Retirement of entities in Outlook for contextual add-ins

Outlook is making some changes to the way it supports contextual add-ins, which are add-ins that activate based on the content of an email message or a meeting request. Currently, Outlook supports two methods for activating contextual add-ins: entity stamping and regular expression (regex) matching. Entity stamping is being retired and will no longer highlight entities in Outlook, so add-ins that rely on entity stamping, such as Bing Maps, Action Items, and Suggested Meetings, will also be retired. Regular expression matching will still be supported, as well as the Join Meeting button in online meeting add-ins. This change will be rolled out from mid-May 2024 to mid-June 2024. Those who have add-ins that use entity stamping should update them to use regex matching or the Join Meeting button prior to this change happening.

For more information about how to update add-ins, visit the links provided in the post. The announcement was made on the M365 Admin website.