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Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Share channel links in Teams and more
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Share channel links in Teams and more by John Callaham It's the first week of a new year, and that means the Microsoft 365 Roadmap site is back in full swing with a number of interesting upcoming new features. We have already reported that the roadmap claims Teams meetings will be added to Android Auto sometime in February, but there are even more future additions that have been listed on the roadmap for the last seven days. Microsoft Teams: Sharing channel links with others and more One feature that is coming in February 2024 for all Microsoft Teams users will make it easier to share content with others: Need to add your colleague to a channel discussion? Copy the link of a private or a shared channel, a channel post or one of its replies and share it with your partner, so they can join the discussion in one click. Another feature coming in February for PC, Mac and Web users will be helpful for Teams organizers when they need to make a new webinar: Organizers can schedule a new webinar by duplicating information from an existing scheduled one. This includes duplicating information such as details, presenters, theming, and more. The organizer can also edit and update the information as needed for the new event. Premium Teams town hall organizers on those same platforms will get another new feature in February that will help others who speak different languages. Town hall organizers will be able to select the caption languages that will be available to the attendees for translation. Currently the languages are preset for attendees to pick from; now organizers will be able to select the 10 translated languages available to attendees. There's another Teams town hall feature that's coming in February as well: Organizers can schedule a new webinar by duplicating information from an existing scheduled one. This includes duplicating information such as details, presenters, theming, and more. The organizer can also edit and update the information as needed for the new event. Finally, Android and iOS users will get a new feature later in January: Walkie Talkie, a push-to-talk experience that enables clear and secure voice communication over the cloud, enables teams to communicate instantly on a channel. Through this new functionality, users can now join up to 5 channels in multi-channel mode, easily switch between these preselected channels to listen to incoming transmission or initiate PTT transmissions. Other Microsoft 365 Roadmap additions: Stream translation features and more Microsoft Stream, the business-based web streaming service, will get a new transcription translation feature on the web in January: Make your content more inclusive by creating videos that your coworkers can easily view and understand in their primary language. Transcript translations in Stream (on SharePoint) give you the option to translate the transcript and closed captions of your Stream videos into more than 100 supported languages. To enable translations Admins must first setup billing using an Azure subscription, then they must be enable the feature in the M365 Admin center. Once enabled translations are billed via pay-as-you-go meters. SharePoint will also be getting font customization features in March on the web, and in June those same SharePoint users will be able to put in custom fonts and themes for their sites. In July, the new Outlook for Windows will let users add shared mailboxes as accounts. Also, the new To Do app will be available in Outlook in July as well. Finally, the Microsoft Forms site will get a revamped new user experience in May: Introducing an upgraded onboarding experience tailored for new Forms users, designed to provide a seamless and user-friendly initiation to the platform. Get started effortlessly with our refreshed interface and streamlined features. That's our rather extensive look at what's new on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. We will be back in another seven days with another look at updates on the site. -
You can now use your voice to dictate emails in the new Outlook for Windows and web apps
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
You can now use your voice to dictate emails in the new Outlook for Windows and web apps by John Callaham A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced a ton of features it plans to add to the recently launched new Windows version of its Outlook email client. One of those features was labeled "Dictaction". Today, the company revealed that the Dictate feature is now available in both the new Outlook for Windows app as well as the web version. In a post on the Microsoft 365 Insider site, the company stated: The Dictate feature removes typing constraints and harnesses the power of AI-backed voice commands to help you effortlessly articulate your messages. It currently supports over 50 languages and ensures your thoughts flow freely, transforming the way you communicate. In order to use the Dictate feature, you first either have to create a new email message or create a reply to a received email in Outlook. You then put the cursor in the body of that message, then select the Message option, and finally the Dictate selection. You should be able to use your PC's microphone to begin speaking. You will then be able to see your words on the Outlook email message. Microsoft does note some current known issues with the Outlook Dictate feature: Not all voice commands that are currently available in Outlook for Windows are available in the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web. For a list of supported commands, go to Dictate your emails in Outlook. Some supported languages are considered Preview languages and may have lower accuracy and/or limited punctuation support. To view the list of Preview languages, go to Dictate your emails in Outlook and view Spoken languages supported under More Information. The Dictation settings (currently available in Outlook for Windows), that allows users to enable auto-punctuation, choose a microphone, and disable the profanity filter, aren’t currently supported in the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web. The company added that Microsoft does not store any speech data, audio or transcription results from this feature. -
Microsoft reveals its Outlook Lite app for Android phones has had over 5 million downloads
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft reveals its Outlook Lite app for Android phones has had over 5 million downloads by John Callaham In August 2022, Microsoft launched the Outlook Lite email app for low-end Android smartphones. The idea was to give users of cheaper Android devices in select regions an email client that takes up much less storage compared to other email apps, while still offering fast performance, even for phones that connect to slower 2G cellular networks. Today, in a Microsoft blog post, the company announced that the Outlook Lite app has now exceeded 5 million downloads. The blog post also reveals some of the updates Microsoft has made to the Outlook Like app since it launched: We've been busy this past year, updating Outlook Lite with features you've asked for—like dark mode, multi-account support, and Google account integration. These are just a few highlights; we've also made lots of other improvements that add up to a big difference in the app's performance and experience. The blog post also mentions that the Outlook Lite development team listens to feedback from users of the app, adding, "So, please continue to share; your input is invaluable as we grow and improve." Here's a quick summary of the app's main features: Small – The lite app has a small download size and uses extremely low storage on your phone Fast - Optimized to run fast on all devices including devices with 1GB RAM Low Battery Usage - Light on your phone saving your battery All Networks - Works well even in 2G and 3G networks While the app was first launched in certain regions of the world, Outlook Lite is now available worldwide via the Google Play Store. Be aware that while the app is available in all markets, it currently does not support all Android devices. Also, not all of the app's features are available in all markets. For example, the app supports SMS messaging but only in India for now. -
Mailbird 3.0.4.0 by Razvan Serea Mailbird is more than just another email client. Unlike most of the competition, Mailbird is designed to change the way you manage your email, scheduling, tasks, communications, and beyond. However, it doesn’t require you to sign up for a bunch of new accounts and services. Instead, Mailbird lets you bring all your accounts onto one amazing looking platform where you can do everything in one place. Mailbird is packed with apps, features, shortcuts, and software upgrades optimized to boost your productivity and save you hours in your inbox. Other features include Email Snooze, Video Meetings and Speed Reader, and also Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Asana, Dropbox, Todoist, Google Calendar, Moo.do integration and more. Mailbird interface keeps your inbox looking zen, eliminates e-mail clutter with beautiful organization capabilities, and makes managing your e-mail a breeze. Features at a glance: Multi-account (Supports IMAP & POP3) Complete touch support Integrated messaging apps Integrated task management apps Unified Email Inbox Contact Manager Integrated calendar apps Dark Theme - Change between the Dark or Lite theme whenever you like. Mailbird 3.0.4.0 changelog: Fixed issue with downloading emails from dynadot.com. Fixed issue with the Contacts app merge contacts window crashing Mailbird. Fixed issue with the time part of a native calendar event being hard to see. Download: Mailbird 3.0.4.0 | Web Installer | 246.0 MB (Shareware) View: Mailbird Home Page | Mailbird Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
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The web version of Outlook will end activity-based authentication timeout support soon
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
The web version of Outlook will end activity-based authentication timeout support soon by John Callaham Microsoft 365 commercial users who get their emails from the web version of Outlook will soon see a long time feature go away. The company has announced that the activity-based authentication timeout option will no longer be available for Outlook web users, starting in January 2024. The reveal was made in a message posted this week to the private Microsoft 365 admin center, as reported by Petri. Microsoft now says that IT admins who are still using the activity-based authentication timeout feature should make the move to use the idle session timeout option that was launched for all Microsoft 365 web apps back in June 2022. The idle session timeout feature will allow Microsoft 365 admins to set specific times to sign out employees who use Outlook on the web after they don't access or use the web email client. Those same employees will then have to sign in again on their account. They will get a notification one minute before the feature kicks in to keep using Outlook so they don't have to sign in again. In theory, this new method should offer better security options for commercial users rather than the activity-based authentication timeout option. Petri does note that users must set up the browser they use to access the Outlook web client to accept third-party cookies. Also, users to access Outlook via Microsoft's own Edge browser have to set the browser's tracking prevention settings to the default Balance level. Microsoft recently revealed plans to update the new version of the Outlook app for Windows that was made generally available earlier this year. They include plans to add offline support, POP3 account support, Microsoft's Copilot generative AI support, auto-capitalization and much more. The app will also be getting some improvements in performance "ranging from focused optimizations to larger platform investments." -
New Outlook push and making sure Microsoft isn't storing my email on their servers
d3rf3l posted a topic in Microsoft (Windows)
PSA: Microsoft is pushing the web based Outlook to Windows users without giving the option to decline syncing email to their servers and keep using the existing clients. Hopefully the way around this (source) is to delete settings.json from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Migration without agreeing to sync contents when The New Outlook first launches. I have been happily using the built-in Mail application since Windows 8, when they added support for Email, Contacts and Calendar syncing with Google accounts, and have been doing my best to avoid The New Outlook like the plague it is. Not only Microsoft's replacement mail app is a ###### Electron wrapper for the online version, it comes with ads AND to work it requires everything to be synced to "The Microsoft Cloud", so instead of just Google reading through my email to advertise, I'd have to allow Microsoft to do so too. Up until now, this meant living with a new toggle in the toolbar and dismissing messages inviting me to to turn it on, but today was different: I got a message saying that on the next start of the Mail app I'd be moved to The New Outlook and I'd be able to toggle back afterwards, no option to refuse. At that point, I checked my installed apps and The New Outlook was there again (I had removed it once already when it first popped up). I then closed the Mail app, waited a bit, and tried to reopen it. Sure enough, the app closed itself immediately and launched The New Outlook, which is where things get interesting: on launch, the only thing displayed is a wizard asking to enable syncing content in the Gmail account to "The Microsoft Cloud", with no option to refuse except by creating a new Outlook.com account. The rest of the window is empty, with no toggle to go back to the old Mail app (I assume it only shows up in the main UI after the wizard is complete) After poking around a bit, I closed the app, without clicking the Continue button in the content sync dialog. Further attempts to launch Mail would repeat the same behaviour, basically locking me out of checking my own email. It was only by finding this support article that I found a way to have the old Mail app launch again - by deleting settings.json from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Migration At this point my worry is: did I actually prevent the syncing of my data to Microsoft's servers? Is there any way to check? If someone has gone through these steps, does the syncing need to be approved via Google's Oauth2 flow or does Microsoft just reuse the original authorization Windows gets when adding a Gmail account? -
Mailbird 3.0 by Razvan Serea Mailbird is more than just another email client. Unlike most of the competition, Mailbird is designed to change the way you manage your email, scheduling, tasks, communications, and beyond. However, it doesn’t require you to sign up for a bunch of new accounts and services. Instead, Mailbird lets you bring all your accounts onto one amazing looking platform where you can do everything in one place. Mailbird is packed with apps, features, shortcuts, and software upgrades optimized to boost your productivity and save you hours in your inbox. Other features include Email Snooze, Video Meetings and Speed Reader, and also Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Asana, Dropbox, Todoist, Google Calendar, Moo.do integration and more. Mailbird interface keeps your inbox looking zen, eliminates e-mail clutter with beautiful organization capabilities, and makes managing your e-mail a breeze. Features at a glance: Multi-account (Supports IMAP & POP3) Complete touch support Integrated messaging apps Integrated task management apps Unified Email Inbox Contact Manager Integrated calendar apps Dark Theme - Change between the Dark or Lite theme whenever you like. Mailbird 3.0 changelog: New Mailbird 3.0 with new design updates and improvements. Added block sender. Download: Mailbird 3.0 | Web Installer | 246.0 MB (Shareware) View: Mailbird Home Page | Mailbird Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
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Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Teams will add a way to archive channels and more
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Teams will add a way to archive channels and more by John Callaham It's Sunday, so its time to look back at what the Microsoft 365 Roadmap added to its ever growing list of upcoming features for its services. We've already reported that the roadmap showed Microsoft Teams will be adding a way to create custom backgrounds for channel announcements sometime in November, but that's not the only major thing the roadmap revealed this past week. Microsoft Teams - Archive old channels and more Microsoft Teams had quite a few new entries on the roadmap this week. One of them will roll out in December and will give web and desktop users a way to save some unused content. With Archive Channels, owners and administrators can archive channels that are no longer in use while preserving their content, including messages, files, and tabs. The archived channel is removed from the active teams and channels list and no more actions will be allowed. If needed, the channel can be restored. Another new Teams feature coming in December for Windows and Mac users will give frontline managers some extra features: In the Shifts app, we are rolling out the ability for frontline manager to control additional functionalities through our Shifts settings page. Frontline managers will gain the ability to enable and disable swap shift request, offer shift request and/or time off requests for their teams. In February 2024, Microsoft Teams will be replacing its current "Recording & Transcription" tab on Windows, Mac, and the web: Now, the “Recap” tab for scheduled meetings will include access to the recording and transcript. For meetings that have a “Recap” tab, the previous “Recording & Transcription” tab will be removed since the “Recap” tab will replace it. For meetings that don’t have a “Recap” tab, users can continue to access the recording and transcript from the “Recording & Transcription” tab. Teams will also roll out a user interface update to its in-call user experience in December for its iOS and Android apps. Microsoft Outlook - Sort emails by category and more The Microsoft 365 roadmap states that in December, Outlook users on the web and desktop will gain new email sorting features: This feature allows users to sort their emails by categories in inbox and other folders. It will help users stay focused and organized by allowing them to group related emails together directly in the message list. This update will be available in the new Outlook for Windows and web. Later this month, Outlook web users will get a new feature related to Teams: Teams embedded chat in Outlook web allows users to stay on top of their chats without leaving Outlook. Come back next Sunday for yet another Microsoft 365 Roadmap weekly roundup. -
Mailbird 2.9.92 by Razvan Serea Mailbird is more than just another email client. Unlike most of the competition, Mailbird is designed to change the way you manage your email, scheduling, tasks, communications, and beyond. However, it doesn’t require you to sign up for a bunch of new accounts and services. Instead, Mailbird lets you bring all your accounts onto one amazing looking platform where you can do everything in one place. Mailbird is packed with apps, features, shortcuts, and software upgrades optimized to boost your productivity and save you hours in your inbox. Other features include Email Snooze, Video Meetings and Speed Reader, and also Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Asana, Dropbox, Todoist, Google Calendar, Moo.do integration and more. Mailbird interface keeps your inbox looking zen, eliminates e-mail clutter with beautiful organization capabilities, and makes managing your e-mail a breeze. Features at a glance: Multi-account (Supports IMAP & POP3) Complete touch support Integrated messaging apps Integrated task management apps Unified Email Inbox Contact Manager Integrated calendar apps Dark Theme - Change between the Dark or Lite theme whenever you like. Mailbird 2.9.92 changelog: Improved styling and performance. Fixed an issue with downloading emails from dynadot.com. Fixed issue with some contacts with avatar images not being exported when exporting to vCard. Fixed issue where the first attempt to move a conversation from a folder after starting Mailbird would see it come back, for Yandex and other servers that doesn't support Message-ID search. Fixed issue with Calendar or Contacts sync not working due to a persistent error. Download: Mailbird 2.9.92 | Web Installer | 228.0 MB (Shareware) View: Mailbird Home Page | Mailbird Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
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Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Outlook message reminders for Mac users and more
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Outlook message reminders for Mac users and more by John Callaham It's been a fairly quiet week on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap website. However, there were a few interesting additions, especially if you use the Outlook email client. Outlook - Message reminder improvements for Mac and more The roadmap shows that Outlook on the Mac will get some message reminder improvements starting in January 2024: When Outlook identifies that a user could have forgotten to respond to or follow up on an email message, it could bring that email back to the top of the inbox, marking it needing an action. A maximum of one email message can be brought to the top of the user's inbox at a time. Mac Outlook users will also get another new feature in October: Sent messages in the conversation mode can be hidden by updating the settings to exclude them in the conversation mode. Another new addition that will roll out in November 2024 will add some more control for admins ffor sharing Outlook emails and calendar content with others at work. Outlook on the Web and the new Outlook for Windows provides users with the ability to share mail and calendar with other users at different permission levels. This feature provides admins with the ability to use Office Policy setting "Turn off sharing recommendation" to prevent users from sharing folders. Microsoft Teams - Private line and more Microsoft Teams users on the desktop will get a new Private Line feature sometime in November: With private line, users will be able to have a private second phone number that they can make available to a select set of callers to call them directly, bypassing delegates, admins, or assistants. Inbound calls to the private line will be distinguished by a unique notification and ringtone. The private line will support incoming calls only. The Together mode for Teams on the desktop and the Mac will be improved in December: With the new layout, Together mode will be displayed under the shared content. The users will be able to see the participants in Together mode and shared content simultaneously in a completely new way. Full Together mode experience is available including raised hands, reactions and name labels. That's it for this week's look at the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. Come back in seven days for another roundup -
Just like OneDrive, Microsoft says New Outlook for Windows will work without internet too
hellowalkman posted a topic in Front Page News
Just like OneDrive, Microsoft says New Outlook for Windows will work without internet too by Sayan Sen A couple of weeks ago, we reported about new offline features Microsoft has been working on for OneDrive. The improvement is intended to allow users to carry out certain tasks even without an internet connection. Although we do not have all the details of this upcoming feature, it seems to be different from the currently available OneDrive sync app, as it appears to be a solution involving the web. Offline OneDrive was among the several other features we noted on our Microsoft 365 roadmap weekly. Microsoft is now working on offline support for the new Outlook for Windows as well, which was recently released to the public. This is one of the several new features Microsoft had in store for us for the 23H2 feature update but has instead been released early. On the Microsoft 365 roadmap, under the feature ID 178030, Microsoft has added this new item which will allow users to view mail, calendar events, and contacts as they will be stored offline locally on your device automatically. Additionally, mail actions like composing, flagging, moving, and deleting will work too. The feature was added earlier today and it is set to start rolling out next month. On the description of the new item it says: Outlook: The new Outlook for Windows - Offline support for mail actions and compose The first set of offline capabilities in the new Outlook for Windows. Mail, calendar events, and contacts will be stored on your device, so you can view them even when you're not connected to the internet. Additionally, you can perform key actions on your mail, including flag, move, and delete, and compose messages, to stay productive even when you're not connected to the internet. The option will be a welcome addition since Microsoft 365 services including Outlook often experience outages, with the most recent one being earlier this month. -
Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Outlook web dictation support, Teams branded meetings and more
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Outlook web dictation support, Teams branded meetings and more by John Callaham It was a busy week for all sorts of Microsoft news and updates, including the reveal that the new Outlook for Windows email app is now generally available for individual consumer users. However, there were plenty of other upcoming features to Outlook and apps that were revealed in this week's update of the Microsoft 365 Roadmap website. Outlook - Dictation support for the web app and more The new Outlook for Windows app may have hit the GA stage for individual users, but Microsoft still has plans to add new features in the coming weeks. One listed on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap shows that users will be able to dictate emails in the web version soon: Dictation lets you use speech-to-text to author messages in Outlook with a microphone and reliable internet connection. It's a quick and easy way to draft emails, send replies, and capture the tone you're going for. The web version of Outlook will also get a new feedback experience: The feedback entry point for Outlook for Web will be moving from the bottom of the Help pane to the Help tab of the ribbon, for ease of discovery. A streamlined experience, diagnostics log collection and the ability to add screenshots and video make it easier and quicker for users to describe their feedback and helps Microsoft act on it. Also, users can search for information related to their feedback, including updates on features under development, workarounds for problems and how-to from Help. This change obeys the general Feedback policy. Also, the iOS version of Outlook will soon be able to expand or collapse its nested mail folders and the Android version will soon add a notification if your get an "@mention" in an email, document or loop. All of these features will begin to roll out in October. Teams - Branded launcher screen support for Premium users and more If your company has a Microsoft Teams Premium subscription, they will be able to launch their own Teams launcher screen on the Desktop and Mac starting in November. The Teams Join Launcher web page will now support the brand logo and brand image uploaded for branded meetings. This is a Teams Premium feature. Premium users on the desktop and Mac will also get some new meeting controls in October: We are launching an out-of-the-box template that can be useful when meeting with external participants. The controlled-content meeting template has preset defaults for meeting options to provide tight controls over lobby bypass, who can present, allowing chat in lobby/in-meeting, and who can record. The new Teams 2.0 version will add a new error message in November: Microsoft Teams Meeting users will be notified directly through the error message for why they cannot access meeting chats when their chat access is limited by policy or due to system limitations and unexpected errors. Sharepoint List templates The Sharepoint app will get a new feature in October: We are bringing the goodness of List templates to SharePoint document libraries. Creating document libraries will now be a breeze with our ready-made templates with scenario relevant content, structure, metadata, and content types - all to save you time and maintain broader consistency across your content management organization. Stay tuned as we will post major Microsoft 365 Roadmap updates every Sunday. -
The new Outlook for Windows email app is now generally available for personal use
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
The new Outlook for Windows email app is now generally available for personal use by John Callaham Microsoft has just announced that the new Outlook for Windows email app is now generally available for personal email accounts. The new versions of the app has been available in a public preview version since May 2022. You can now download the app on the Microsoft Store. In a blog post, Microsoft added that the new Outlook will be preinstalled on all new PCs that have the Windows 11 23H2 version installed as well, along with some PCs that will upgrade to 23H2. Microsoft had already hinted the new Outlook app might be installed with the Windows 11 23H2 update. For people who are still using the Mail and Calendar apps for Windows 10, the toggle to try out the new Outlook is still available. The Mail and Calendar apps will eventually be replaced completely with the new Outlook Windows app. The blog has some info on the new and improved features in the new Outlook Windows app: With My Day view, you can see your upcoming calendar events and tasks anywhere in Outlook. Package delivery and upcoming travel dates are also automatically added to your calendar from your email confirmations, and view the weather forecast in your calendar at any time. You can pin emails to the top of your inbox so they are easy to find later, snooze emails to temporarily hide them and then have them reappear when you’re ready to respond, and get reminders to follow up on important conversations. Schedule email sends to deliver at the best time for the recipient, or undo a sent email within ten seconds. Use the sweep function to clean up your inbox quickly by setting advanced inbox rules for incoming mails. For commercial users, the new Outlook for Windows app is still available as a public preview and will become generally available sometime in the future. -
Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: OneDrive offline mode, Outlook time zone scheduling and more
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: OneDrive offline mode, Outlook time zone scheduling and more by John Callaham The suite of productivity apps and services that Microsoft creates and updates are all under the Microsoft 365 umbrella. The company also has its own online Microsoft 365 Roadmap that's constantly updated with plans to roll out new features, both big and small, to these apps and services. In this first of what we hope is a regular weekly column, we will report on the new additions and updates that have been made to the Microsoft 365 roadmap over the past seven days. OneDrive Offline support One new update to the roadmap we have already reported on this week is the plan to offer access to OneDrive files while users are offline. The listing stated users will be able to " launch OneDrive in your browser and view, sort, rename, move, copy, delete and files even without internet access." At the moment, the plan is to launch a preview of this feature in November, followed by an official rollout in December. Outlook to add scheduling across different time zones; pasting in plain text for iOS users The roadmap shows a few new features coming to Outlook. One will help organizers of meetings that have people working in a number of different time zones. When scheduling a meeting with people in different time zones, the organizer will be prompted with additional insights regarding each participant's respective time zone. The Scheduling Assistant will now help find a time that works for meeting participants across time zones. That feature will roll out later in September. Another feature, which is due out in October, is specifically for iOS Outlook users. They will soon be able to paste in plain text to get rid of any special formatting. Another update that's coming in October will see Outlook's Scheduling assistant moved over to the app's toolbar. Microsoft says this will "reduce clicks" and create "a more seamless scheduling experience. Microsoft Teams Premium to add engagement information and more The Microsoft 365 roadmap shows that Teams Premium organizers will soon be able to get more data about meetings. The listing states: Enables meeting organizers to view meeting engagement data such as total reactions, raised hands, cameras turned on, and more in the ‘Attendance’ tab after a meeting. That feature is due to roll out in October. Another feature that's due to roll out in the same month is for developers who want to add Large Language Models into Team-based apps. The listing states: The Teams AI library offers developers a suite of code functionalities designed to ease the integration of Large Language Models, empowering them to build rich, conversational Teams apps. It simplifies the process of creating Bots and Message Extensions, as well as interactions with Adaptive Cards for conversational experiences. Additionally, the Teams AI library also aids the migration of existing Bots, Message Extensions, and Adaptive Card functionalities with seamless integration with Large Language Models. More updates for Edge and others The Microsoft 365 roadmap also states that in October, there will be changes for getting update alerts in Microsoft Edge: Getting alerts on available Edge Updates will come from Browser Essentials instead of the Settings page for better visibility and experience. Also, the Microsoft 365 app for web and desktop commercial users will get a new tagging feature in September: Tagging in the Microsoft 365 and web and desktop apps is a new, intuitive way for commercial users to organize their work independent of where files are stored. Find the new 'Tags' feature in the 'My Content' section of the Microsoft 365 App. This feature is only available to users who have OneDrive provisioned. Keep in mind that all of these Microsoft 365 roadmap rollout and preview dates are subject to change and delays. -
Microsoft might automatically install the new Outlook on your Windows 11 23H2 PC
hellowalkman posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft might automatically install the new Outlook on your Windows 11 23H2 PC by Sayan Sen Back in May of 2022, Microsoft began testing a new, redesigned, and revamped Outlook where the idea was to unify the app across all platforms, which is why it was often referred to as "One Outlook". The name of this project was named "Monarch". And by April of this year, Microsoft began rolling out the preview to the Current channel users as well. The "Try the New Outlook for Windows" toggle was still present which meant users still had the choice of whether they wanted to move to the revamped Outlook or if they wanted to continue using the Windows 32-bit version. With the latest Beta channel Windows 11 build, however, Microsoft has now begun pushing the New Outlook to Windows Insiders as well. Twitter user and Windows enthusiast PhantomOcean3 noticed that their Beta channel build 22631.2338 (KB5030305) automatically installed the new Outlook after a reboot: Looks like the new Outlook for Windows app might be automatically installed for you after updating to 22631.2338. I didn't go and download it myself, yet here it is. pic.twitter.com/MUdoSA3sKu — PhantomOcean3 💙💛 (@PhantomOfEarth) September 12, 2023 A poll was also conducted on Twitter by the same user and although very few people voted in this (only 26 at the time of writing), it looks like some of them, around ~15.5% also received the new Outlook client. If you've updated to 22631.2338, were the new Outlook for Windows app and/or Dev Home automatically installed after an additional reboot? — PhantomOcean3 💙💛 (@PhantomOfEarth) September 12, 2023 In response to this, Brandon LeBlanc, the Senior Program Manager of the Windows Insider Program, confirmed that this was expected on, at least, some systems which means Microsoft might be testing the feature for an automatic installation with the Windows 11 23H2 feature update, though it will likely be a gradual rollout. This follows a recent report that suggested Microsoft 365 users would be automatically migrated to the new client starting August 2023. In some cases, this is expected. — Brandon LeBlanc (@brandonleblanc) September 12, 2023 Microsoft has already confirmed that Windows 11 version 23H2 is arriving in Q4 of this year, and since the end of support for 21H2 is close to that, the company has said it will force-update PCs with the latter to Windows 11 22H2, though chances of that being 23H2 are also there. However, this could also mean that the company is testing the new Outlook for Windows 11 23H2 in general as it does aim to eventually replace the classic Outlook in about a year's time. -
If you cannot access Microsoft 365, you are not alone as many are reporting it is down
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
If you cannot access Microsoft 365, you are not alone as many are reporting it is down by John Callaham It looks like some Microsoft 365 customers are unable to access the online productivity service. The Downdetector site (via Windows Central) currently shows a huge spike in reports of outages that started around 6 a.m. Eastern time but really started becoming more widespread around 8 a.m. So far, the company's Microsoft 365 Status account on X (formerly Twitter) has not mentioned any issues. If the account does offer an update we will post about it. Microsoft experienced a major worldwide outage back in early June for many of its online services, including Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive. It was later revealed that the outage was caused by a massive DDoS cyberattack aimed at the company. Other online services got hit with brief outages later this summer, including Microsoft 365 services later in June, followed by issues with signing into Microsoft Teams. The most recent issue came up in July when the company said people were experiencing issues with accessing SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. That problem was resolved in a few hours. Hopefully, Microsoft will issue some kind of update on its X account and let folks who use Microsoft 365 a lot what might be going on with the service this time and a timeline on when today's problems might be solved. Update 5:20 pm Eastern time: The reports of Microsoft 365 downtime on the Downdetector site have since dropped to well below their highest levels today. However, they are still above average for these kinds of reports, according to the site's stats. Microsoft still has not offered any info on what caused many users to not be able to access the Microsoft 365 service today. Hopefully, the company will offer some sort of explanation in the coming days over this latest outage of its productivity online app service. -
Microsoft offers an update on the release of the new Outlook for Windows
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft offers an update on the release of the new Outlook for Windows by John Callaham In 2022, Microsoft started testing a new version of Outlook for Windows for Microsoft 365 Insiders. In 2023, it started rolling out this new version as a public preview. Now Microsoft is getting ready to transition users from the older Outlook clients to the new Windows version. Microsoft Outlook team members discussed plans for the new Windows version in an extended video posted on the Microsoft 365 YouTube channel. The video featured Robert Navitsky, the Partner Director of Engineering for the Outlook team along with Margie Clinton, who is Microsoft's Principal Group Product Manager for that same team. One of the goals of the new Outlook for Windows, according to Clinton, is to develop one code base that can be used to cover different platforms, rather than a separate code base for the "classic" Windows 32-bit app, the web version, and the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 10. Clinton stated: And that is what an illustration and example of what we envision is a single Outlook that is scalable, flexible and customizable to be one offering that can work for every Windows user and it is consistent across all the different kinds of use cases that we would have. The new Outlook for Windows will have a number of new features, along with some features that were available in Outlook on the web but were not included in the classic Windows app or the Windows 10 Mail and Calendar apps. Clinton stated: So things like being able to add all of your account types, being able to have the ribbon customization that I was showing you, being able to use categories and other things like calendar layouts to be able to tune how it looks for you as well as productivity. Things that people really love, For example, schedule, send e-mail, or one of the favorite ones that is called out as people really loving and I personally love it as well. It's being able to pin important items to the top of your mailbox. So it sits up there until you go and get it taken care of. The feedback from people who have used the public preview of Outlook for Windows is very important, according to Clinton. Much of that feedback will be added to the new app, including features like third-party account support, offline use, and much more. Navitsky went over exactly when the new Outlook will replace the "classic" Windows 32-bit app. He stated: We like to give at least one year's notice between the notification and the actual disruptive change. Right now the Outlook team is getting close to sending out that notification but they are still taking feedback from users. Also, the timeline for replacing the classic Windows Outlook with the new Outlook will be different than the timeline for replacing the Mail and Calendar Windows 10 apps with the new Outlook for Windows. There's a lot more information in the video so you should check it out to get the full skinny on Microsoft's plans to deploy the new Outlook for Windows app. -
Microsoft plans to bring native translation to Outlook Web soon
Qblade_ posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft plans to bring native translation to Outlook Web soon by Mehrotra A Microsoft is working on a new feature that will bring native email translation to Outlook Web really soon. The feature is already available for Outlook apps on Windows and Mac, and will soon make its way to web as well. The Redmond giant recently updated the Microsoft 365 Roadmap page to include the Translator for Outlook Web entry. In Outlook, you can translate words, phrases, and full messages when you need them. You can also set Outlook to automatically translate messages you receive in other languages. When you receive an email message in another language, you'll see a prompt at the top of the message asking if you'd like Outlook to translate it into your preferred language. Microsoft will offer multiple ways in which users can translate an email on Outlook on the Web. These include using the native translator on the top or translating specific words or sentences by selecting text in the email. Microsoft notes that it will add a prompt at the top asking users if they want the email to be translated. It will also offer options such as always translate an email and never translate an email to record user preferences for the future. Once translated, Outlook will cache the data for 15 days so the user doesn't have to translate the email again and can see the translated version on the go. In the message, select Translate message. Outlook replaces the message text with translated text, and this translation is cached for 15 days—which means you don't need to translate the same message twice. After you've translated the message, you can select Show original to see the message in the original language or Turn on automatic translation to always translate messages to your preferred language. In the message, select Never translate. Outlook won't ask you if you'd like to translate messages in that language in the future. The Roadmap entry notes that Microsoft plans to release the new feature in September 2023. However, the company has not offered a confirmed date. We expect the feature to roll out in phases so you may not see it right away. Once rolled out, you should be able to use the feature on Outlook on the Web. If for some reason you don't see the Translate option in the email, you can manually translate the email using the Translate option in the Home ribbon. You can also navigate to Home > Translate > Translation Preferences to change the settings as well as set your preferred language. -
Microsoft Outlook meeting organizers are finally identified in Google Calendar
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft Outlook meeting organizers are finally identified in Google Calendar by John Callaham Sometimes, it's difficult to get two apps that are very similar to each other to work together. Such is the case for Microsoft Outlook and its calendar feature with Google Calendar. This week, Google announced a change that should make things a little easier for people who prefer to use Outlook. In a post on the Google Workspace blog, the company revealed a small but still significant change in how Calendar works with Outlook. It stated: Previously, if a Microsoft Outlook user invited a Google Calendar user to a meeting event, the Outlook user’s display name would not appear at all in the list of meeting attendees on Google Calendar. Starting today, we’re updating this experience so that the Outlook user who organized the meeting is listed amongst the other meeting attendees in Calendar as the meeting organizer. Again, this is a fairly small change on Google's side of the equation. However, it's a big help for Outlook users who want to invite Google Calendar users to online meetings and show they are the person who organized the meeting. The new feature is slowly rolling out for both Google Workspace customers and anyone who has a personal Google Account. The new Outlook organizer meeting feature should be available to all Google Calendar users in two weeks or so. Admins don't need to do anything to enable this feature; it will be updated automatically. This new Microsoft Outlook-Google Calendar feature comes even as Microsoft is preparing to roll out its new Outlook for Windows app to replace the current Mail and Calendar apps for Windows 10 and 11. Microsoft has already indicated it will start the change to the new Outlook Windows app sometime in late August 2023. Those users will have the option of switching back to the Mail and Calendar apps, if they want. However, Microsoft plans to completely get rid of those apps in favor of the new Outlook for Windows sometime in late 2024. -
Outlook 365 missing "replied to this email..." message
WiltshireHam posted a question in Software Discussion & Support
I've just noticed that the "you replied to this email on..." message has disappeared from emails I've replied to. It's a bit annoying as i now need to trawl through my sent items mailbox to make sure that i have actually replied to an email. Is this a bug? Is anyone else having this issue? Cheers, Pete -
Following broken links, Microsoft issues workaround for Outlook's slow network save bug
hellowalkman posted a topic in Front Page News
Following broken links, Microsoft issues workaround for Outlook's slow network save bug by Sayan Sen Earlier today, Microsoft updated its Windows health dashboard webpage to inform users about a recent Outlook 2013 and 2016 issue it resolved. The issue would prevent users from opening links inside Outlook mail. While the problem was already addressed previously, Microsoft decided to post it on its issues page as it may have been affecting a lot of users. Alongside that, Microsoft also provided a workaround for another problem on Outlook. Currently, the Microsoft 365 service is exhibiting slow performance when it comes to saving attachments on the network. In its support article, the tech company describes the issue alongside its workaround: ISSUE When Outlook is configured to save attachments by default to a network path, the following dialog can be seen for a while before the ‘Save As’ dialog finally loads: This is known to be happening in M365 Apps starting from the following builds: Current Channel: Version 2304 (Build 16327.20214) Monthly Enterprise Channel: Version 2304 (Build 16327.20324) STATUS: WORKAROUND The Outlook, Office, and Windows Teams are currently investigating the issue. We will update this topic as soon as there are any updates. If you urgently need to workaround the issue or need a way to confirm the issue applies, use the following steps: Rollback the M365 Apps for a previous build: How to revert to an earlier version of Office. Set the WebClient service Startup type to Disabled through Windows Services: Open services.msc from Run (Win+R). Find the WebClient service and open its properties. Stop the service and change the Startup type to Disabled. You may find more details on the issue on the support page itself on Microsoft's site. -
KB5002427, KB5002432: Microsoft resolves issue that broke Outlook Hyperlink URL opening
hellowalkman posted a topic in Front Page News
KB5002427, KB5002432: Microsoft resolves issue that broke Outlook Hyperlink URL opening by Sayan Sen Microsoft's July Patch Tuesday updates (KB5028166 on Windows 10, KB5028185 on Windows 11) were released on the 11th of the month. Aside from security fixes, the monthly updates brought in some good things like a stuttering bug fix, though major problems were there too, something which is not all that uncommon. Microsoft also rolled out Office security updates alongside these. The ones for Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016, KB5002432 and KB5002427 respectively, broke a functionality where clicked URLs would not launch and display an error message or a security notice pop-up. In its support article. Microsoft explains: When you click on links in emails in Outlook Desktop where the path is to a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or IP address you may see the following: An Outlook warning dialog with the error “Something unexpected went wrong with this URL” Silent failure for the untrusted file. Microsoft has also provided a way to resolve the issue which essentially involves adding those URLs to the Trusted sites zone in Windows Settings: In order to ensure continued access to files on FQDN or IP address paths add those URLs to the Trusted Sites zone in accordance with Windows guidance, Intranet site is identified as an Internet site when you use an FQDN or an IP address. Go to Windows Settings. Search for and open Internet Options. Click the Security tab, then select Trusted Sites. Add the URL, UNC, FQDN path that you want to allow to "Add this website to the zone". For example, add file://server.usa.corp.com There are a couple of things to note regarding this workaround: Warning: This workaround may make a computer or a network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. Make sure the FQDN or IP address you add to Trusted Sites is a valid URL path for your company or network. Note: If the entry you wish to add does not explicitly start with ‘https:’, you must first uncheck the ‘Require server verification (https) for all sites in this zone’ checkbox before it can be saved. You can find the official support article here. -
Some Microsoft 365 users will be automatically migrated to the new Outlook in late August
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
Some Microsoft 365 users will be automatically migrated to the new Outlook in late August by John Callaham In mid June, Microsoft revealed that the new Outlook for Windows would start to replace the current Mail and Calendar apps for Windows 10 and 11 in September 2024. After receiving backlash from many Microsoft 365 users about this time frame, the company backtracked a bit, and a few days later said the new Outlook would replace the Mail and Calendar apps sometime before the end of 2024, without revealing a specific date. However, it looks like at least a portion of Microsoft 365 subscribers are going to be automatically migrated from using Mail and Calendar to the new Outlook much sooner than the end of 2024. Petri reports that, according to a message in the internal Microsoft 365 Admin Center, some users will get switched over in a matter of weeks. The message, as replicated by Petri, stated: In late August of 2023, Microsoft will also begin a process of auto-migrating Mail & Calendar app users to the new Outlook for Windows with an option to go back if they choose. Users can go back to the current Mail and Calendar apps by clicking the toggle in the new Outlook for Windows. The message added that Microsoft 365 users should see more and more notifications in the Mail and Calendar apps that they will officially shut down by the end of 2024. There's no word as to why Microsoft is pushing for Microsoft 365 users to switch from the Mail and Calendar apps to the new Outlook well ahead of the shutdown of the older apps. Even though users can switch back from the new Outlook to the current Mail and Calendar apps, it would appear that the company is trying to get its customers ready over a year ahead of the sunset for the Mail and Calendar apps. Microsoft did add that these moves will not affect users of the classic Outlook desktop app. -
Microsoft offers more info on how Chinese hackers got access to government email accounts
John Callaham posted a topic in Front Page News
Microsoft offers more info on how Chinese hackers got access to government email accounts by John Callaham Last week, Microsoft reported that a group of Chinese hackers got access to government email accounts in the US and Europe. Specifically, the hacker group entered email accounts that were using Microsoft's Outlook Web Access in Exchange Online and also on Outlook.com. In a follow-up blog post, Microsoft offered some more details about how this group, known as Storm-0558, managed to gain access to these accounts using the company's online system. Microsoft stated: Storm-0558 acquired an inactive MSA consumer signing key and used it to forge authentication tokens for Azure AD enterprise and MSA consumer to access OWA and Outlook.com. All MSA keys active prior to the incident – including the actor-acquired MSA signing key – have been invalidated. Azure AD keys were not impacted. The method by which the actor acquired the key is a matter of ongoing investigation. Though the key was intended only for MSA accounts, a validation issue allowed this key to be trusted for signing Azure AD tokens. This issue has been corrected. The blog also explains how the hacker group used this signing key to gain access to the web version of Outlook: Once authenticated through a legitimate client flow leveraging the forged token, the threat actor accessed the OWA API to retrieve a token for Exchange Online from the GetAccessTokenForResource API used by OWA. The actor was able to obtain new access tokens by presenting one previously issued from this API due to a design flaw. This flaw in the GetAccessTokenForResourceAPI has since been fixed to only accept tokens issued from Azure AD or MSA respectively. The actor used these tokens to retrieve mail messages from the OWA API. As part of its efforts to fix this issue, Microsoft has made some changes in its procedures: This includes increased isolation of the systems, refined monitoring of system activity, and moving to the hardened key store used for our enterprise systems. We have revoked all previously active keys and issued new keys using these updated systems. Our active investigation indicates these hardening and isolation improvements disrupt the mechanisms we believe the actor could have used to acquire MSA signing keys. Microsoft says no action is needed from its Outlook web customers as it claims "all actor activity related to this incident has been blocked." It added that it will "continue to monitor Storm-0558 activity and implement protections for our customers. -
Mailbird 2.9.83 by Razvan Serea Mailbird is more than just another email client. Unlike most of the competition, Mailbird is designed to change the way you manage your email, scheduling, tasks, communications, and beyond. However, it doesn’t require you to sign up for a bunch of new accounts and services. Instead, Mailbird lets you bring all your accounts onto one amazing looking platform where you can do everything in one place. Mailbird is packed with apps, features, shortcuts, and software upgrades optimized to boost your productivity and save you hours in your inbox. Other features include Email Snooze, Video Meetings and Speed Reader, and also Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Asana, Dropbox, Todoist, Google Calendar, Moo.do integration and more. Mailbird interface keeps your inbox looking zen, eliminates e-mail clutter with beautiful organization capabilities, and makes managing your e-mail a breeze. Features at a glance: Multi-account (Supports IMAP & POP3) Complete touch support Integrated messaging apps Integrated task management apps Unified Email Inbox Contact Manager Integrated calendar apps Dark Theme - Change between the Dark or Lite theme whenever you like. Mailbird 2.9.83 changelog: Improved styling and performance. Fixed issue where the Contacts app didn't select the appropriate account to add contacts to. Download: Mailbird 2.9.83 | Web Installer | 228.0 MB (Shareware) View: Mailbird Home Page | Mailbird Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
