Smarter Retention in Microsoft 365: A Step Toward Cleaner, More Relevant Data - Coming soon

Anyone who has worked with SharePoint management knows that data governance is a cornerstone of digital productivity, especially in large organizations where information can accumulate rapidly. Today, retention policies in Microsoft 365 allow administrators to manage data based on creation or modification dates. However, in my experience, this approach is not always sufficient. Files that haven’t been accessed in years may still linger in OneDrive or SharePoint, cluttering storage, slowing down search, and diluting the relevance of AI-powered tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot. A new feature in Microsoft Purview Retention Policies, expected this winter, promises to enhance Data Lifecycle Management. This upcoming setting will enable policies to identify files that have remained untouched for a specified period and automatically flag them for deletion or archival. This enhancement is particularly valuable for organizations leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot. By removing outdated or irreleva...

Microsoft Teams: One-Way Lobby Chat

Being able to communicate with meeting participants in the lobby has been a long awaited feature. And finally it seems it is on it's way. Coming in the June-July timeframe, the one-way chat to users in the lobby is being released to Teams. 

Once this feature is released, both Organizers and co-organizers of a meeting will see a new tab in the chat window. The new tab will be named Lobby, and is where messages can be sent to attendees currently in the lobby. The waiting attendees can not reply, and the message is not sticky. Meaning it will not be available to someone who enters after the message has been sent.

As with most features, also this can be controlled through the global meeting policies. The new setting will be called "Organizers can chat with lobby participants" and can be set to "On for everyone" or "On for everyone but anonymous users".

As an organizer of many meetings and user groups calls, I am really looking forward to this feature. It is always great to be able to acknowledge that you are aware of their presence in the lobby, and at what time you will let them in. 

This feature is related to the Roadmap ID 480716

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