Renaming 10 Azure Active Directory roles

Updated August 13, 2020: To ensure the best possible experience for our users, we are delaying some of our deployments to reduce the amount of change flowing into the services. Please see the updated roll-out timeline below

Some Azure Active Directory (AD) built-in roles have names that differ from those that appear in Microsoft 365 admin center, the Azure AD portal, and Microsoft Graph. This inconsistency can cause problems in automated processes. With this update, we are renaming 10 role names to make them consistent.

Key points
Timing: mid-September (previously mid-August) rollout; complete in early October (previously September)
Roll-out: tenant level
Control type: admin UI
Action: Review and assess by September 14, 2020

How this will affect your organization

After the rollout, you will see these 10 updated Azure AD names in the Microsoft 365 admin center, Azure AD portal, and Microsoft Graph API.

Table name here

What you need to do to prepare

If you have PowerShell script or application that leverages these roles by display name, please update it by September 14, 2020.

We strongly discourage the use of display names in your script or code. Instead, you should reference the role template ID. See this list of template IDs for Azure AD built-in roles.

SharePoint admin center – retiring four classic pages

The following pages in the classic SharePoint admin center have been replaced by pages in the new SharePoint admin center and will be removed/retired: “Site Collections”, “Sharing”, “Access control”, and “Geo locations”.

Key points:
Major: Retirement
Timing: the change will roll out incrementally over several months. Once the banner appears on your tenant’s classic pages, the transition will happen 30 day later.
Action: review and assess

How this will affect your organization:

Admins will start to see a banner on these four classic pages. The banner will display the date when the page will be retired along with a link to documentation that describes where to find all the features in the new admin center. Sample below:



After the retirement date, these classic pages will be replaced with redirect pages to the new SharePoint admin center so that any bookmarks continue working. Sample below




It's not possible to opt out of this change and preserve these pages.

What you need to do to prepare:

You may consider updating your training and documentation as appropriate.

For admins:
Find site collection features in the new SharePoint admin center.
Find access control features in the new SharePoint admin center.
Find sharing settings in the new SharePoint admin center.
Find geo location features in the new SharePoint admin center.

Introducing the Lists app in Teams

MSFT is pleased to launch the Lists app in Microsoft Teams for all Teams clients. This feature is related to Microsoft 365 Lists which is accessible via Lists home (MC218031, July 7, 2020).

Key points
Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 64162
Timing: early September and complete by mid-October 2020
Roll-out: tenant level
Control type: Teams admin control
Action: Review and assess

How this will affect your organization

The Lists app in Microsoft Teams brings lists in team SharePoint sites into the collaboration and teamwork canvas of channels and facilitates conversations around list items. With this app, end users can work on their favorite lists from within Teams.

• After adding the Lists app, users can carry out all functions of Microsoft Lists (home) and SharePoint lists, including adding/editing columns, filtering, sorting, formatting, and exporting to Excel.
• Create a new list which will reside in the team site, and pin the list to the channel tab
• Pin any existing list they have access to the (the or a) tab.
• Start a channel conversation about a list item after clicking the list to see a full stage view.
• Lists created using the Lists app and Lists created in SharePoint are identical.

What you need to do to prepare

This feature ships default ON; Lists is pre-installed for all Teams users and is available directly in the tab gallery of every team and channel.

Teams admins can control the availability of the app using app permission policies.

Consider notifying your end users about the availability of the Lists App and update your end user training and documentation should you enable this for your tenant.