M365 Changelog: (Updated) Outlook – Disallow Reactions on Specific Emails

MC670444 – Updated September 19, 2023: Microsoft has updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft is developing a suite of improvements that support the Reactions in Outlook feature, including methods for a sender to disallow reactions on an email they are about to send, or methods for an admin to control which emails in their tenant should disallow reactions.

Different Outlook endpoints will differ in terms of timing of full support for the feature (i.e., UI entry point to Disallow Reactions and UI-disablement when reactions are disallowed). Server-side support will roll out in advance (i.e., attempts to react on emails that have reactions disallowed will not result in a Reaction signal).

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 117433

When this will happen:

Microsoft will begin rolling out the server-side support in late September 2023 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete rollout by mid-October 2023 (previously late September).

How this will affect your organization:

You will have new capabilities at hand to fine-tune whether emails coming in from outside your tenant should not allow reactions, whether all emails in your organization should not allow reactions or use a myriad of other conditionals.

Your users will also have more agency to decide if a certain email they are about to send should not allow reactions.

What you need to do to prepare:

Microsoft will be publishing some documentation soon that describes the full extent of this feature.