New Year, New Momentum: Here are three Copilot updates to get you started into 2026

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It's a new year, so I thought I'd start the year by mentioning three features already released, or soon going to be released. One of the features improves the workflow of sharing files with comments, the other improves the application specific Copilot, and the last feature makes it easer to find the nest available timeslot for a 1:1 meeting. As with all of my other posts, timelines can shift, and the timelines in this post is as written in the Message Center at the time of posting. AI-Summary experience when sharing files. With this new feature, copilot intent to help users share files with clearer context in just a few steps. Users will get the capability to generate a concise summary of a file and include it when sharing from the File Explorer share dialog or the OneDrive activity center. This will make it easier to share the context of a file and giving the receiver a faster understanding of what a document or file contains before they open it. General Availability announced...

Lync client may connect to a non federated partner, even if you though it should not.

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Here is an "interesting" observation I did a couple of days ago. The customer has chosen not to allow DNS discovery of federated partners, but will allow federation with selected partners on the allow list. After a while with this configuration, the customer called me and told me they had mixed experiences with the solution. There were times when meetings with a partner (NOT on the allow list) actually would work, even if they expected the meeting to fail.

They asked me to verify the settings, and to investigate why some users reported they could connect to a meeting others couldn't.

This is what I saw on a client who failed to connect:




5 messages. And the interesting one would be the 504 message: "Can not route".



And then the client stops trying, as I would expect it to.

But here is an interesting twist. Log on with the same client from a remote connection (through edge), and then let's see what happens.



The client does not honor the 504 message "Can not route". It continues and connects to the meeting, unexpectedly. How can that be?

The interesting part is what happens after the 504 message. First the client acknowledges the rejection, but then it does something it didn't do on the inside. There is a new invite, trying to connect anonymously:



And this connection is allowed. Quite confusing for the end user, actually. But now they know.


It is important to note the user was allowed for federation in this scenario, but the domain in question was not in the allow list and DNS discovery was not allowed. Also, the organizer on the other side was allowing anonymous invites.