Services
Affected Platforms
Summary
Outlook Newsletters, enabling users to create recurring internal email updates, moves to General Availability in mid-2025 with default opt-out activation. Admins can control access via Set-OwaMailboxPolicy cmdlet. Organizations should review policies and prepare support teams for this new communication feature.
Details
What and Why
Outlook Newsletters is a new way for users to create and share recurring email updates with internal audiences using the familiar Outlook interface. After a successful public preview, this feature is moving to General Availability (GA) with a change in default behavior: starting at the end of July, 2025, it will now be enabled by default (opt-out). This update aims to increase discoverability and adoption of the feature, helping teams communicate more effectively across the organization.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 328282
Rollout Schedule
- Public Preview (Worldwide): Ending by late July 2025.
- General Availability (Targeted Release): Begins late July 2025; expected completion by early August 2025.
- General Availability (Worldwide): Begins mid-August 2025; expected completion by late August 2025.
Impact on Your Organization
Who is affected:
- All users of Outlook for the web and the new Outlook for Windows.
- Admins managing mailbox policies via PowerShell.
- Users will see a new drop-down option to create newsletters from the New Mail button.
- A new navigation icon for Newsletters will appear in the left-side panel.
- The feature will be enabled by default (opt-out model).
- Admins can manage access using the Set-OwaMailboxPolicy PowerShell cmdlet.
- The
OutlookNewslettersAccessLevelproperty will default to ReadWrite unless explicitly set.
Action Required / Recommendations
- Review your organization’s
OwaMailboxPolicysettings before August 2025. - Use the
Set-OwaMailboxPolicycmdlet to configureOutlookNewslettersAccessLevelto one of the following: ReadWrite– users can create and read newsletters.ReadOnly– users can only read newsletters created by others.NoAccess– disables the feature entirely.- Communicate this change to helpdesk and support teams to prepare for potential user questions.
- Update internal documentation if you reference Outlook capabilities.
- Learn more: Newsletters in Outlook (Preview)
Compliance considerations
| Compliance Area | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Does the change provide a new way of communicating between users, tenants, or subscriptions? | Outlook Newsletters introduces a new method for internal communication via recurring email updates. |
| Does the change include an admin control and, can it be controlled through Entra ID group membership? | Admins can manage access using the Set-OwaMailboxPolicy PowerShell cmdlet and Entra ID group membership. |
| Does the change allow a user to enable and disable the feature themselves? | Unless restricted by policy, users can choose to create or not create newsletters within Outlook. |
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