Table of Contents
Summary
- Introduction of the External domains anomalies report in Microsoft Teams for detecting unusual interactions with external organizations.
- Admins will have access to insights on external domains with abnormal communication activity through the Teams admin center.
- A Block option will be available in the report for managing external domains directly.
- No action is required to access the report, but enabling alerts is recommended for proactive notifications.
Admin Impact: Medium
User Impact: Low
Release Start: 27 Feb 2026
Release End: 15 Mar 2026
Services: Teams
Category: Stay informed
Tags: New Feature, User Adoption, Admin Action
History
1/21/2026 Item Added to Message Center
Microsoft Message
Introduction
To help admins detect unusual or potentially risky interactions with external organizations, Microsoft Teams is introducing the External domains anomalies report. This report analyzes cross-tenant communication patterns for your tenant and highlights sudden spikes or abnormal engagement activity. These insights support proactive investigation and help protect your organization while enabling secure external collaboration.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 536572.
When this will happen
General Availability (Worldwide): Rolling out in late February 2026 and expected to complete in March 2026.
How this affects your organization
Who is affected:
Teams administrators can view this report for their Microsoft 365 tenant if their organization collaborates with external organizations.
What will happen:
- A new External domains anomalies report will be available in the Microsoft Teams admin center under Protection reports.
- Admins can select Communication anomalies, choose a date range, and run the report to view results:
- Insights include external domains with unusual communication activity:
- External domain name
- Total anomalies detected
- New 1:1 chat threads created by that domain
- New group chat threads created by that domain
- A Block option is available directly in the report for managing external domains:
What you can do to prepare
No action is required to access the report.
To receive proactive alerts:
- Enable External domains anomalies alerts in the Teams admin center:
- Go to Notifications & alerts > Rules.
- Select External domains anomalies.
- Set status to Active.
- Specify a Teams channel for notifications if desired.
- Daily alerts will summarize the top five domains with unusual activity.
Compliance considerations
No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.