In May 2021 Microsoft published a blog announcing Multi-stage disposition approval in Microsoft Records Management in Microsoft 365 as well as some other really nice enhancements to the Information Governance and Records Management tools. This is the second blog post in a series looking at the new features.
This update also included features which were previously announced with more detail. The first one we are going to look at is updates to retention to manage Teams messaging retention and deletion.
Microsoft Teams saves messages for compliance purposes in mailboxes. Chat messages are saved in the individual’s mailbox whilst Teams Posts are saved in the Group mailbox. However they are covered by specific retention policies NOT exchange and mailbox retention policies.
Not all features in the compliance space are covered in all licenses however, the good news is that Teams retention policies are available in all paid Office 365 licenses. Teams retention policies currently does not cover private channels (though this is currently in development – see https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/roadmap?featureid=70582 for up the most up to date details on release).
Retention will support Shared Channels (officially known as Microsoft Teams Connect Channels) upon launch later this year (see https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/roadmap?featureid=70766 for updates on release dates)
To manage retention for Microsoft Teams messaging navigate to Information Governance in the Compliance Center https://compliance.microsoft.com/informationgovernance Retention Labels do not have a part to play in message retention so go directly to Retention Policies Create New retention policy and enter name and description.
Set Locations
Remember Adaptive Scopes can be used upon release (due Aug 2021) to help cope with a changing environment, but for now you will need to specify users and/or Teams for each policy if the whole organisation is not covered.
Choose required retention settings.
Review the settings then click Submit to create
If you are creating a baseline policy with a view to adding additional policies with adaptive scope when it is released, always remember the principles of retention which governs the situation where multiple retention polices and/or labels apply.
For more information about Teams retention policies, see How retention works with Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Docs instructions to set up a retention policy, Create and configure retention policies.
