Back in December last year, Microsoft revealed that big changes were in store for the Microsoft 365 app UI and Copilot as it renamed Copilot on Microsoft 365 to Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. As such, earlier this month, Microsoft released its new Copilot Chat and detailed its features.
Today, on its Microsoft 365 Admin Center portal, the company has revealed the general availability rollout roadmap of Copilot Chat for Outlook and Teams and how it will span throughout the end of January and most of February.
General Availability (Worldwide): The Microsoft Copilot app will be available to install and pin in Teams and Outlook starting late January 2025 (previously mid-January) and is expected to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January).
General Availability (Worldwide): The Microsoft 365 Copilot app will be pinned by default in the Teams left rail staring late January 2025 (previously mid-January) and is expected to complete by late February 2025 (previously late January).
On Teams Mobile, the pinned app will show up in the top header.
Outlook Mobile will have Copilot show up in the tab bar starting in mid-February 2025.
The company has also revealed more details on the rollout schedule and and briefly describes how users will be able to access the features:
In mid-January, Microsoft Copilot will become available to users with an Entra account in Microsoft Teams and Outlook. If pinned, Entra users will be able to access the Microsoft Copilot app directly from the left rail in Outlook and Teams.
On Teams Mobile, the pinned app will show up in the top header. Microsoft Copilot will also become available in the Store for users to add on their own, managed by the same admin settings used for app availability today. Outlook Mobile will have Copilot show up in the tab bar starting in February.
Note: During the rollout, the Microsoft Copilot app will temporarily be available for Semi-Annual Channel users of classic Outlook for Windows. These clients will respect admin and user preferences, but we typically do not show Copilot features in Semi-Annual Channel of classic Outlook for Windows. After customers update to Version 2408 or newer, the Microsoft Copilot app will once again be hidden for Semi-Annual Channel users.
In addition, users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license will have Copilot automatically pinned in the left rail in Teams, along with the Copilot chat that is automatically pinned in the Teams Chat pane for them today.
Finally, Microsoft has also outlined how IT admins and system admins can control the usage of the new feature in Outlook and Teams by pinning the app. Options to block and remove Copilot Chat are also available:
Admins can control if Microsoft Copilot is pinned in Teams and Outlook using the same Copilot pinning control shared previously to pin Copilot in the Microsoft 365 app. Admins can also pin Microsoft Copilot in Teams by adding Copilot to Pinned apps in app Setup policies and assigning the policies to unlicensed users in Teams admin center.
With the pinning control, you have the option to pin or not pin Copilot for your users. If you select to not pin Copilot, you also have the option to allow your users to be notified to make this choice. If no action is taken, Copilot will not be pinned but users will be notified to pin it themselves.
Users can unpin Copilot in Outlook. Users can unpin Copilot in Teams if User pinning is enabled in app Setup policies.
Currently, you can remove access to Copilot in the Microsoft 365 app and copilot.cloud.microsoft as documented in Removing access to Microsoft Copilot. These controls will continue to be respected as the Copilot app rolls out in Outlook and Teams.
In addition, you will be able to allow and block the Copilot app from appearing in Outlook, the Microsoft 365 app and copilot.cloud.microsoft through Microsoft 365 admin center (MAC) like you would manage availability for any other app. These controls are already provided today for Microsoft Teams through Teams admin center.
Those who have access can find the post under ID MC922627 on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center portal.
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