M365 Roundup, August 2023: GDAP Deadlines, Protected Actions, Python in Excel

August 2023 is a deadlines month for partners. Microsoft's GDAP transition machinery picked up speed, with DAP ending for new customers on September 25, 2023 and two legacy automation surfaces (Azure AD Graph and the old Exchange Online client ID) heading for retirement. On the security side, Conditional Access for protected actions reached general availability, and on the fun side, Python arrived inside Excel. Everything that matters, grouped by product, starting with the items that have dates attached.

Partner Center: the GDAP clock is running#

Milestone reminders from Microsoft's August 2023 announcements:

• DAP-to-GDAP transition is underway. Microsoft has begun transitioning DAP relationships to GDAP roles. Partners receive nine roles (opens in new tab) as part of the Microsoft-led transition, granted for a one-year duration. The GDAP FAQ (opens in new tab) covers the details of this milestone.
• New customers stop getting DAP on September 25, 2023. From that date, Microsoft grants default GDAP with specific roles (opens in new tab) instead of DAP when a customer is created.
• The bulk migration tool runs through the end of November 2023. Partners still holding DAP relationships have a closing window to convert them on their own terms.

Coming soon, per the same announcement:

• GDAP auto-extend. In October 2023, Microsoft launches the ability to extend existing GDAP relationships by six months, with details to follow in September.
• Azure AD Graph retirement. Azure AD Graph will be retired shortly, with no further investment and no SLA or maintenance commitment beyond security fixes. All new feature investment goes to Microsoft Graph, and all partners must move their code. See the retirement announcement (opens in new tab).
• Exchange Online automation change. The legacy Exchange Online public client ID (app ID a0c73c16-a7e3-4564-9a95-2bdf47383716) will be retired shortly. Any code incorporating the legacy public client or the Partner Center PowerShell module will stop functioning. Going forward, partners and customers should use the Exchange Online PowerShell module (opens in new tab) for Exchange management.

Full announcement: August 2023 Partner Center announcements (opens in new tab).

Entra ID: protected actions go GA, provisioning opens up#

Conditional Access for protected actions is generally available#

Organizations can now wrap sensitive operations in their own Conditional Access requirements. Granular policies define the conditions under which users can perform protected actions: require phishing-resistant MFA, a compliant device, or a trusted location before someone can modify a Conditional Access policy, for example. Even an attacker who lands on an admin account cannot perform the high-risk action without satisfying the extra criteria. Example policies:

• Admins need a privileged access workstation and a FIDO2 key to delete Conditional Access policies.
• Admins need phishing-resistant MFA to define or modify custom rules for network locations.

Full announcement: Conditional Access for Protected Actions is Now Generally Available (opens in new tab).

API-driven provisioning enters public preview#

Microsoft expanded HR-driven provisioning to cover the most common asks:

• Automatically provisioning cloud-only users and hybrid users (users requiring an on-premises Active Directory account) from any trusted source
• Importing data from sources like CSV files and SQL staging tables using any automation tool
• Simplifying integration with standard SCIM schema attributes that abstract schema differences across systems into a consistent mapping experience

It pairs with Lifecycle Workflows (opens in new tab) to automate joiner-mover-leaver workflows for users sourced from any system of record.

Full announcement: Introducing a New Flexible Way of Bringing Identities from Any Source into Microsoft Entra ID (opens in new tab).

Timing: public preview as of August 2023; GA TBD.

Teams: admin tooling and quality-of-life updates#

Rank assistance for group policy assignments#

When creating a new group assignment, admins now see rank assistance information in the side panel. Existing capabilities are unchanged; the goal is clarity during multiple group assignments. Effective policy for a user follows precedence rules (opens in new tab): a user without a directly assigned policy of a given type gets the policy from their group, and with multiple groups, the policy with the highest group assignment ranking (opens in new tab) for that type wins. The panel surfaces group user counts, a rank 1 recommendation, and the precedence rules so admins can make better calls.

Timing: mid-August 2023, completing by late August 2023.

Real-time meeting quality monitoring (Teams Premium)#

Real-Time Analytics in the Teams admin center lets admins watch users' in-progress meetings for audio, video, content sharing, and network issues, and investigate problems while the meeting is still running, instead of the current manual, hands-on troubleshooting cycle.

This sits in the Teams Premium add-on SKU: every admin sees the feature in the admin center, but monitored users need a Teams Premium license assigned for notifications to function.

To enable it:

• In the Teams admin center, go to Notifications and alerts > Rules.
• Pick the rule matching what you want to monitor: the audio quality (opens in new tab), video quality (opens in new tab), or application sharing (VBSS) quality (opens in new tab) rule for in-progress meetings.
• Adjust the default condition and monitoring values to fit your network requirements if needed.
• List the users to monitor (they need Teams Premium licenses).
• Set or keep the default public team and channel where notifications should arrive, and save the rule.

After setup, the system monitors all future meetings involving the configured users and posts a notification to the chosen team and channel whenever a quality issue appears.

Timing: late August 2023, completing by early September 2023.

Teams web links open in Edge, side by side with the chat#

Web links from Teams chats will open as new Edge browser tabs with the Teams chat alongside them in the Edge sidebar, cutting down on window switching while referencing links.

Admins control this with the Choose which browser opens web links policy, which sets the default browser for web links and whether users can manage the choice themselves. The policy covers both Teams chat and the Outlook for Windows app together; the apps cannot be managed individually. It is available through the Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365 (opens in new tab) (formerly the Office Cloud Policy Service) or the Administrative Templates for Microsoft 365 Apps (opens in new tab).

More info: Multitask smarter with Microsoft 365 and Edge (opens in new tab).

Timing: late September 2023.

Self-service Teams Premium trials#

Beginning late September 2023, users can start a 60-day self-service trial of Teams Premium with their Azure Active Directory credentials, no payment information required, with full visibility and control for the Microsoft 365 admin. The trials generate utilization signals IT can use to spot users who would benefit from a paid Teams Premium license. Trial licenses stay separate from existing Teams Premium licenses. More on Teams Premium here (opens in new tab).

A cleaner shared line experience on mobile#

Users with call delegation get a simplified experience in the Teams mobile app: a Shared Line Appearance tab in the calls app where delegates can view the delegator lines they manage and their own delegates, plus a dedicated tab for viewing delegates and the people they support.

Timing: late August 2023, completing by early September 2023.

Near real-time calendar sync on Teams mobile#

The mobile calendar gets faster and more reliable: events sync in near real time across Outlook and Teams without refreshing or hopping between tabs.

Timing: late August 2023, completing by early September 2023.

Intune: anomaly detection learns to group devices#

Requires the Microsoft Intune Suite add-on.

Anomaly detection device cohorts enhance advanced Endpoint analytics by surfacing meaningful patterns among devices flagged as anomalous, whether the anomalies are app-based, device-based, or blue screens. Admins can use the cohorts to identify at-risk devices and act before users feel it. Details: Anomaly detection in Endpoint analytics (opens in new tab).

Full Intune updates: What's new in Microsoft Intune, 2308 August edition (opens in new tab).

Timing: GA.

Edge mobile: Bing Chat Enterprise arrives, with an off switch#

The Bing Chat button lands in Edge version 116 on iOS and Android in late August 2023. Users signed in to the Edge mobile app with a work account can reach Bing Chat Enterprise through it, provided the organization has turned Bing Chat Enterprise on (opens in new tab).

If it is on for the organization but unwanted on mobile, an Intune MAM policy adds or removes the button:

com.microsoft.intune.mam.managedbrowser.Chat=true (default)/false

Managing Edge on iOS and Android: https://learn.microsoft.com/mem/intune/apps/manage-microsoft-edge (opens in new tab).

Excel: Python moves into the grid#

Python in Excel brings Python's capabilities directly into the Excel grid. During the public preview, users in the Microsoft 365 Insiders program Beta Channel can add Python formulas to workbooks with no installation; the formulas run in a secure container on the Microsoft Cloud, with enterprise-level security as a compliant Microsoft 365 connected experience.

More: the announcement blog (opens in new tab) and Python in Excel documentation (opens in new tab).

Timing: public preview rollout from late August 2023, completing by early September 2023.

SharePoint: Lists meets CSV, Clipchamp goes commercial#

Create a list from a CSV file#

Microsoft Lists gains list creation from a CSV file, available in the list creation dialog on every surface where lists can already be created: SharePoint sites, the Lists web app, Teams, and others.

Timing: mid-September 2023, completing by late September 2023.

Clipchamp comes to Microsoft 365 commercial accounts#

Clipchamp for work reaches users on Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium, from these locations:

• The New and Edit menus in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint document libraries
• The Office.com app launcher, as the Clipchamp app

Capabilities include trimming or joining video recordings saved on OneDrive or SharePoint, text overlays, and screen or webcam recording, with all videos stored securely on OneDrive or SharePoint for sharing. See the product overview (opens in new tab) or the FAQs (opens in new tab).

Timing: late August 2023, completing by mid-October 2023.

Forms: Google Forms migration lands in the admin center#

Tenants migrating from Google services will be able to move existing Google Forms, responses included, to Microsoft Forms all at once through the Microsoft 365 admin center (MMP). Users skip recreating their forms manually, which saves real effort on migrations.

Timing: late October 2023, completing by mid-November 2023.