Microsoft’s Frontier programme now covers
Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint.

What Microsoft announced

Until now, the public previews of Microsoft’s different Microsoft 365 products have lived in different places. In a post on the Microsoft Copilot Blog on 26 October 2026, Microsoft wrote that starting in November, Frontier will include eligible public preview features for new Outlook for Windows, OneDrive, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams, so that a business has one programme, one admin setting and one place to try what is coming, prepare its people and send feedback before general availability.

Frontier already gave the people a business enrolled early access to Copilot features and to Microsoft’s new Copilot agents. Those people do not need to enrol again: from November they also receive the eligible previews of the four other products. Microsoft describes the programme as an optional opt-in controlled by your administrator, and enrolment stays optional.

Frontier, Standard and Deferred

Microsoft now describes three release options for Microsoft 365. Frontier gives the people you enrol eligible features before general availability, so they can try them, prepare and send feedback. Standard release is the default: people receive new features as they become generally available. Deferred release holds major features back until about 30 days after the rollout to Standard release begins, for organisations that need more time to check changes before everyone receives them.

Frontier sits beside the other two rather than replacing them. A person can be enrolled in Frontier and still follow your Standard or Deferred setting for every feature that is not part of Frontier, and the people you do not enrol keep receiving features on that setting. Microsoft also says that a preview might never be released to Standard or Deferred release, so a feature someone tries in Frontier can change, or stop, before the rest of the business ever sees it.

Who decides, and where

Enrolment is a decision for your Microsoft administrator, and you do not have to enrol the whole business. An administrator with the AI Administrator, Security Administrator or Office Apps Administrator role opens the Microsoft 365 admin centre, goes to Copilot, Settings, View all, and selects Copilot Frontier. The setting starts at No access; the other choices are All users, or Specific users and groups. Microsoft suggests beginning with a pilot group, such as the people who look after IT or the people who want to test new features, and widening it later. It can take up to three hours for the features to appear for the people enrolled.

One setting, and what each person receives

An example business, from November

Microsoft 365 admin centre Copilot Settings View all Copilot Frontier

• No accessThe default: nobody receives previews
• All usersEveryone in the business
• Specific users and groupsA pilot group you chooseOperations leadOffice manager

Up to three hours before previews appear

Each person has a Microsoft 365 business licence that includes Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint

Person Operations leadEnrolled, with a Copilot licence Office managerEnrolled, no Copilot licence Sales leadNot enrolledReceives features at general availability, on your Standard or Deferred setting

Receives the previewsNot shown

Our drawing, with an example business, of the setting and the licence rules in Microsoft’s announcement and its page “Get started with the Microsoft Frontier Program”. It is not the admin centre’s interface.

What each enrolled person actually receives depends on their licences. A Microsoft Copilot licence is no longer needed to enrol someone in Frontier, but each person only sees the previews of the products their licence covers. Someone enrolled without a Copilot licence is not shown the Copilot previews, and someone whose licence does not include Teams is not shown the Teams previews.

Frontier also brings Microsoft’s preview agents, which appear in the Agent Store with “(Frontier)” in their name once your administrator allows agents built by Microsoft, and since 29 March 2026 newly published Frontier agents only reach people who are enrolled. Some previews rely on models from other AI providers, such as Anthropic, and Frontier never switches an AI provider on for you. A preview that relies on Anthropic models works from the start in Australia and New Zealand, where Microsoft enables those models by default, and needs an administrator to switch them on in the UK, where they start switched off. We set out that difference in Microsoft Copilot or Claude for a business on Microsoft 365.

The terms of a preview

Microsoft sets out what a preview means for your agreements. Frontier experiences stay governed by your existing agreements, including the Product Terms and the Microsoft Data Protection Addendum, and they can process personal data as that addendum describes. As previews, they may be modified, suspended or discontinued, may not be covered by standard support commitments or service level agreements, and may come with Frontier-specific preview terms. Some may only be available on a paid basis, and Microsoft points to its Copilot Credits Guide for the ones that consume credits.

One line matters for any business that answers to a certification or to a customer’s security questionnaire: Frontier features do not comply with the ISO 27001, ISO 27002 or ISO 27018 requirements. Frontier is managed at the level of your tenant, and Microsoft lets production tenants enrol people, so the previews work on the email, files and meetings your enrolled people already use. Choosing who is enrolled is therefore also choosing which of your business information passes through features that sit outside those certifications.

Targeted release ends in January 2027

Targeted release is the setting many Microsoft 365 administrators have used to give some people, or everyone, new features early in their general availability. From November 2026, administrators can no longer add people to it, remove them or change it, and in January 2027 Microsoft retires it for Microsoft 365 services. The people on it keep receiving its features until then. After that they follow your Standard or Deferred release setting, and Standard release is the default.

Nobody on Targeted release is moved into Frontier. Microsoft draws the line this way: Frontier gives access before general availability, while Targeted release gave access early within general availability. If the people who saw changes first in your business should keep doing so, an administrator enrols them in Frontier. If they were on Targeted release so that someone checked changes before everyone else, Microsoft recommends Deferred release for the business, with those people kept on Standard release.

Our drawing of the dates and the recommendations on Microsoft Learn, “Plan for the retirement of Targeted release in Microsoft 365”, updated on 7 October 2026.

The change covers the Microsoft 365 admin centre, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint Online, Outlook on the web, new Outlook for Windows and Office for the web. Microsoft 365 Apps update channels, Windows update channels and the Microsoft 365 Insider programmes are not affected. Microsoft recommends reviewing who is on Targeted release before November 2026, under Release preferences in the organisation settings of the admin centre, and a single place to manage Frontier, Standard and Deferred release arrives in the admin centre in November.

What the announcement does not say

Microsoft’s post does not list which Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint previews will arrive first, and it gives no day in November. For what comes next, it points administrators to the change notices Microsoft posts in the admin centre and to the Frontier programme’s own site. Its pages name no country exception for Frontier or for the end of Targeted release beyond US government clouds, so a business in Brisbane, Auckland or Manchester works to the same timetable.

How we start

We work in Claude and set it up for the businesses we work with. When a team runs on Microsoft 365, we start from its tenant: who can open what, which settings your administrator has already chosen, and which previews and AI providers are switched on. If you want to talk through what this change means for your business, the first step with us is a free AI pre-audit: 45 minutes on a call about how you and your team use AI today and what to put in place first. You leave with a clear next step, with or without us.

How we help, who we are, how we handle security, and our guides on adopting AI securely and answers your team can find without asking you. Also today: requests your team can settle without waiting on you.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from Microsoft’s own pages, read on the day of publication. Previews change often and details may change after publication.

1. Microsoft Copilot Blog: Frontier expands to more Microsoft 365 public previews, 26 October 2026
2. Microsoft Learn: Get started with the Microsoft Frontier Program, updated 26 October 2026
3. Microsoft Learn: Plan for the retirement of Targeted release in Microsoft 365, updated 7 October 2026
4. Microsoft Learn: Anthropic models in Microsoft Online Services, updated 23 October 2026