M365 Changelog: Send As Group by Default

Updated March 04, 2022: Microsoft has updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft 365 Groups in Outlook currently supports “Send As” functionality which enables group members to Send As a group (“From” address has group id) rather than as an individual. Group members should have this permission configured for the specific Groups by admins to make use of Send As capability. For the groups where user has Send As permissions enabled, user has the option to pick the groups account in the “From” address. Today, by default, the email loads up with individual email id in the From field when user compose, reply, reply all and forward messaged form group mailbox.

With this change, for users having the “Send As” permission for specific Microsoft 365 groups, when they compose, reply, reply all and forward mail from Groups mailbox then the default “From” address populated would be Group id instead of their individual id. This change will affect only when users are inside a group mailbox where they have Send As permissions. There will be no changes in behaviors in the personal/individual mailbox.

The change is scoped only to the Microsoft 365 Groups mailbox. This will be available in Outlook on Web.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 85633.

When will this happen:

Microsoft expects this rollout to begin in mid-January and expects it to be completed by late March (previously late February).

How will this affect your organization:

This will affect the users who have “Send As” permissions in Microsoft 365 Groups and make use of Outlook on Web application. Users with Send As permission who use Groups mailbox to send communication in Outlook on web will be able to see the default “From” address change from individual mail address to group mail address. They can change the address back to individual mail address before sending the communication. Only the default “From” address behavior is changed.

What you need to do to prepare:

This change will get deployed automatically to your tenants and no need to take any release specific action. You might want to notify your users about this new capability and update your training and documentation as appropriate.