Unified Management for Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and Microsoft 365: Recent Developments
In April 2024, Microsoft introduced a significant enhancement to its Microsoft 365 platform, focusing on the unified management of Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and the Microsoft 365 (M365) app. This initiative was aimed at allowing administrators to implement changes across all three applications seamlessly. This feature, initially outlined in roadmap entry ID 393931, promised that modifications made in the Microsoft 365 admin center or Teams admin center would reflect across all platforms, enhancing efficiency for administrators.
Details of the Unification Effort
As part of their announcement, Microsoft explained the new changes in detail:
Microsoft Teams: Microsoft 365 admin centers – Manage Teams apps that work on Outlook and Microsoft 365 App
Administrators using the Microsoft 365 admin center along with the Teams admin center will now have the capability to manage Teams apps that function across Outlook and the Microsoft 365 App. This marks a shift from previous functionality where changes made within the Integrated Apps section affected only Outlook and the 365 App, while Teams changes were confined to that specific environment. The new update allows for a cohesive management approach across these platforms.
Rollout Schedule Updates
Initially, Microsoft projected that the general availability rollout of this unified management feature would commence by the end of July 2024. However, the company has recently announced a temporary halt to this rollout. This change has been labeled a “major adjustment”within the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
Unified management of Teams apps in Teams, Outlook, and the Microsoft 365 app is on hold, with further guidance expected by late May 2025. This rollout aims to streamline app management across platforms by consolidating settings into a central interface. Administrators are advised to collaboratively review app and tenant settings and assess the potential implications of the merge rules.
Understanding the Two-Phase Rollout Plan
To minimize risks associated with compatibility and deployment challenges, Microsoft has introduced a two-phase rollout strategy for this unification initiative. They have outlined the progress and future steps as follows:
This rollout will unfold in two distinct phases, targeting tenants that have transitioned to app-centric management in the Teams admin center, as indicated in MC688930 (Updated) regarding app-centric management and adjustments to app permission policies (November 2023).
Phase 1 | General Availability (Worldwide): The rollout is scheduled to begin in late January 2025 (previously anticipated for mid-December 2024).Currently, this phase is on hold, with updates expected by late May 2025 (previously late April).This phase applies to tenants without modified settings in either the Microsoft 365 admin center or the Teams admin center concerning organization-wide defaults, app deployment, and related configurations. During this phase, no merge rules will apply, but subsequent settings configured in either admin center will uniformly affect all relevant applications.
Phase 2: More details, including a timeline, will be provided in May 2025 (previously April 2025).This segment is geared towards tenants with differing app settings between the Microsoft 365 admin center and the Teams admin center.
For those with access to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, additional information can be found under entry ID MC796790.
You can read more about this significant update in this article.
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