M365 Roundup, February 2024: Planner Absorbs Tasks and AIP Plan 1 Exits

February 2024 is a month of consolidations. Planner swallows the Tasks app in Teams and inherits the To Do, Project, and Copilot capabilities along the way. Azure Information Protection Plan 1 leaves the price list as Purview Information Protection takes over. The old M365 Chat app gets a retirement date now that Copilot owns the experience. Underneath the renames, Intune ships real macOS and Autopilot improvements, and Teams meetings get a label change every external-facing org should brief users on. The full list, grouped by product, with rollout dates.

Retirements and replacements to act on#

Azure Information Protection Plan 1 ends sale#

Azure Information Protection ended sale in January 2024 as part of its modernization into Microsoft Purview Information Protection and Microsoft 365. Customers were notified of the upcoming retirement of the AIP Unified Labeling add-in for Office in April 2024 via message center posts in April 2023, and Microsoft continues to push migration to the equivalent or superior built-in Information Protection features.

Native labeling and the other classification and protection capabilities from AIP are included in subscription plans and offers that include Microsoft Purview Information Protection:

• Microsoft 365 E3
• Microsoft 365 E5 Information Protection and Governance
• Microsoft 365 E5
• Office 365 E3
• Office 365 E5
• Enterprise Mobility and Security E3
• Enterprise Mobility and Security E5
• Microsoft 365 F3 and Business Premium

Partner Center announcement: February 2024 announcements (opens in new tab)

The new Planner: four tools become one app#

The Tasks by Planner and To Do app in Microsoft Teams is being renamed to Planner, and it becomes a single, unified work management experience: the simplicity of To Do, the collaboration of Planner, the power of Microsoft Project, and the intelligence of Copilot for Microsoft 365, spanning individual task management and frontline task management through enterprise and professional project management.

• Planner in Teams keeps all existing functionality of the Tasks app while adding access to all your plans, Project capability, and Copilot intelligence.
• Organizations without a Microsoft 365 license must use the To Do app to create new lists. With at least one Microsoft 365 license, users get full Planner functionality.

Rollout: late March 2024, completing by early May 2024.

Teams: meeting trust labels and ten other changes#

External participants get an Unverified label#

Teams is updating participant name labels for meeting security. A new term, Unverified, will appear for all meeting participants who do not have a trusted relationship with the organizer. Participants outside the organizer's organization but configured as a trusted relationship keep the External label. Anyone attending meetings with users outside their organization, with or without a Microsoft Entra ID, will see labels reflecting the participant's trust level with the organizer: External, Unverified, or no label. Worth a heads-up to client-facing teams before the questions roll in. Rollout: mid-February 2024, completing by early March 2024 for all in-meeting participant views.

Optimize screen sharing for video manually#

When automatic detection fails or lags, presenters can select Optimize for playing video from the Presenter toolbar overflow menu (the three-dot menu) to keep motion content smooth during screen shares. Rollout: mid-March 2024, completing by late March 2024.

A private chat for Town Hall organizers and presenters#

On the Town Hall scheduling form, the organizer defines presenters and external presenters, and an exclusive group chat is created for them. Organizers reach the chat before and after the event from the scheduling form, the Teams calendar, or the event Details page; presenters (including external presenters from guest and federated tenants) reach it from the calendar or Details page, and it appears in their chat pane. During the event, organizers, presenters, and external presenters (including anonymous presenters) access it from the in-meeting chat under the Organizers and Presenters tab. Rollout: mid-March 2024, completing by late March 2024.

AirPods mute support on macOS#

Mute and unmute with Apple AirPods comes to Teams on Macs running macOS Sonoma, matching the capability already available on iPhones running iOS 17. Rollout: late March 2024.

Custom avatars for group chats#

Group chat members can upload their own image or pick a built-in image or emoji for the chat avatar, which helps visually distinguish chats with similar titles or participants. Rollout: mid-March 2024, completing by late March 2024.

Export for Inactive Teams and Inactive External Domains reports (Teams Premium)#

Both reports in the Teams admin center, part of Advanced Collaboration Analytics, become exportable to .csv, so admins can manipulate the raw data, share it with stakeholders, visualize it, or script against it. Rollout: late March 2024.

Describe a workflow, get a workflow#

Anyone who can create workflows with the Workflows app in Teams will be able to describe the flow they want and receive a suggested one. Prerequisites: a work or school Teams account with access to a Power Automate environment in Europe or the United States. Limitations: descriptions are supported in English only (other languages might work but are unsupported), cloud flows are the only type that can be created from a description, and in the version rolling out the AI might omit some parameters even when provided. Rollout: mid-April 2024, completing by mid-May 2024.

Background effects while recording on phone#

Users recording with the Teams camera on iOS can swap their background for any image or blur it: press and hold the camera icon next to the Compose box, tap the blur icon to the right of the shutter button, then choose a replacement image or a mild or heavy blur. Rollout: early March 2024, completing by late March 2024.

Simplified mobile sign-in via prefilled domains#

Admins can prefill domain names using app configuration policies in Intune or another MDM provider, letting iOS and Android users sign in with just the first part of their UPN. If the username is 123456@contoso.com or adelev@contoso.com, the user signs in with 123456 or adelev plus their password. More info: How different technologies affect Microsoft Teams sign-on (opens in new tab). Rollout: late March 2024.

Recap and artifacts posted to chat after meetings#

Shortly after a meeting ends, a recap message appears in the meeting chat linking the recap page and artifacts: transcript, recording, files shared in the meeting, Collaborative notes, and Whiteboard (if used). Users with intelligent recap (opens in new tab) also get meeting insights: the speaker list, name mentions, and suggested tasks. Rollout: early April 2024, completing by late April 2024.

Intune: macOS grows up, Autopilot gets pragmatic#

"Await final configuration" for macOS ADE reaches GA#

The new await final configuration capability for macOS Automated Device Enrollment holds users in the Setup Assistant while company configuration policies download and apply, so devices land on the Home Screen with VPN, WiFi, and other profiles already in place. Covered in detail in the new guide to macOS device enrollment (opens in new tab). Status: generally available.

Autopilot: block for selected apps only#

Previously, required apps installed under one of two conditions: block for all apps, where any install failure during the technician phase failed the whole deployment, or block for some apps, which installed only specified apps during the technician phase. The new setting blocks only for selected apps and continues if others fail during the technician phase; non-blocking apps retry when the user signs in for the first time. Full announcement: What's New in Microsoft Intune February 2024 (opens in new tab)

Platform SSO support in the macOS Company Portal (public preview)#

The Enterprise SSO plug-in on Apple devices is configured via a device configuration profile (Devices > Configuration > Create > macOS for platform > Settings Catalog > Authentication > Extensible Single sign-on (SSO)). The Company Portal app will support platform SSO settings for macOS 13 and later, allowing Microsoft Entra ID passwords to sync to local accounts on Macs through the Enterprise Single Sign-On extension. References: Deploy the Microsoft Enterprise SSO plug-in for Apple devices (opens in new tab) and the Enterprise SSO plug-in overview (opens in new tab). Status: in development, no ETA.

Self-service BitLocker recovery keys in the Web Company Portal#

End users will be able to view the BitLocker recovery key for their enrolled Windows devices by clicking View Recovery Key under the device in the Web Company Portal, mirroring the MyAccount experience and trimming lockout helpdesk calls. Organizations that do not want this can block it with the Entra ID toggle Restrict non-admin users from recovering the BitLocker key(s) for their owned device; see Manage device identities using the Microsoft Entra admin center (opens in new tab). Status: in development, no ETA.

Local admin accounts during macOS setup#

Local admin accounts can now be created on macOS devices as part of profile creation in the Intune admin center. Full setup instructions: Enroll macOS devices with Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager (opens in new tab). Status: public preview, rolling out to tenants globally.

Outlook and Exchange: in-person RSVPs and admin troubleshooting#

In-person events with hybrid RSVP#

Organizers can request in-person attendance through a new "in-person event" toggle when scheduling, and attendees responding to in-person invites can confirm whether they will attend in person or only virtually. RSVP options for other invites are unchanged. Available only in Outlook on the web and the new Outlook desktop for Windows. Rollout: late March 2024, completing by mid-April 2024.

A Troubleshoot section in the Exchange admin center#

A new Troubleshoot option appears in the left navigation of the Exchange admin center with two workflow types. Quick fixes resolves known issues, with each workflow documenting the actions it performs; the initial release lets admins quickly reset Outlook on the web settings for users to clear various login and calendar issues. Collect logs diagnoses resource mailboxes behaving unexpectedly or meetings updating incorrectly for a mailbox, executing multiple cmdlets and downloading aggregated logs to the admin's local machine for independent diagnosis or for Support. Rollout: mid-February 2024, completing by late June 2024.

Forms: live response sync to Excel (preview)#

Forms responses can now sync quickly to an Excel file. Create an Excel workbook in your own OneDrive from the form or quiz responses page, and responses sync automatically to a table where the data can be worked immediately. New responses keep syncing while the workbook is open in Excel for the web, and coauthors get the synced responses there too. Rollout: late January 2024, completing by early March 2024.

Copilot: new surfaces, new service plan, one retirement#

Copilot in SharePoint service plan adds OneDrive and Word features#

Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 Original, Microsoft 365 Copilot Developer, and Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 are being updated with a new service plan: Microsoft Copilot in SharePoint. It enables Copilot in OneDrive, which answers open-ended questions and pulls information from OneDrive files without opening them and can summarize one or multiple files, and AI sharing summaries in Word, which let users include an AI-generated document summary in the share notification email for added context. Rollout: Copilot in OneDrive early May 2024, completing by end of May 2024; AI sharing in Word mid-March 2024, completing by late March 2024.

Users can delete their own Copilot interaction history#

Users can delete their Copilot for Microsoft 365 interaction history from the Privacy page at myaccount.microsoft.com, replacing the old process where admins filed an online support ticket with Microsoft on the user's behalf. Details, including which apps store Copilot interaction history: Delete your Microsoft Copilot interaction history (opens in new tab). Status: generally available.

Copilot lands in Teams chat on mobile#

The new Copilot for Microsoft 365 arrives in the Teams iOS and Android apps for Copilot-licensed users, appearing in the Teams chat list on mobile for easy discovery. Rollout: early March 2024, completing by mid-March 2024.

M365 Chat app retires in Teams#

Copilot-licensed users will no longer be able to use the old M365 Chat app in Teams once the transition lands. Rollout: early March 2024, with the old app discontinued by April 30, 2024.

Copilot training for teams getting started#

For organizations onboarding users, there is a beginner's course, Mastering Microsoft 365 Copilot (opens in new tab), covering Copilot across Excel, Word, Teams, and the rest of the suite.