatives to the "Shared with Us" feature:
While there is no direct replacement for this feature, users can leverage existing tools in OneDrive and SharePoint to manage shared content effectively:
What you need to do to prepare:
No action is required, but Microsoft recommend informing your users about this change and guiding them on how to find shared content using the recommended alternatives above.
Microsoft understand that changes to features can impact workflows, and Microsoft appreciate your understanding as Microsoft focus on improving SharePoint’s overall experience.
Thank you,
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