M365 Changelog: Outlook – Mandatory Labeling Before Composing Emails for Mobile Users

MC535264 – Microsoft has listened to customer feedback for Outlook mobile needing to meet the mission of “On the Go”, and for organizations to have mandatory labeling enabled without default labeling. Microsoft is releasing a feature that will allow Outlook mobile users to have a label selection before composing an email to send.

This release will also include a new sensitivity bar below the subject line as well as support label colors.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 109544

When this will happen:

Android: Microsoft will begin rolling out in mid-April and expect rollout to be complete by early May.

iOS: Microsoft will begin rolling out in late April and expect rollout to be complete by mid-May.

How this will affect your organization:

Outlook mobile will introduce a new MDM setting to allow admins to enable this mandatory configuration for Outlook mobile clients (iOS and Android) specifically. Microsoft will enable Android first in early Q1 of 2023, and iOS will release in Q2 of 2023.

If your organization wants to have a prompt mandatory label experience prior to composing an email, make sure you enable mandatory labels for specific users and then set the Intune MDM setting "com.microsoft.outlook.Mail.LouderMandatoryLabelEnabled" to be “true.” The applied users will then see the select label page first before drafting a new email.

If your organization has set the Label policy -AdvancedSettings @{HideBarByDefault="False"}, on Outlook mobile you will see the label selection is now below the subject line. If you do not set that value or set it to be True, the Sensitivity label will still be under the ellipsis when composing a new email. 

Outlook for Android will also support label colors if admins have configured to do so.

What you need to do to prepare:

If you do not want the prompt mandatory UX or the new sensitivity bar, you do not need configure any settings for it. The default new UX will be OFF by default.