We are rolling out a new Teams policy that will allow users to automatically be in the Public Preview channel of Teams if they are in Current Channel Preview for the Office 365 Client. IT admins can modify this policy for end users such that if Office is getting updates from Current Channel (Preview), Teams will receive updates via Public Preview. This feature will be ON by default for all tenants with users in the Teams Current Channel. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 81704.
Public Preview has provided IT admins with the ability to allow their users to receive preview features before they are released to the public. Coming up in June 2021, not only can users be opted-in to use Teams Public Preview, but IT admins can even configure Teams users preview state to follow Office preview state. All of this functionality will be accessible from the Teams Admin Center.
Affected Workloads
- Microsoft Teams
Key points
- Timing: rollout will begin in mid-July and be complete by late September (previously early August). -The end users in your organization who are previewing on Office through Current Channel Preview, will start getting Teams Public Preview features if they are existing Teams users.
- Roll-out: tenant level
- Control type: admin control
- Action: review, assess and disable if desired by July 24th.
How this will affect your organization
Note: This policy will not impact existing Office preview settings. Tenants with users who are currently in Teams Technology Adoption Program (TAP) will remain in TAP and this policy will not have any impact on those user’s preview settings. Additionally, this policy will not have an impact on Targeted Releases.
What you need to do to prepare
This policy can be managed via the Teams Admin Center > Teams > Update Policies. (Note: If the setting was not available to you in Teams Admin Center before, it is available now)
You can also use PowerShell to update this setting (CsTeamsUpdateManagementPolicy).
Here is an example cmdlet to set the Teams global policy to follow the Office preview via PowerShell: Set-CsTeamsUpdateManagementPolicy -Identity Global -AllowPublicPreview "FollowOfficePreview"
The policy is set to “FollowOfficePreview” by default for all users in your tenant. If you wish to disable this setting, please go to the Teams Admin Center to do so (or use PowerShell).
If you already have users who you have allowed to opt-in/opt-out of Public Preview and wish to maintain that setting in its current form, you will need to go to the Teams Admin Center to switch from the new default, “FollowOfficePreview” to “Enabled” (or use PowerShell).
Message ID: MC264092
Published: 23 June 2021
Updated: 10 September 2021
Action required by date: 24 July 2021
Effective: July 24, 2021
Alex Lim
Alex Lim is a certified IT Technical Support Architect with over 15 years of experience in designing, implementing, and troubleshooting complex IT systems and networks. He has worked for leading IT companies, such as Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco, providing technical support and solutions to clients across various industries and sectors. Alex has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the National University of Singapore and a master’s degree in information security from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also the author of several best-selling books on IT technical support, such as The IT Technical Support Handbook and Troubleshooting IT Systems and Networks. Alex lives in Bandar, Johore, Malaysia with his wife and two chilrdren. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Website | Twitter | Facebook
