Last week witnessed the surprising return of the Windows local account conversion guide on Microsoft's official website, after much criticism from users. However, what's unsurprising was seeing Microsoft update its Microsoft Roadmap website with new Microsoft 365 features.

It's that time of the week again when we bring you all the latest Microsoft 365 features the company is currently working on and planning to roll out soon. In this week's Microsoft Roadmap Weekly, we have a plethora of upcoming changes in Outlook and Copilot to talk about.

2 Microsoft Outlook: Org Explorer for Mac, QR codes to add accounts, and more

Org Explorer is coming to Outlook for Mac

Microsoft is in the process of overhauling the Outlook experience on Windows. However, Microsoft is also focusing on other platforms, including macOS. One of the new functionalities coming to Outlook for Mac is Org Explorer (Feature ID: 406913), which will be integrated into the app's interface.

If you're an organization, Org Explorer will help you visualize how employees are connected, and their roles within the organization, helping you understand the company's organizational structure quickly. After rolling it out on Windows and the web, Microsoft is now planning to bring Org Explorer to Outlook for Mac next month.

Add an account quickly via QR codes

Apps like WhatsApp and Telegram allow users to log in to their accounts on mobile devices using QR codes. Something similar is coming to Outlook next month. Outlook on the web will get a new "Outlook mobile" button in the Help section. You'll see a QR code on your computer screen upon clicking that button. Once done, users will need to open the Outlook mobile app and go to "Add account" to scan the QR code and add their Microsoft 365 for work or school accounts (Feature ID: 406169). This way, it eliminates the need to manually type in your account information and password over and over again.

A new keyboard key to display all the keyboard shortcuts

The new Outlook is very close to replacing the inbox Mail app on Windows. In addition, Microsoft is also working towards replacing the Alt + Win key combination with the Alt key in the new Outlook for Windows (Feature ID: 403109). The Alt key will do exactly the same thing as the Alt + Win key. Pressing the Alt key on your keyboard will display all the supported keyboard shortcuts in the new Outlook, which helps you with navigating to different menus and emails.

1 Copilot for Microsoft 365: Bing search, scheduled prompts for repetitive tasks, and more

Draft with Copilot gets Bing search support

Copilot AI has search functionality, and is responsible for offering you up-to-date information. However, Draft with Copilot doesn't have support for internet searches right now. This will change in September when Microsoft introduces Bing search to Draft with Copilot in Word (Feature ID: 380839).

A new way to implement changes suggested by Copilot in Excel

You can ask Copilot to make changes to the table data on your Excel sheet, helping you save time. However, by the end of this month, instead of directly applying the changes to the data, it will respond with a detailed description of the changes it'll make, along with an "Apply" button. You'll need to click the button for Copilot to make the changes (Feature ID: 402191).

Scheduled prompts

Another important change Microsoft is currently working on is the ability to schedule prompts in Copilot for Microsoft 365 (Feature ID: 401124). When available, this will make sure you don't miss out on any important task you perform daily, weekly, or monthly. For example, you could schedule prompts on Copilot to remind you to prepare an agenda for a meeting every Monday afternoon.

Customize Copilot responses in Word

If you're using Copilot in Edge browser or Windows, you can already adjust the responses the AI tool offers. Now, Microsoft is looking to implement something similar in Word. By the end of this month, you'll be able to "customize the way Copilot responds to their prompts," thanks to the upcoming Personalization profiles capability (Feature ID: 380430). As described by Microsoft, it'll prioritize your preferences, interests, and other information to give you more personalized answers.

Don't take Microsoft for granted on release timelines

The release timelines mentioned on the roadmap page are subject to change. The latest example is custom emoji support in Teams — it was supposed to be rolled out a couple of months ago, but was rolled out to Insiders last week, instead. So, this might happen again to any of the aforementioned features.