How to Find Active EWS-Based Apps in a Microsoft 365 Tenant

Exchange Web Services usage report

Microsoft will retire Exchange Web Services (EWS) from Exchange Online on October 1, 2026. A new usage report helps tenants understand what apps use EWS. Many of the apps are likely to be first-party (Microsoft) apps, but some might be third-party apps developed externally or internally. Those apps need to be retired or upgraded to use Graph APIs. Time is slipping away to do the work.

Microsoft Search in Bing Gets the Bullet

On 19 December 2024, Microsoft announced the retirement of the Microsoft Search in Bing feature. Copilot is better at searching and presenting web and work results. Although tenant administrators might worry about the recent batch of retirements, the fact is that Microsoft retires unsuccessful products and features from Microsoft 365 all the time. The swift demise of the Office tags feature is another example.

Microsoft Retires Stream Mobile App

On May 2, 2024, Microsoft announced the retirement of the Stream Mobile app on July 1, 2024. It’s all to do with rationalization and focus, or so Microsoft says. In any case, the suggested replacements are the OneDrive and Microsoft 365 apps, both of which are capable of handling video uploads, management, and playback.

Teams Classic Client Slipping Away

The Teams classic client has been replaced by the Teams 2.1 client. Microsoft will block access to the Teams classic client for people running the app on unsupported platforms in October 2024. The final block swings into place for everyone on July 1 2025. The migration to the new client appears to be going well, so I’m not sure if many will miss the old client.

The Demise of Office Delve

The Delve web app will be deprecated by Microsoft in December 2024. It’s the end of a line for an app that once promised to reimagine search. The problem is that Delve never achieved much traction within Office 365 and its functionality never increased. In fact, Delve seemed to lose features over the years. Delve now joins apps like Sway and StaffHub as artifacts of Office 365 development and evolution.

Microsoft Signals the End for Exchange Web Services

On September 19, 2023 Microsoft announced their intention to retire the Exchange Web Services API on 1 October 2026. The suggested replacement is the Microsoft Graph API. Microsoft acknowledges that some gaps exist that they need to close before EWS retirement happens, but one big issue they didn’t discuss is what happens to the backup products that currently use EWS to backup Exchange Online.

Microsoft Retires AIP Add-On for Office

Microsoft has announced the retirement of the unified labeling client on April 11, 2024. The client, also known as the AIP add-on for Office, went into maintenance mode on January 1, 2022, so it’s unsurprising that this development should happen. Users get better functionality by using the built-in information protection features in the subscription versions of Office, so there’s no real need to keep the unified labeling client around – apart from migrating users, that is.

Microsoft Retires Azure Automation Run As Accounts in September 2023

Microsoft plans to retire Azure Automation Run As Accounts on September 30, 2023 and replace them with managed identities. I don’t have any issue with the proposal because managed identities are more secure and a better overall solution. It would have been nice if Microsoft had communicated the change more broadly. I guess if you were in the know, you found out about this development, but maybe the average Microsoft 365 tenant administrator might have struggled to discover what’s happening.

Microsoft Announces Retirement of Skype for Business Online

On July 30, Microsoft announced the retirement of Skype for Business Online with effect from July 31, 2021. Two years seems like a long time to prepare, but it’s amazing how time passes when you’ve got lots to do. Microsoft, ISVs, third-party consultants, and customers all have lots of work to do to prepare for the transition.