Share this article

With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier

From new Edge features to natural language queries in Excel, here’s our recap of the Microsoft 365 April updates

4 min. read

Published onMay 1, 2020

published onMay 1, 2020

Share this article

Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial teamRead more

In this article

Toggle

Microsoft has publishedits monthly roundup of all the new features and changes to Microsoft 365, including theofficial rebranding of Office 365 for consumersthat happened on April 21. Many of this month’s updates focus on helping companies and users stay connected, productive, and secure as many users transition to working remotely full-time.

Microsoft Edge improvements

Microsoft Edge received multiple updates this month including InPrivate Search with InPrivate browsing, which will not record Bing searches when a user is browsing in an InPrivate window. When using InPrivate mode, Bing also won’t allow you to sign into your Microsoft account so that your searches won’t be saved to Bing or the Microsoft browsing history.

Microsoft also announcedseveral upcoming Edge featureslike smart copy that lets users select content and it into a document or e-mail with the same formatting, and new vertical tabs to make it easier for users to organize their existing open tabs. Microsoft Edge will also add some notable security improvements with a new Password Monitor, which will let users know when their passwords may have been compromised and appears to be similar toFirefox’s Monitor service.

Excel adds natural language queries, Outlook gets calendar improvements

For Excel users, thenew natural language queriesare now generally available on the ribbon inside the Ideas pane. Once added, the new natural language query option lets any user search for data using natural language by simply opening the “ideas” pane in Excel and entering a question in the query box.

New natural language queries in Excel

Outlook will also receive a new feature in the calendar settings that lets the user end meetings early to help avoid creating upcoming scheduling conflicts. The goal of the new calendar feature is to try to give users 5, 10, or even 15 minutes back from every meeting.

Yammer for Teams and mobile app update

In terms of what’s new this month, Microsoft has placed a lot of emphasis on thenew Yammer Communities app now available for Microsoft Teams. In addition to their new integration with Teams, Microsoft also released a redesigned Yammer mobile app that brings a new experience for live events, comments, and improved upload times.

Visio adds new features

For Visio users, the web app receivedmultiple improvements and capabilities. Users can now replace a specific shape in a diagram with a different one while allowing the user to retain the connectors, formatting, and everything else the original shape had. There is also a new feature to add images to diagrams across documents, as well as a pinch-to-zoom gesture to make it easier to focus on a specific part of a diagram.

Microsoft 365 Premium

Microsoft 365 Business Premium now includes a full Azure AD Premium P1 license that gives businesses greater flexibility when it comes to letting employees access work apps securely. “With this addition, customers will now get features like Cloud App Discovery, application proxy, dynamic groups, and more, which help employees maintain secure access to work apps from home,” the company explained.

As more companies embrace employees working remotely, Microsoft added a new feature to theMicrosoft 365usage reports that will let let businesses see more into employee activity including calendar and app activity. There’s also a new card in the usage report homepage that specifically looks at how remote work tools are being used during this time, such as whether e-mail or Teams usage has increased or decreased.

With Microsoft announcing this week thatMicrosoft Teams now has 75 million daily active users, Microsoft is committed to improving the applications and services for remote workers, and this month’s updates add new user experiences, integrations, and security improvements to make working remotely just a little easier.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time).

For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web.

Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they’re looking for.

User forum

0 messages

Sort by:LatestOldestMost Votes

Comment*

Name*

Email*

Commenting as.Not you?

Save information for future comments

Comment

Radu Tyrsina

With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low#

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app#

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities#

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount#

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier#

From new Edge features to natural language queries in Excel, here’s our recap of the Microsoft 365 April updates#

Microsoft Edge improvements#

Excel adds natural language queries, Outlook gets calendar improvements#

Yammer for Teams and mobile app update#

Visio adds new features#

Microsoft 365 Premium#