Cloud-based Message Recall in Exchange Online

Have you every accidently sent an email that wasn’t ready? Sent it to the wrong person? Something you regret? Rage quit? 🤨 Any combination of the above but to a Distribution List? Or are you an Exchange Admin watching this unfold knowing what comes next… Well Microsoft is FINALLY fixing the Message Recall feature and that is today’s #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix !

For several years #Microsoft has been working on a new cloud-based Message Recall feature for Exchange Online. This week it was announced that it is finally ready and has begun rolling out to all #Microsoft365 tenants – Still need a business case for migration to #ExchangeOnline ?

The classic #MessageRecall feature was hit-and-miss at best. It was client-based requiring the recipient to have Outlook for Windows open, clunky, didn’t work if the message had been read or moved, filled the requestors mailbox with recall status email notifications, and had a success rate of about 50%.

The new Message Recall feature has a greater then 90% success rate, occurs within the Exchange Online mailbox and is no longer client based, is fast regardless of how many recipients got the message due to scale of cloud resources in Exchange Online, provides a new single status report per recalled message, and can even recall read or moved messages!

After a Message Recall request is executed the next time the recipient’s email client syncs, regardless of client now, with their Exchange Online mailbox the message should be gone. Now you can breath again…

See a feature comparison below:

CapabilityClassic Message RecallNew Message Recall
Average recall success rate40%> 90%
Recalls are performed in the cloudNoYes
Recipients can use any email client to be eligible for recallsNoYes
Can recall read messagesNoYes
Can recall messages from sub-folders (except Draft and Sent Items by design)NoYes
Single recall status report for all recipientsNoYes

Note: Message Recall has always only been available if both you and the recipient are in the same email organization. You can not recall messages sent outside to other companies, even if they use Microsoft products, or to Gmail, Hotmail, etc.

For more information about Message Recall or how to perform one see:

Look for this feature to be Generally Available by mid-March 2023!

#Microsoft #Microsoft365 #ExchangeOnline #MessageRecall #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix

Valentine’s Day Microsoft Teams Love – Automatic hands lowering in Teams meetings

Happy Valentine’s Day ❤ Here is your #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix ! #MicrosoftTeams will soon automatically lower hands in Teams meetings if that attendee has spoken! You’re going to love this feature!!! 😉🥰

Users who raise their hand in a Teams meeting and then speak will see a notification informing them that their hand will automatically be lowered shorty. The notification will allow them to keep their hand raised if they choose to. If the user doesn’t take action on the notification, their hand will automatically lower.

Hand automatically lower functionality

This feature will ensure smoother meeting facilitation for organizers and presenters. Note: This feature will only be available in the desktop versions of Microsoft Teams

Per Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 90022 look for this new feature to be in public preview this month with General Availability roll out in mid-March 2023!

#MicrosoftCloudQuickFix #Microsoft Microsoft365 #MicrosoftTeams #ValentinesDay

Microsoft Authenticator Number Matching enabled by default at the end of February 2023

Upgrades to how your Microsoft Authenticator works to include number matching by default are coming at end of February 2023. That is today’s #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix !

With so many alerts on our phones these days from text messages, email messages, stock price alerts, Amazon reorder messages, new Spotify release notifications, Elon’s Tweets, and LinkedIn post alerts from me, its easy to get fatigued and just hit whatever to dismiss the alert (except this one of course 😎) and move on.

The increasing adoption of strong authentication and use of multi-factor authentication on corporate and personal accounts has added to this fatigue and spawned a technique called ‘MFA spamming’. These attacks rely simply on the users alert fatigue to approve a notification without any context to gain access.

To combat this for users using Microsoft Authenticator #Microsoft365 administrators can require users enter a number displayed on the sign-in screen when approving an MFA request in the #Microsoft Authenticator app. This feature is critical to protecting against MFA spamming attacks.

Note: If you are using ADFS/NPS there may be are some additional steps so please consult the full documentation below.

Microsoft will begin enabling this security feature for all users of the #MicrosoftAuthenticator App starting at the end of February 2023. Feature rollout controls will also be removed and as such it is recommended to begin testing and create training / change management documentation now.

For guidance on how to enable this security feature now and target users for testing and documentation see this link on Microsoft Doc – Enable number matching in the portal – Microsoft Entra

For more information please see:

#Microsoft #Microsoft365 #AzureAD #MultifactorAuthentication #MicrosoftAuthenticator #NumberMatching #MicrosoftCloudSecurity #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix

Exchange Server 2013 End of Support April 11, 2023

Yesterday was Groundhog Day and in honor of the great movie with the same name today’s #MicrosoftQuickFix is once again (get the reference now 😉) that Exchange Server 2013 is reaching end of support in 67 days from today on April 11, 2023!

After April 11, 2023, #Microsoft will no longer provide technical support for problems that may occur, bug fixes for newly discovered issues, security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered, and time zone updates.

Now look this doesn’t mean that because the Exchange Server software is out-of-date and no longer supported that it is going to stop working. Email will still flow, databases will still store data, mailboxes will still be accessible, but nefarious hackers will breathe a sigh of relief as the code now remains stagnant and despite “network magic” mitigation attempts all it takes is one zero-day venerability making its way in…

So your options are to Upgrade to Exchange Server 2019 – See the following page on Microsoft Docs for to Exchange Server 2019 system requirements, Exchange 2019 Requirements, Exchange 2019 Memory Requirements, Exchange 2019 Client Compatibility to begin.

Note: It is a supported coexistence scenario for Exchange 2019 and Exchange 2013 provided all your Exchange 2013 servers in your organization are patched to Exchange Server Cumulative Update 21 or higher.

and/or

Migrate to Exchange Online – See Decide on a migration path in Exchange Online on Microsoft Docs – Anyone still need a business case for migrating to #ExchangeOnline ?

In either case we recommend seeking assistance and using the Exchange Deployment Assistant which is a web-based tool that asks you about your current Exchange environment and generates a custom step-by-step checklist that will help you.

For more information about Exchange Server see:

#Microsoft #Microsoft365 #MicrosoftExchange #ExchangeOnline #MicrosoftCloudSecurity #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix