Officerambo: The Practical 365 Weekly Update: Ep 31

Your weekly digest for Microsoft 365 News

Exchange Online PowerShell v2 Cmdlets now in General Availability

Another announcement from Ignite 2019: the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module (abbreviated as the EXO V2 module) is in general availability now. This is why you should use it:

Failure redundant: retry and resume of cmdlets is available
Modern Authentication based
9 new REST based cmdlets (I.e. *-ExO*) that are 4-8 times faster in responding

The EXO V2 module currently only supports PowerShell 5.1, additional versions for example for Linux support is “work-in-progress”.

The V2 module is available in the PowerShell Gallery here.

Learn more about working with the new Exchange Cmdlets in this recent webinar with MVPs Vasil Michev & Paul Robichaux.

Outlook for Windows Introduces Roaming Signatures

More information about this long-awaited feature is available now. Outlook for Windows will store e-mail signatures in the user mailbox in Exchange Online, instead of on the Windows device by default.

This was already announced, but it’s now official with more detailed information on when it will be supported:

Late July 2020: for Insiders Slow Channel which will soon be called Microsoft Beta
Late August 2020: Monthly Channel

When the feature becomes available, Outlook will read the existing local signatures, and will copy it as default for New messages or Replies/forwards in the mailbox.

Read more here.

Microsoft 365 Groups supports new methods to hide/show groups in Outlook and the address book

You can now set visibility of Groups using Microsoft Graph or PowerShell. The following properties have been added:

hideFromOutlookClients – show or hide Microsoft 365 group in any Outlook client
hideFromAddressLists. – show or hide group in the global address list (GAL)

OneDrive Sync Enterprise ring is getting a new name

Microsoft announced another name change over the past week, OneDrive Sync “Enterprise” ring will change to “Deferred” ring. Microsoft validates OneDrive updates in a three-step (rings) process. The name change only applies to the name used in documentation, release notes, and group policy setting. The graphic below demonstrates how this works.

Intune Ramping Down Support for the Exchange On-Premises Connector

If you’re running Exchange On-Premises and using the on-premises connector to manage the quarantine settings for Exchange ActiveSync, then you will need to plan for eventual change. Although there’s no plan in place yet to stop you from using this if you already are.

However, you won’t be able to configure new connecters once you get the “2007” July release. You should plan to use Hybrid Modern Authentication and Conditional Access in the future instead.

Find out more here.

Microsoft is working on support for 7×7 video, or 49 visible participants for Teams

This is not official from Microsoft but reported by CRN, Teams is on track to support video from 49 participants. When asked prior to this about 3×3 video, Microsoft Teams product group members stated they weren’t stopping at 3×3 video, so this is expected. Will this be useful in your meetings? Let us know and comment on this post!

Read more here.

Teams finally gets official support for uploading custom backgrounds

Microsoft are finally rolling out the ability to upload custom backgrounds to all clients. Beyond this, they are rolling out the controls for administrators to decide whether people can use them.

As a user, you’ll see an “Add New” button in the background effects control. Admins get the ability to change what users can do via Meeting Policies, using CsMeetingPolicy cmdlets.

The new parameter is VideoFiltersMode and allows control over whether:

any background effects are available
blur only use
blur and pre-selected background use
or whether all effects, including custom backgrounds can be used

These policy options, which can be set as default or applied to different sets of users, can be read here.

Interesting Announcements on the Roadmap

Suggested replies in Teams mobile:
- We already talked about this, but now the first pictures of the “suggested replies” feature for Teams mobile are available.
- Suggested replies provides three responses to choose from for selected messages.
- The feature will be available in July 2020 in Teams for iOS and Android.

Change how Teams in Islands users schedule meetings from Outlook
- Skype for Business users who use Teams in Islands mode can currently schedule meetings from Outlook with either Teams or Skype. Using this policy, you can configure so meetings will take place on Teams only.
- Available to all Outlook but Outlook for Mac in June, Outlook for Mac will follow in July.

Microsoft Teams: Queue sent messages when offline
- Next step to provide offline functionality in Microsoft Teams:
  - When attempting to send messages while offline, Teams will queue messages and send once a network connection is re-established.
  - If the message is in an unsent state for more than 24 hours, the message will fail and the user will be prompted to resend or delete the message.
- Availability date: June CY2020

Microsoft Teams: Channel info pane
- Selecting the “Channel info” icon in the channel header will display summary information related to that channel including the description, a list of recent contributors and members, as well as system messages.
- Availability date: June CY2020

Copy a Planner plan to an existing Group or Teams
- Copy a plan into another M365 group or Team
- Availability date: July CY2020

Yammer Communities now available in Teams Mobile apps
- Access all your Yammer communities from within the Teams mobiles app.
- Availability date: June CY2020

Outlook for iOS: Create task from an email message
- Create a task from an email message and have it sync with tasks in Microsoft 365
- Availability date: Q4 CY2020

Siegfried is a Microsoft MVP for Office Apps and Services. He has great expertise in Office 365 implementations with a special focus on Security, Messaging and Identity for international customers.

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Friday, June 5, 2020

The Practical 365 Weekly Update: Ep 31