Exchange Online Message Recall Updates

[Guest The_Exchange_Team]

Since we released the cloud-based Message Recall for Outlook on Windows in April 2023 (see Cloud-based Message Recall in Exchange Online), we’ve continued to work on improvements and enhanced functionality such as support for Outlook on the Web and an improved experience when recalling shared mailbox messages. Today, we’re pleased to announce several more updates and improvements based on customer feedback that are available now to all Exchange Online customers:

 

• Optional Recall Notifications for Recipients
  
• Maximum Recallable Message Age
  
• Support for External Round-trip Routing
  

 

Optional Recall Notifications for Recipients

 

Previously, when a message was recalled it would be silently deleted from a recipient’s mailbox, sometimes causing user confusion. Recipients who had seen or read the message before it was recalled could be left puzzled about its disappearance. While senders often prefer their recalls to be done discreetly, some recipients felt confused by the silent deletion. To reduce recipient confusion, tenant admins can now enable recall notification emails for recipients when a message is recalled. This feature is disabled by default but can be activated in two modes.

 

• For all recalled messages
  
• For read recalled messages only
  

 

When enabled, the relevant recipients of recalled messages will get an email notification informing them of the recall. For example:

 

[ATTACH type=full" alt="Newrecall01.jpg]63657[/ATTACH]

 

Admins can configure recall notifications for recipients in the Exchange admin center (under Settings > Mail flow):

 

[ATTACH type=full" alt="Newrecall02.jpg]63658[/ATTACH]

 

Admins can also configure these settings using Exchange Online PowerShell:

 

Set-OrganizationConfig -MessageRecallAlertRecipientsEnabled [$False | $True]

 

This enables or disables message recall notifications for recipients. Setting this parameter to $True enables notifications, while setting it to $False (default) disables them.

 

Set-OrganizationConfig -MessageRecallAlertRecipientsReadMessagesOnlyEnabled [$False | $True]

 

When the -MessageRecallAlertRecipientsEnabled parameter is set to $True, this cmdlet allows admins to specify if recall notifications should be sent only for read messages. Setting this parameter to $True enables notifications only for read messages, while $False (default) enables notifications for read and unread messages.

 

Maximum Recallable Message Age

 

Previously, messages could be recalled regardless of age. Customers requested the ability to restrict recalling older messages, such as those sent more than 30 days ago. The new Maximum Recallable Message Age setting allows this, with a default of 365 days. Tenant admins can configure it between 5 minutes and 10 years.

 

This can be done in the Exchange admin center (under Settings > Mail flow):

 

[ATTACH type=full" alt="Newrecall03.jpg]63659[/ATTACH]

 

And it can be done using Exchange Online PowerShell:

 

Set-OrganizationConfig -MessageRecallMaxRecallableAge [DDDD.HH:MM:SS]

 

When a sender tries to recall a sent message older than what's allowed, the sender will get a notification saying that the message is too old to be recalled.

 

[ATTACH type=full" alt="Newrecall04.jpg]63660[/ATTACH]

 

Support for External Round-trip Routing

 

By design, Message Recall doesn't support recalling messages sent outside the Exchange Online service boundary. Yet, some admins route their intra-tenant mail (where the sender and the recipients are in the same tenant) out of Exchange Online to a third-party service or on-premises systems for additional processing before routing back into Exchange Online for delivery. Previously, in this scenario, recalls fail.

 

Today, we're pleased to announce that Message Recall now supports recalling intra-tenant messages that route externally then back into Exchange Online for delivery.

 

All three updates are now available to Exchange Online tenants. We hope you'll find these enhancements useful, and we look forward to your feedback.

 

Kevin Shaughnessy

 

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