Beyond the seasonal change, April brings over 30 feature rollouts, retirements, and service updates. Here’s what you need to know.

In the Spotlight: 

• Passkeys in Microsoft Entra Registration Campaigns: Microsoft Entra ID is adding passkeys (FIDO2) to registration campaigns in early April 2026, allowing admins to nudge users toward phishing-resistant authentication.
• Microsoft 365 E5 Includes Security Copilot: Starting April 20, 2026, Microsoft is adding Security Copilot to the Microsoft 365 E5 license. This includes a monthly pool of Security Compute Units (SCUs) at no additional cost.
• New SharePoint Experience Reaches GA: The new SharePoint experience with simplified navigation, an updated app bar, and AI-assisted capabilities will reach General Availability in late April.
• Simplified OneDrive File Transfers for Departing Employees: OneDrive streamlines file management for departing employees. Admins can easily access, filter, and bulk-transfer files while keeping all sharing permissions intact.  

Here’s a quick overview of what’s coming: 

• Retirements: 7
• New Features: 8
• Enhancements: 6
• Functionality Changes: 6
• Action Required: 4

Retirements

1. Starting April 2026, SharePoint Online will retire legacy information management and records features in favor of modern Microsoft Purview capabilities. 
2. Microsoft is officially retiring the SharePoint 2013 Workflow engine on April 2, 2026, with no options for further extensions.
3. On April 2, 2026, legacy SharePoint Add-ins will reach their end-of-life and stop working for all existing tenants.
4. Azure ACS for SharePoint Online retires on April 2, 2026, ending support for custom and third-party app access.
5. Microsoft will end support for the domain-isolated web part feature on April 2, 2026.
6. From April 6, 2026, Microsoft will retire the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel installation option for unmanaged devices in the Microsoft 365 apps admin center.
7. Viva Engage live events powered by Teams Live Events will be retired from April 15, 2026.

New Features: 

1. Microsoft is introducing rule-based Teams app management in early April, which allows admins to bulk-govern certified third-party apps by publisher and scope.
2. Microsoft Teams introduces Express Voice Enrollment by default for enterprise tenants to streamline voice profile registration.
3. Teams Phone will soon allow administrators to assign up to 10 phone numbers to a single licensed user for multi-line management within the Teams interface.
4. Microsoft Edge for Business will support cross-tenant Intune MAM to enable secure work profile access without device enrollment.
5. Defender XDR is introducing AI-driven summaries for DLP alerts using the Purview Data Security Triage Agent to improve investigation and prioritization, in preview this April.
6. Purview adds a new Device Health Reporting dashboard for Endpoint DLP that enables admins to monitor configuration health and policy readiness at scale.
7. With the new Protection reports in the Teams admin center, admins can review and export user-reported suspicious messages and calls. 
8. Purview introduces new auto-labeling actions in SharePoint and OneDrive that allow automatic override and removal of sensitivity labels based on policy conditions. 

Enhancements: 

1. Microsoft updates Teams & Places licensing, bringing Places Explorer & Finder to calendar users, expanding Teams shared space capabilities, and enabling town halls & webinars for Enterprise users up to 3,000 attendees, along with new attendee capacity add-ons.
2. Microsoft is shifting Insider Risk indicators for "Other AI apps" to a pay-as-you-go model this April and will move from license-based to activity-based billing via Azure.
3. Entra extends cross-tenant synchronization to security groups for centralized group management and cross-tenant access, with GA expected by late April.
4. Microsoft Authenticator will enforce jailbreak and root detection for Entra credentials on iOS to automatically block and remove credentials from non-compliant devices.
5. Purview enhances the Data Security Triage Agent with Entra-based identity, metadata-driven custom instructions, unified settings management, and expanded alert support.
6. Microsoft Purview improves sensitivity label targeting with support for excluding Microsoft 365 groups and including dynamic security groups.

Existing Functionality changes: 

1. Teams device management is moving from the Teams Admin Center to the Pro Management Portal in preview to centralize management.
2. OneDrive adds a policy to customize local sync folder names on Windows to reduce path length issues and improve usability.
3. Microsoft is enabling Always-on Diagnostics for Endpoint DLP by default on Windows devices to automatically store diagnostic logs for 90 days and accelerate troubleshooting.
4. DLP policies for SharePoint and OneDrive will now let admins configure policy tips and email notifications independently and remove the dependency between the two settings. 
5. Purview increases the eDiscovery (Premium) review set limit from 20 to 100 per case to expand analysis capacity for investigations starting mid-April 2026.
6. By mid-April 2026, all Viva Engage notifications will transition to the @engage.mail.microsoft domain, officially retiring the legacy @yammer.com address.

Action Needed: 

1. Microsoft will retire the legacy Reporting Web Service for Message Trace on April 8, 2026; organizations should transition to the Microsoft Graph API to maintain visibility.
2. Outlook for Windows usage reports will be removed from the Exchange admin center on April 14, 2026. Admins should use the Microsoft 365 admin center for usage insights.
3. The retirement of Office 365 Connectors in Microsoft Teams has been extended to April 30, 2026. Migrate to Workflows webhooks immediately to prevent service disruptions.
4. Microsoft Defender for iOS will end support for devices running iOS 16 starting April 30, 2026. Users should upgrade their devices to iOS 17 or later. 

Act now to stay ahead and ensure these updates don't impact you!