M365 Roundup, January 2025: Copilot Goes Freemium

January 2025's headline is a price: zero. Copilot Chat is now included for Entra users on any Microsoft 365 subscription, which changes the AI conversation with every client who said no to the $30 license. Around it, Microsoft flipped a Teams default that affects un-customized tenants, refreshed the Identity Secure Score, and shipped a long list of Teams features.

Here is the full January 2025 cycle, ordered by what deserves a look first.

The headline: Copilot Chat is now included#

Enterprise-ready AI chat with agents for Entra account users, formerly known simply as Microsoft Copilot, is rolling out to customers as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. It comes at no additional cost for Entra account users with a Microsoft 365 subscription and is also accessible on the web at m365copilot.com.

Full announcement: Copilot for all: Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (opens in new tab). Generally available now.

Two changes that move security posture#

Teams transcription turns on by default#

Microsoft is updating the default transcription policy setting for new tenants from off to on. Existing policies in the Teams admin center are not changed, but tenants that have not customized any part of their Teams meeting policy will be impacted. Rolling out early February 2025, completing by mid-February 2025.

Identity Secure Score gains new recommendations#

New Identity Secure Score recommendations reached general availability, and they can move your score in either direction. Review the full announcement (opens in new tab) for the complete list of added recommendations before a client asks why their score dropped.

Defender for Office 365 classifies attacker intent#

Requires Defender for Office 365 Plan 2. Threat classification details are coming to email analysis, using large language models, machine learning models, and other advanced techniques to understand the intent behind threats and classify them more accurately. Classification information integrates across key Defender experiences for better detection, analysis, and response, and new classifications will be added as attack methods evolve. Rolled out early January 2025, completing by late January 2025.

Also in Defender: the Quarantine portal gains in-product tool tips and guidance, accessible by clicking "Resolution to common issues," aimed at cutting the support requests this feature generates. Generally available.

Teams for the front office: live chat and SMS#

Live chat for small businesses#

Live chat arrives in all Microsoft 365 Business plans (Basic, Standard, and Premium). Global admins and Teams admins configure it through the Teams Admin app (opens in new tab), and users see nothing until it is enabled. The feature set targets small business needs:

• Website visitors chat with the business team natively in Teams chats and channels
• Visitor contact information collection
• Auto-assignment connects visitors to an available user in Teams chat
• Conversations can be reassigned or closed from Teams chat
• Customer requests and transcripts post to a Teams channel
• A dashboard shows all customer requests for a given timeframe

Rolling out mid-January 2025, completing by late January 2025.

SMS in calling plans#

US and Canada customers with calling plans get native SMS in Teams. Admins enable SMS per user, and users start seeing PSTN contacts in search areas to begin an SMS chat. Mid-February 2025, completing by late February 2025.

Teams for meetings: six smaller upgrades#

Tag mentions filter. A new filter in the Activity feed shows tag mentions from chat and channel messages. Mid-February 2025, completing late February 2025.

Edit your display name in meetings. Participants can change their display name for the duration of a meeting only, without affecting their People card. Off by default for all tenants; admins enable it in the Teams admin center for all or selected members, and even then meeting organizers must turn it on per meeting under Meeting options > "Let people edit their display name." Early April 2025 (previously mid-March), completing mid-April 2025.

Who keeps the recording. An in-product chat message displays the recording owner's information so participants know who to ask. Early March 2025, completing late March 2025.

Presenters as Q&A moderators. Town hall and webinar organizers can assign presenters to moderate the Q&A, managing and publishing questions during the event. Late February 2025, completing early March 2025.

End Event button. Organizers and presenters can end town halls, webinars, and structured meetings outright: attendees see a session-concluded message on stage and presenters return to the Green Room. Mid-February 2025, completing late February 2025.

Teams Premium management in one place. A single Teams admin center page replaces portal-hopping for Teams Premium: license information, assignment, utilization, and end-user license requests; a usage report for adoption tracking; a Feature Advisor showing the configuration and deployment status of every Premium feature with pending actions highlighted; and subscription details including total, assigned, and unassigned license counts. End of January 2025, completing early February 2025.

Intune's Apps area gets a new face#

An admin center UI update reorganizes the Apps area: scenario-focused navigation that aligns monitoring with management workflows, naming consistent with the Devices area (App protection policies becomes Protection), a dedicated monitoring and key-metrics overview page, platform-specific navigation pivots, and consistent search, sort, and filter behavior across list views.

Before:

After:

Starts early February 2025, enabled for all admins by the end of the month.

Copilot keeps absorbing the workday#

Video creation via Clipchamp. Visual Creator in Copilot gains video skills: type a prompt and Clipchamp generates a script, sources enterprise-compliant stock footage from existing Microsoft 365 asset libraries, and assembles a draft with music, voiceover, text overlays, and transitions. The draft opens in Clipchamp for editing and exports to mp4 in OneDrive (counting against quota). It does not generate new clips, animations, images, or audio. Requires the Microsoft 365 Copilot plan. Mid-February 2025, completing mid-March 2025.

Notes on the OneNote canvas. The Take notes with Copilot feature adds a natural language prompt editor directly on the canvas, pulling relevant information from Microsoft 365 documents, messages, and emails into notes, useful for meeting agendas and project prep. Full announcement here (opens in new tab). Mid-January 2025, completing late March 2025.

SharePoint sites in prompts. Users writing Copilot prompts can use CIQ to search for and select SharePoint sites as context. Mid-February 2025, completing late February 2025.

SharePoint and OneDrive folders in prompts. CIQ also gains folder selection through the existing Attach cloud files icon. Mid-February 2025, completing late February 2025.

Separate retention policies for AI apps. Purview Data Lifecycle Management lets admins configure distinct retention policies for Microsoft 365 Copilot and AI apps, including faster deletion of Copilot and generative AI interactions. Organizations get separate controls for Teams chat, Copilot, Copilot Studio, and ChatGPT Enterprise. Mid-February 2025 (previously late January), completing late February 2025 (previously mid-February).