Stay on top of Microsoft 365 product and feature changes
With Microsoft 365, you receive new product updates and features as they become available instead of scheduled updates that are months or years apart. As a result, you and your users will routinely experience new and improved ways to complete your work rather than a costly and time-consuming company-wide upgrade. The challenge with such a model is keeping up with the changes and updates. Here are a few ways that you can stay on top of the Microsoft 365 updates in your organization.
Stay on top of Microsoft 365 changes
| Feature | Description | How to use |
|---|---|---|
| Message center |
Learn about official service announcements and feature changes. You can read these messages in the Microsoft 365 admin center, the admin mobile app, or receive a weekly digest in email. Share these messages with others in your organization when you see a message someone else should act on. You can also use the Service Communications API to retrieve messages. |
Sign in to the admin center or admin mobile app. Select Health > Message center. Select a message to read or share. Change the services you see messages about or opt in to the weekly digest by choosing Edit preferences in the admin center. This is also where you can opt out of the weekly digest. Overview of the Microsoft 365 Message center |
| Targeted release |
Sign up for Targeted release for yourself and a select group of individuals at your organization. Get the latest Microsoft 365 updates before everyone else and then inform or train your users on the new experience. |
Sign in to the admin center or admin mobile app. Select Settings > Organization profile > Release preferences. Learn more about Targeted release. |
| Roadmap |
Visit the Microsoft 365 Roadmap to learn about features that have been launched, are rolling out, are in development, have been canceled, or previously released. The roadmap is the official site for Microsoft 365 updates and changes. |
Visit the Microsoft 365 Roadmap frequently and learn about planned updates and releases. |
| Blogs and Community |
Visit Microsoft 365 Blogs, Microsoft Community, and Microsoft Tech Community to learn more details about changes in Microsoft 365 and share experiences with other users. |
Visit Office Blogs. Visit Microsoft Community. Visit Microsoft Tech Community. |
Note
You need to be a global administrator to make changes to release preferences.
Learn about Microsoft 365 previews
Microsoft 365 releases some features in public preview or private preview to customers. These features are being actively developed and may not be complete.
During the ‘Private preview’ phase, a controlled testing environment is provided that is limited to a small group of customers. Features in private preview are typically more restricted and evaluated by a select set of users. Access to private preview features is usually by invitation only, directly from the product team responsible for the feature or service. Private preview allows for more confidential testing due to the smaller group size. Microsoft provides support for private preview features. It can be seen as a focused, exclusive testing phase before broader public preview.
During the ‘Public preview’ phase, Microsoft releases certain features to a broader audience for testing and feedback. These features are made available to a wider group of customers and can be tested and used in production environments. However, they may have restricted or limited functionality and may only apply to specific platforms. Public preview features are actively being developed and may not be complete. Microsoft encourages users to provide feedback during this phase, and public preview features are fully supported by Microsoft. Some features may be available only in selected geographic regions or specific cloud environments.