- Retirement of Tag Function in Microsoft 365 Apps: Microsoft retired the “Tags” characteristic in Microsoft 365 apps between Jan. 6, 2025, and Jan. 10, 2025. Customers can now not view or apply tags.
- Workplace 365 Connectors Retirement from Microsoft Groups: Homeowners of webhook-based Workplace 365 connectors in Groups should replace their URLs to a brand new construction by January 31, 2025 to keep away from service disruptions; all webhook-based connectors should be up to date to proceed posting messages in Groups. Microsoft recommends migrating webhooks to the Groups Workflow app.
- The O365 Connectors service can be retired on the finish of 2025.
- Microsoft Viva Interact: Retirement of Personal Unlisted Teams in Exterior Networks as of Monday, Jan. 13. “After this date, customers will now not be capable to create, export, entry, or take part in unlisted teams inside exterior networks,” the weblog famous.
- As of Tuesday, Jan. 14, The PowerPoint QuickStarter Function can be fully retired.
- Alert notifications characteristic in Microsoft Defender for Identification can be retired this week.
- Viva matters, the weblog stated, can be “discontinued on Feb. 22 and Microsoft will now not pursue new characteristic enhancements for the platform.
- Microsoft formally deprecated the Azure AD and MSOnline PowerShell modules in March 2024. Nevertheless, they are going to stay useful till March 30, 2025, with assist restricted to essential safety fixes.
- Beginning in late January 2025, any OneDrive accounts left unlicensed for greater than 90 days can be robotically archived, hitting clients with further prices to regain entry in Microsoft Archive. They are going to be charged $0.05 per GB per thirty days to retailer unlicensed OneDrive content material and $0.60 per GB to reactivate the account within the Microsoft 365 archive. Microsoft recommends both deleting these accounts or assigning them a license.
- Beginning subsequent month, the weblog stated, “Microsoft will take away the ‘Monitor’ motion within the Protected Attachments coverage. Any present insurance policies set to ‘Monitor’ can be robotically modified to ‘Block.’ The recipients, standing, or precedence configured within the coverage will stay unchanged.”
These strikes adopted the deprecation of the legacy Groups consumer in March 2024 (with its finish of availability scheduled for July 1, 2025), which Roberts stated “had extra to do with effectivity than with aesthetics. They’ve moved off of Electron and AngularJS [development platforms] to WebView2 and React. That is meant to enhance efficiency, responsiveness, and optimization. Principally, that is Microsoft cleansing up its technical debt.”
That’s, he stated, “one of many advantages of a SaaS atmosphere, and whereas it may be a little bit of a ache for customers to make the transition, the previous and new Groups are related sufficient that the change administration train shouldn’t be overwhelming. They’ve to chop over sooner or later; in any other case, they’re left sustaining a fractured atmosphere, which is finally not likely useful to anybody in the long run.”
The march to the cloud, stated Roberts, “continues with the finish of assist for M365 Apps assist on Home windows Server 2016/2019 and the tip of assist for the legacy Workplace 2016 and 2019 merchandise [which takes effect in October of this year]. I don’t suppose anybody is stunned that they might make this selection. Microsoft loves recurring income. I think about most company shoppers are already M365 clients, however for individuals who are holding out, this might complicate issues from a safety and have perspective.”
