M365 Roundup, January 2024: Copilot Goes On Sale for Everyone

January 2024's headline is unambiguous: Copilot for Microsoft 365 went on general sale through CSP with the seat minimums stripped out, turning every Business Premium customer into a potential AI customer overnight. Lighthouse picked up sales tooling to match. Beyond the Copilot push, there is a retention change in Intune that needs action before April, a new Teams policy that closes an external-meeting gap, and the usual stack of quality-of-life features. Grouped by product, here is everything that matters.

The Copilot expansion: GA through CSP, no seat minimums#

The licensing change MSPs have been waiting for landed in January 2024:

• Commercial customers with Microsoft 365 E3/E5, Office 365 E3/E5, and Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Business Premium prerequisite base SKUs can purchase the Copilot for Microsoft 365 add-on SKU across all sales channels: CSP, EA, MCA-E, EAS, and direct from Microsoft online.
• Education customers with Microsoft 365 A3/A5 and Office 365 A3/A5 can purchase through Enrollment for Education Solutions.
• The minimum seat purchase requirement is removed across all channels and segments. Customers still need a product license of one of the prerequisite base SKUs for each Copilot seat they purchase.

Full announcement: Expanding Copilot for Microsoft 365 to businesses of all sizes (opens in new tab). Partner Center announcement: January 2024 announcements (opens in new tab).

For more on what living with Copilot looks like, there is a video on the top lessons from daily Copilot use (opens in new tab) and a write-up of the security risks and how to protect your data.

Lighthouse gets Copilot sales tools#

To help CSPs work the renewal period, Microsoft 365 Lighthouse added new capabilities:

• Customer targeting with propensity to buy Copilot for Microsoft 365
• A 90-day view of upcoming renewals with a tailored set of recommendations
• Onboarding for all CSP direct and indirect resellers
• Role-based access control (RBAC) for account managers, removing the need for Partner Center roles to access Sales Advisor insights
• Copilot deployment management with improved security configurations

Full announcement: Unlock the Copilot opportunity and grow your CSP business with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse (opens in new tab).

Copilot Dashboard for Viva Insights customers#

Organizations licensed for Viva Insights get a Microsoft Copilot Dashboard combining Copilot usage metrics with collaboration and sentiment data. It covers three metric categories: readiness, adoption, and impact, with dashboard access controls managed by Global admins. The aim is to help organizations prepare an AI deployment, drive adoption based on how AI is changing workplace behavior, and measure Copilot's impact.

More info: Manage user access to the Copilot Dashboard in Viva Insights (opens in new tab)

Intune: audit log retention drops to one year, act before April#

Beginning in April 2024, Intune audit logs (opens in new tab) will only be retained for up to one year, aligning with the documented retention period (opens in new tab).

To keep audit logs older than one year, export them before the change: in the Intune admin center (opens in new tab), go to Tenant administration > Audit logs, use the Filter option to select a date range, then select Export. Details: Use audit logs to track and monitor events in Microsoft Intune (opens in new tab).

Teams: an external-meeting control and eight smaller wins#

Admins can block externally hosted Teams meetings#

Today, Teams work or school users can join any externally hosted Teams meeting, with the external access configuration deciding whether they join anonymously or signed in. A new policy, "People can join meetings hosted by," adds a layer of protection for the Teams desktop app and web client with three options:

• Anyone: users (or groups) can join any externally hosted meeting; the current experience is unchanged. This retains all currently available behavior for Teams meetings.
• People and guests in my org and trusted orgs: users (or groups) can join meetings hosted only by people and guests in their org, or people in orgs configured for trusted external access.
• People and guests in my org only: users (or groups) can join meetings hosted only by people and guests in their own org. This disables joining any externally hosted Teams meeting.

Rollout: early February 2024, completing by early March 2024.

Collaborative notes open up to all invitees#

Currently only meeting organizers can create Collaborative notes. The enhancement lets any meeting invitee create notes before, during, and after the meeting. Rollout: mid-February 2024, completing by late February 2024.

Mute from the Windows taskbar (Mute On Air)#

In the new Teams on Windows, users can mute and unmute from the mic icon in the Windows taskbar: select the mic icon, press Windows logo key + Alt + K, or click the volume icon in the hardware indicator while in a calling app. Rollout: early March 2024, completing by mid-April 2024.

Duplicate an existing webinar#

Organizers scheduling similar events repeatedly can now create a new webinar by duplicating an existing one, carrying over details, presenters, theming, and more, then editing as needed. Rollout: early March 2024, completing by late March 2024.

Links to private and shared channels#

Users can share links to private and shared channels and channel posts with other members of the channel. Non-members cannot access the channel or post through the link; only members are taken to the destination. Rollout: mid-February 2024, completing by late February 2024.

Attendee time zones in the scheduling form#

The scheduling assistant will show the time zone for all meeting attendees, fixing one of the oldest annoyances in cross-region scheduling. Rollout: early February 2024, completing by late April 2024.

Sensitivity labels in Teams mobile meetings#

Users creating meetings on mobile can pick sensitivity labels from the Teams calendar, see any admin-applied default label, and choose from the labels allotted to them. The label's settings govern the meeting and its content accordingly. Rollout: late February 2024, completing by early March 2024.

Calendar notifications in the activity feed#

Calendar notifications arrive in the Teams Activity Feed for meeting invites (including channel meetings you are explicitly invited to), meeting updates, cancellations, and forwards (as an organizer). Unread notifications show in the Activity Feed pane or at the bell icon, and clicking one opens the meeting details in the right pane. Rollout: mid-February 2024, completing by late February 2024.

Share contact info in chat#

Users can share the contact information of someone who is not in a chat, making introductions between collaborators less awkward. Rollout: early February 2024, completing by mid-February 2024.

Outlook: Copilot coaching and fewer context switches#

Coaching by Copilot in Outlook for Windows#

Coaching by Copilot takes a user-crafted draft and generates short feedback on tone, reader sentiment, and clarity, with specific rewrite suggestions. The obvious use case is pressure-testing an important email before it goes out. Availability: Current Channel (Build 17231), rolling out gradually during February 2024, with MEC rolling out in March.

Office attachments open in desktop apps#

In the new Outlook for Windows, double-clicking Word, Excel, and PowerPoint attachments opens them directly in their desktop apps instead of in-app previews. Rollout: late January 2024, completing by mid-March 2024.

OneDrive for Business inside Outlook on the web#

The OneDrive button in Outlook on the web previously opened a new tab. Now OneDrive folders and files render inside Outlook on the web for a faster, consistent experience. Rollout: mid-February 2024, completing by late March 2024.