As Microsoft announced in the message center post MC1490899 on 7th October 2026 Microsoft 365 Targeted Release will retire in January 2027, replaced by Frontier, Standard, and Deferred release options. Administrators are being advised that they MUST update user enrollments and release preferences by November 2026, when Targeted Release management ends and a unified release preferences experience launches in the admin center.
Effectively targeted release for Microsoft 365 is merging into Frontier, in Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Copilot is getting a Release Preferences option.
Check you current config in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under Settings > Org settings > Organization profile > Release preferences.
Configure the future release preferences in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under Copilot > Settings > View all > Copilot Release preferences: General Availability and opt in to Frontier for some or all user under Copilot > Settings > View all > Copilot Frontier
| Current Config | Future Config Copilot Release Preferences | Future Config Copilot Release Frontier |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Release for All | Standard Release | No Access |
| Targeted Release for Selected Users | Standard Release | Specific Users and Groups |
| Targeted Release for All | Standard Release | All Users |
It is also possible to add the new Deferred release option into the mix, which defers updates for “approximately” 30 days from release date until they are rolled out to users. Also rolling out in November this only apply to “deferred-enabled” features and message center posts will feature details of whether a new feature is on that will be deferred with this option enabled.
With Standard release selected in Copilot release preferences up to 100 users can be set as an exception and have deferred release applied to them.
The same is true with Deferred release selected in Copilot release preferences, in that up to 100 users can be set as an exception and have standard release applied to them
Exceptions user are set by adding users or groups, but the total number of users covered must not exceed 100 total.
NOTE: none of this impacts on the Microsoft 365 apps installation options set in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under Settings > Org settings > Services > Microsoft 365 installation options.
You can find the official version of what you need to know about the retirement of Targeted release is available in this Microsoft Learn article and more on the new standard and deferred release options in this Microsoft Learn article.
