Outlook Classic. OWA, and the New Outlook All Get the Org Explorer

Now that we’ve all recovered from the news about the retirement of Viva Goals, a possibly more important change in the world of Viva is the removal of the requirement for a Viva Suite license for access to the Org Explorer feature in Outlook (Figure 1). Microsoft introduced the need for potential Org Explorer users to have a Viva Suite license in February 2023 after originally saying that a Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 license was sufficient.

According to MC939925 (last updated 5 December 2024), rollout of Org Explorer to Outlook users will start in mid-January 2025 and complete by mid-April 2025. The Org Explorer is available for Outlook classic, OWA, and the new Outlook for Windows. Microsoft 365 roadmap item 421191 says that the feature is available to all Microsoft 365 commercial customers, which implies that anyone with a paid-for Microsoft 365 license can use the Org Explorer.

The Need for Directory Sanity

I never understood why Microsoft decided that it was a good idea to license the Org Explorer as a premium Viva feature. The explorer reveals the same kind of information that’s shown by the Microsoft 365 user profile card (without the ability to add custom properties to what’s displayed about users).

It seems like the folks who put together the Viva licensing strategy cast around to find features they could include to justify premium pricing and decided that the Org Explorer was a good fit. It’s yet another of the Microsoft 365 licensing oddities, like demanding an E5 license to add a default retention or sensitivity label to SharePoint document libraries. I had a Viva Suite license at one point, which is how I tested access to the Org Explorer, but after losing that license, I never noticed that the Org Explorer was no longer available in Outlook, which summarized the value I received from the feature.

Even though I might not have discovered much value in the Org Explorer, I think it’s fair to say that those working in large enterprises, especially when offices are distributed and/or multinational, might consider the Explorer to be a useful tool. Like user profile cards, the usefulness of something like the Explorer is highly dependent on the accuracy of the information stored in Entra ID. For instance, if reporting relationships (managers and direct reports) are not maintained in Entra ID, it’s impossible for a tool like the Org Explorer to build a coherent view of the organizational structure.

Some organizations prefer to store reporting relationships in HR databases and don’t synchronize this information with Entra ID. In such a situation, the view of the organization constructed by the Org Explorer is unlikely to be helpful or accurate.

Outlook’s Toggle into the Future

Speaking of Outlook classic, in MC949965 (December 6, 2024), Microsoft says that in April 2026, they will “toggle” enterprise users of Outlook classic to use the new Outlook for Windows. Fortunately, users will be able to recognize Microsoft’s mistake and immediately switch back if they choose. Conditions that will prevent automatic toggling include:

• Tenants hide the switching toggle. Hiding the toggle is the easiest way to stop Microsoft automatically moving Outlook classic clients to the new Outlook.
• Tenants choose an admin-driven migration.
• Outlook accesses on-premises mailboxes.

Microsoft wants to give users the opportunity to try the new Outlook, something that might be better appreciated if the client worked better than it does now. New features like pinning and snoozing messages might be appreciated by some, but I suspect that many in the Outlook community don’t care too much about these things.

Still, who knows what might transpire between now and fifteen months’ time? All the lingering issues that stop people switching now might be solved and everyone will be happy to adopt the new client before Microsoft support for the classic client ceases in 2029.

Change Keeps on Happening

Product retirements, licensing changes, and client upgrades are just part and parcel of Microsoft 365 life. It’s hard to keep track of everything that happens. Even we have a hard time, and we’ve been tracking the ins and outs of change across Office 365 and Microsoft 365 since 2014.

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