This week’s Microsoft 365 News

Exchange and Samesite Updates

This update rolls out to Chrome on February 4th. Chrome (and therefore, Edge) changes the way that cookies are handled, which breaks OWA. Office 365 has been updated to address this, so no action is currently necessary. 

Exchange 2016 and 2019 will get updates in the March CUs. But there’s no news on Exchange 2013 and 2010 yet. In the meantime, there’s a setting you can deploy if you manage Chrome settings via Group Policy on the Exchange Blog.

Read more on Microsoft Docs here.

Microsoft Teams limits and specifications have been published 

This is a useful resource if you need to know the specifics of how many members can be in a team, how many teams people can be a member of, how many private channels per team, and so on. This is a useful update and similar to the service descriptions for other Office 365 services.

Read more on Microsoft Docs here.

Web Content Filtering for Defender ATP is in public preview 

This is a new feature that enables you to enforce a cloud proxy service for Defender ATP users. You need a separate subscription to use this – you can get a free 60-day trial to play with it from Cyren. It’s fairly basic at this time – but allows you to block content, such as adult content, from all managed devices. 

Read more on Microsoft Docs here.

New on the Roadmap 

Teams Private Channels gets Legal Hold 

This was missing at Private Channels launch, so it’s a welcome addition – if you’re already holding channel content, there should be no action needed. 

Read more on Microsoft Docs here. 

Outlook for iOS and Android is getting the new Fluent design 

This is going to be limited and to begin with, the new icons will be featured in the application itself, rather than a completely new design. Expect it to drop in February (so… any time from tomorrow!) 

In Outlook, you’ll be able to reply to a comment in Office apps, directly from Outlook 

This is rolling out now – usually, you’ll just see “@someone” mentioned you – click here to view the document”. Now you’ll get context around this and the ability to reply directly. 

Security Default – covered on Practical 365 last month, hits GA

This replaces the “forever in preview” Baseline Protection policies in Conditional Access 

Message Center Updates

MC202636 – retirement of the Facebook Data Connector in Excel 

  • Did you even know it existed? 

MC202504 – Outlook on iOS is getting rich formatting

  • This is rolling out to Monthly Channel customers from the beginning of February

MC196886 – Office 365 message Encryption gets updates to make it easier to see valid messages 

  • New layout, without the Microsoft logo 
  • The email will use the customer’s domain 
  • Improved validation to ensure the email won’t be seen as spam 

MC200276 – Teams Read Receipts rolls out 

  • This seems a small change but will affect a lot of people 
  • Applies to 1-1 chats, and group chats – not channels 
  • See a little “seen” icon next to a message when it’s read 
  • You can disable it in the Teams Admit center for everyone 
  • Users can change this as well 

About the Author

Steve Goodman

Technology Writer and Chief Editor for AV Content at Practical 365, focused on Microsoft 365. A 12-time Microsoft MVP, author of several technology books and regular Microsoft conference speaker. Steve works at Advania in the UK as Field Chief Technology Officer, advising business and IT on the best way to get the most from Microsoft Cloud technology.

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