As 2025 winds down, Microsoft isn’t letting up. November is packed with meaningful retirements, AI-powered enhancements, and compliance-driven feature updates across SharePoint, Teams, Exchange, Purview, and Defender. Whether you’re overseeing tenant governance, security, automation, or user productivity, this month demands your attention.
Let’s walk through the key retirements, features, enhancements, and action items that Microsoft 365 admins and enterprise IT teams need to plan for right now.
Table of Contents
November at a Glance
| Category | Count |
|---|---|
| Retirements | 6 |
| New Features | 12 |
| Enhancements | 5 |
| Functionality Changes | 2 |
| Action Required | 4 |
Retirements: What’s Going Away
- SharePoint SendEmail API
Retires Nov 1, 2025 — For years, custom code, Power Automate, and legacy workflows leaned onSP.Utilities.Utility.SendEmailto fire off emails straight from SharePoint. Effective October 31, this API stops working. Purview logs can help discover impacted implementations. The modern path: shift all automation to the Microsoft Graph API or Outlook connector for any ongoing email requirements.
🔗 More Info - Mobile Devices Page in Outlook Web & New Outlook
Retires Nov 6, 2025 — The dedicated device management UI inside Outlook Web is going away November 6. Microsoft wants all device management to move to My Account (web portal) or native device tools on iOS/Android, reflecting the steady march toward unified endpoint management.
🔗 More Info - Power BI “Visualize the List/Library” in SharePoint
Mid-Nov 2025 — If your users like clicking a button to spin up instant Power BI reports from SharePoint lists, it’s time to adapt. These features are retiring in mid-November, along with previously published legacy-linked reports. Instead, exporting data to Power BI Desktop or using new integrations is now the path forward.
🔗 More Info - Viva Engage Desktop Notifications
Mid-Nov 2025 — With the ongoing convergence of notification systems, desktop push options in Viva Engage will disappear mid-month. The replacement? In-app notifications across Teams, Outlook, and Viva Engage provide a single, reliable place for alerting and engagement.
🔗 More Info - Microsoft Lists Mobile Apps (iOS & Android)
Mid-Nov 2025 — Bye-bye, native apps! hello, responsive web. From mid-November, Lists mobile apps will no longer be on the app stores. Guide your users to the Lists web experience instead.
🔗 More Info - “Refresh All on Page” in OneNote Meeting Details
Nov 15, 2025 — If you’re accustomed to using the “Refresh All” button in OneNote’s meeting details, mark your calendar for November 15. After this date, only manual updates (reselecting meetings) will keep things current.
🔗 More Info
New Features: Worth the Hype
- Knowledge Agent in SharePoint
Launching November 1, this AI-powered tool transforms content management with Copilot-smart organization, metadata auto-fill, broken link detection, co-authoring help, and responsive Q&A features. Site admins can opt-in at their own pace.
🔗 More Info - Entra Authentication for Bots & Agents in Teams
From November 3, bots and agents in Teams group chats now use Entra-based authentication, supporting private and secure token handling. This helps organizations maintain tighter app control and smoother consent workflows.
🔗 Roadmap ID 503557 - Enhanced Quarantine View in Defender for Office 365
Quarantine email previews in Defender for Office 365 now display per recipient for clarity, and clickable URLs within them are disabled for added safety. Teams, meanwhile, will now show real-time malicious link warnings in chats and channels, keeping phishing threats at bay.
🔗 More Info - Malicious URL Protection in Teams
Teams will warn users about harmful links in chats and channels.
🔗 More Info - SMTP Onboarding to App RBAC
Assigning send-as permissions gets easier now,SMTP.SendAsApproles can be granted to apps for groups of mailboxes, streamlining what used to be a tedious PowerShell-driven process.
🔗 Roadmap ID 498356 - Entra ID Passkey Profiles in Auth Methods Policy
Admins gain granular control over FIDO2 passkey policies, letting specific groups live with appropriate authentication methods as preview support lands this month.
🔗 More Info - Teams External Chat via Email
Teams is amping up external collaboration by allowing users to chat with outside contacts via email address even if they aren’t on Teams. This is enabled by default, but organizations can toggle it off through policy.
🔗 More Info - Enterprise Application Insights for SharePoint
SharePoint gains a major reporting boost with a new tool showing third-party app access, permissions, and request history, crucial for auditing and defending tenant data.
🔗 Roadmap ID 417481 - IRM + DSI Integration in Microsoft Purview
Launch scoped investigations directly from Insider Risk cases.
🔗 Roadmap ID 486827 - Immersive Events in Teams (GA)
Starting Nov 14, the global launch of 3D virtual events in Teams. Participants can mingle as avatars in a virtual space. Note: Premium licenses are needed for organizers, and events can handle up to 300 attendees.
🔗 More Info - Auto-Archiving in Exchange Online
When mailbox storage hits 96%, older emails are auto-moved to archive (if enabled). Rolling out for Targeted Release tenants on November 15, Exchange mailboxes nearing quota will auto-archive older emails (barring exceptions), keeping mail flowing without admin intervention
🔗 More Info - New Workflows Experience in SharePoint
Natural language flows, modernized builder, and default templates now live.
🔗 More Info
Enhancements: Behind-the-Scenes Upgrades
- Quarantine Preview in Defender
Plain text removed, link previews restricted, external content disabled by default.
🔗 More Info - SharePoint Version History Optimization
Grid view edits in SharePoint lists and libraries will now roll up rapid changes into a single version, reducing clutter and storage usage, a welcome efficiency boost.
🔗 Roadmap ID 511800 - Purview DLP + Entra GSA Integration
Data loss prevention policies can now tap into the network layer, inspecting files in transit (for E3/E5 tenants) and curbing shadow IT or risky cloud behaviors.
🔗 More Info - Admin Consent Now Required for Exchange/Teams APIs
Expanding Secure by Default: Admin consent is now required for all third-party API access in Exchange and Teams, matching the higher bar already enforced on SharePoint and OneDrive.
🔗 More Info - Conditional Access + Audit Logs for eDiscovery Admins
Block non-compliant admins and logFilePreviewedactions in Purview. eDiscovery admins are now bound to Entra Conditional Access. If policy requirements (like MFA) aren’t met, admins will be blocked from accessing SharePoint content in Purview, and detailed audit logging (“FilePreviewed”) is enabled.
🔗 More Info
Functionality Changes
- “Files” Tab Renamed to “Shared” in Teams Channels
Now includes files AND links shared in chats, not just the document library.
🔗 Roadmap ID 470597 - New Teams Calendar Experience (Legacy Toggle Removed)
Includes Copilot/Places integration. Legacy calendar retired.
🔗 More Info
Action Required
- Nov 3 – Retirement of Microsoft Places Team Guidance
Switch to Microsoft 365 Groups for scheduling. Team Guidance in Microsoft Places retires on November 3. Transition team scheduling to Microsoft 365 Groups as soon as possible.
🔗 More Info - Nov 14 – Retirement of UKG & Blue Yonder Shifts Connectors
UKG users move to UKG Flow; others need custom integrations. These connectors retire November 14. UKG customers should migrate to the UKG Flow app; others can develop custom integrations to maintain workforce data flows.
🔗 More Info - Late Nov – Retirement of Viva Insights Export via MGDC
Transition to Power BI Connector in Fabric or CSV export. Exporting via Microsoft Graph Data Connect is being phased out, migrate your reporting needs to the Power BI Connector in Microsoft Fabric or CSV export by November 27.
🔗 More Info
Final Thoughts
November 2025 pushes Microsoft 365 into a smarter, more secure, AI-assisted future. Whether you’re optimizing Exchange storage, modernizing SharePoint governance, or prepping Teams for immersive experiences and secure external access, there’s something here for every admin.
- Review audit logs.
- Test archiving policies.
- Communicate upcoming retirements to users.
- Double-check consent settings for your apps.
Because in Microsoft 365 land, “set it and forget it” no longer works.
Thank you for stopping by. ✌️