Tom's Microsoft 365 Perspective
Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 news and views
Many thanks to Logitech, this month's Empowering.Cloud benefactor. Check out their recently launched Zone 305 Teams certified dongle-less headset, and the center of room Logi Sight now has beta Smart Switching.
Get up to speed in 17 minutes with my chapter marked July monthly update video and PowerPoint deck.
Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 News:
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Android Teams Room and Teams Phone support date changes. For those following along, all Teams Android devices are only supported/certified by Microsoft for a set period of time based on their Android OS version. OEMs can update the major Android OS version and re-certify for a longer support timeline. It can be quite challenging for customers to understand/predict how long a device will be supported.
- New clarification from Microsoft - end dates are based on the Android OS release date plus five years (I think this is a new message)
- Certification end date for Android 12 devices is now August 15, 2027 (previously October 6, 2026)
- Android 12, with the new date extension, is getting 5 years 10 months until the end of certification.
- Android 13 is correctly aligned for 5 years of certification, ending on August 15, 2027. Android 13 released August 15, 2022
- Microsoft remains committed to making efforts to support the most recent version of the Teams client on devices for two years following their end of certification
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Talking of Android, Microsoft had moved the date to stop supporting the legacy services infrastructure for chat messaging (CNS) from July 31st to September 30, 2024 (MC804766).
- In older Teams app versions, this CNS service tells Rooms/Phones when there is an incoming call, so it is particularly key to Phones. Microsoft will also be pushing device auto updates more aggressively to get devices running older versions updated before the deadline (MC810172). But it's still best to ensure they are all up to date manually.
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One thing to watch out for - if you are still running older end-of-certification/support Teams Phones on Android 8.1 or Android 9, as they can't be updated to the latest Teams app and, therefore, will stop receiving incoming call notifications when the CNS service is retired (MC804765 - you will only see this MC if Microsoft sees you are running old devices).
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Older Teams devices affected include: AudioCodes C448HD, C450HD, Yealink VP59, MP52, Crestron UC-2, UC-P8 UC-P10 series
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Retirement of Office 365 connectors within Microsoft Teams - Office 365 connectors within Teams are to end. From August 15, the company will block all connector creation, and from October 1, all connectors within all clouds will stop working - Microsoft recommends Power Automate workflows to relay information into and out of Teams moving forward
- Teams Phone mobile will no longer need you to assign a zero-cost additional M365 licence. That requirement is going away, streamlining the onboarding workflow
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The Microsoft Copilot Dashboard, which helps organizations deploy Copilot, drive adoption and measure impact, is now available as part of Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses and no longer requires a Viva Insights premium license.
- Customers with over 100 Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses or 10 assigned premium Viva Insights licenses will begin to see the Copilot Dashboard now.
- Customers with less than 100 Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses will receive the dashboard in the coming months.
- Customers with less than 10 assigned Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses will continue to get access to a limited Copilot Dashboard they have today that features tenant-level metrics.
Some thoughts on the CrowdStrike outage
Like everyone, I watched the CrowdStrike BSOD/boot loop issue unfold last week. I won't recap it all here, but it led me down a rabbit hole thinking about how this could be avoided. Microsoft estimates it affected 8.5 million Windows devices. That is less than one percent of all Windows machines. It could have actually been so much worse.
Still, for those having to manage fixing all of those machines, lots manually, it's quite a job.
It's crazy to me that CrowdStrike pushed a patch to all their customers at once, not in a phased approach, as is common best practice. I, no doubt like many others, also considered how Microsoft could do better to now allow a third party to take down their OS (protecting kernel-level access).
Apple lock third-party apps out of kernel space. Microsoft tried to do the same in the 2005 with Vista, but had its hands tied by the European Commission after anti-virus companies complained they needed the same level of access as Microsoft for their tools to work and there to be competitive security options.
It sparks quite a debate about the unintended consequences of regulation and also highlights there are often non-technical reasons why a provider can't do what may be seen as the right thing.
Ed Bott did a good write-up of the issue and the EU considerations on ZDnet
Industry News
- Think you have what it takes to make Teams faster, simpler, more adaptable, delightful, and AI-powered? Microsoft is looking for a new Partner Design Director for Microsoft Teams to lead the next wave of innovation and drive design vision and strategy
- Brand new country - Ukraine 🇺🇦 with Tata - bringing us up to 97 countries covered. Telnyx has added 6 more countries, bringing them up to 3rd highest coverage overall. Check out the Power BI report in our community research
- Nuwave has integrated Microsoft Teams SMS solution Clerk Chat into their iPILOT cloud provisioning platform.
Briefings
Teams Insider Podcast - Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube
Online Events
- Neat webinar: Windows vs Android - Choosing the Best Platform for your Microsoft Teams Rooms - July 30th
- Teams Fireside Chat with Miguel Corteguera, Global Customer Success, Converged Comms, Microsoft - August 8th
- Microsoft Teams Devices Ask Me Anything - EMEA/NA and APAC - August 19th / 20th
In-Person Events
I read all email replies. Let me know if you have questions, comments, or feedback.
Thanks
Tom
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