Microsoft Defender XDR services: Consolidation of Approve release and Release action

In Microsoft Defender XDR services, the Approve release action will be consolidated into the Release action. 

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-July 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024.

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late July 2024 and expect to complete by early August 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Previously, the Approve release action was used by admins to approve a release request that was coming from an end user. We are consolidating the Approve release and Release actions so admins can use the Release action to approve release requests coming from end users.  

End users can use the Request release action of a quarantined email.

Admins can use the Release email action to approve the requested release coming from the end user. 

The Approve release action will be eliminated.

 Approved filtering status will be eliminated.

Note that the Approve action type will be eliminated from the Release-QuarantineMessage cmdlet. For more Approve action type information, see Release-QuarantineMessage (ExchangePowerShell) | Microsoft Learn.

For additional information about this feature update, visit:

• Manage quarantined messages and files as an admin
• Manage quarantined messages and files as a user

This feature update is available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.