Services
Affected Platforms
Summary
Microsoft Entra ID Governance introduces Account Discovery to identify local and orphaned application accounts outside Entra ID, improving access visibility and control. Public preview starts mid-April 2026; general availability begins August 2026. The feature is off by default and requires admin opt-in, with no user impact unless acted upon.
Details
Introduction
Microsoft Entra ID Governance now includes Account discovery, a new capability that helps administrators identify application accounts that exist outside of Microsoft Entra ID. Account discovery finds local and orphaned accounts in connected applications and identifies accounts that can be matched to Microsoft Entra ID users. This improves visibility into existing access, simplifies application onboarding into governance, and helps organizations bring unmanaged access under centralized control.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 559476.
When this will happen:
- Public Preview (Worldwide): Rollout began in mid-April 2026 and is expected to complete by late April 2026.
- General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We expect to begin rolling out in early August 2026 and complete by late August 2026.
How this affects your organization:
Who is affected:
- Administrators managing application access using Microsoft Entra ID Governance.
- Tenants with provisioning configured for supported third-party applications (for example, Salesforce or Atlassian).
What will happen:
- Administrators can opt in to preview Account discovery for supported applications.
- The feature discovers local and orphaned accounts that exist outside of Microsoft Entra ID.
- Discovered accounts can be matched to Microsoft Entra ID users, improving access visibility.
- There is no impact to users and no change to existing access unless administrators take action.
- The feature is off by default and requires admin opt‑in during preview.
What you can do to prepare:
No action is required if you do not plan to use the preview.
If you want to test the functionality:
- Ensure you have a provisioning configuration for a supported third‑party application (for example, Salesforce or Atlassian).
- Verify your tenant has Microsoft Entra ID Governance or Microsoft Entra Suite licenses.
- Inform identity and access management administrators about the preview to avoid confusion when reviewing access data.
Learn more: Discover identities in target applications with Account Discovery (preview) | Microsoft Learn
Compliance considerations:
No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.