Microsoft announced its cloud-powered printing management solution, Universal Print, back in 2021. It aims to eradicate print server infrastructure and drivers for printers, allowing customers to leverage cloud capabilities to manage their printing needs. Back in November 2024, Microsoft told customers that it is working on a new "pull print" functionality for Universal Print, and today, it has made it generally available.
In simple terms, pull print empowers customers to trigger a print job from any location and then collect their printed document at any printer, completely removing the need to manually select a printer. Basically, whenever the user who initiated a print job reaches an available physical printer, they can release their print job after organizational authentication to retrieve their document. The nature of this interaction is what Microsoft is dubbing Universal Print anywhere.
There are several advantages of using Universal Print anywhere. Since print jobs are only released by users after they reach the physical location of an available printer, there is very low risk of printed confidential documents being left unattended. The solution also offers greater flexibility, as you don"t need to select a printer in advance and can securely authenticate through your organization"s policy. There is also an environmental benefit to this approach of only releasing print jobs when in the vicinity of a printer, as it reduces paper waste and unnecessary toner usage from uncollected documents.
Microsoft has also touted a simplified experience for both end-users and admins. This includes printer registration directly to the Universal Print service or through the Universal Print connector, configuration of secure release options, and authentication of users. Admins also have the ability to pre-configure available print options and narrow down the printers that can be members of the pull print group. The company will also be working with printer OEMs in the future for enhanced partner integration.
Universal Print anywhere with pull print is now available for all Microsoft 365 customers with existing Universal Print licensing at no additional cost. It is cross-platform and works across Windows and macOS.