The Message Center had some interesting announcements this month. We’ve highlighted some that we thought would be of interest to users below. They include the introduction of Microsoft Teams Premium, a new Viva Connections desktop experience, a new name for the Office app, and the introduction of Managed Environments for Power Platform. 

Announcing Microsoft Teams Premium 

Microsoft recently announced that they are soon releasing Microsoft Teams Premium, claiming that this new offering will make all meetings, from 1:1s and virtual appointments, to large meetings and webinars more personalized, intelligent, and secure. One thing that irritates us though is how Microsoft keeps taking existing services and features, giving them new names, and adding a price tag to them.  

When Teams Premium becomes available in February, it will include these existing features: 

• Live Translated captions 
• Custom Together mode scenes 
• Timeline markers in Teams meetings recordings (join/leave meetings) 
• Virtual Appointments: 
• SMS notifications 
• Organizational analytics in Admin Center 
• Scheduled queue view 

Learn more about Teams Premium here: Introducing Microsoft Teams Premium. 

New Home Experience for Viva Connections Desktop 

Sometime in 2023, Microsoft will be releasing a new, more intuitive desktop experience for Viva Connections. According to Microsoft, the new Viva Connections desktop design serves as a new home experience option that centers essential job tasks, personalized content, easy access to other Viva experiences. The new Viva release will better align with the mobile experience as well. If your organization already has Viva Connections set up, you’ll have the option to keep the existing desktop experiences, or to opt for the latest version. Here’s more information on the new Viva Connections home experience.  

The Office App Becomes the Microsoft 365 App 

At the Ignite conference back in October, Microsoft announced that the Office app for web (office.com), Windows, iOS, and Android will be rebranded to become the Microsoft 365 app. In the coming months, these apps will automatically update to reflect these changes, which will include a new icon, styling, and features. Although, we haven’t seen the change in our targeted release tenant yet, there are banners at the top of the Office app notifying users that the change is forthcoming. 

Along with all the existing features of the Office app, the Microsoft 365 app will now include:  

• Feed – a new page that uses intelligence from Microsoft Graph to surface relevant content based on who they work with and what they do. 
• Tagging (web and Windows only) – a new feature that helps users to individually group content with “tags” that they determine, regardless of where the content is stored. 
• Apps module – a new apps module connects users to Microsoft 365 apps beyond Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, including third-party apps that have integrated with Microsoft 365. 

What you need to do to prepare 

• Ensure that the microsoft365.com domain is added to the Allow list for your organization’s firewall to ensure the new domain is not blocked. Additional security configuration details are in Microsoft 365 endpoints documentation. 

• Update any internal documentation that references office.com or the Office app to refer to microsoft365.com or the Microsoft 365 app. 

Announcing Managed Environments for Microsoft Power Platform 

With the newly released Managed Environments, Admins will be able to use the latest industry-leading security, compliance, and governance capabilities for their Power Platform solutions. Below are the features that admins can expect with Managed Environments. However, it is important to Note – when Managed Environments are activated in an environment, all users running apps or flows in that environment must have a standalone Power Apps or Power Automate license. Learn more about Managed Environments. 

• Easy activation of Managed Environments with just a few clicks 
• More visibility and control, with less effort to manage all Power Platform assets 
• Weekly admin digest that provides proactive adoption insights, such as apps and flows that have not been active for a while and may need to be cleaned up 
• Easy-to-use sharing controls to limit how widely canvas apps can be shared. Admins can specify how many people an app can be shared with and block sharing with security groups if so desired 
• Easily see the list of Data Policies that apply to the selected Managed Environment 

 As always, there are a lot of things happening in Microsoft 365, so be sure to check out the Tech Community Blogs and the Microsoft 365 Roadmap for more of what’s new.   

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