Copilot release preferences and Frontier

Release preferences decide when users in the tenant receive new generally available features. They are separate from Microsoft 365 Apps update channels.

Microsoft 365 uses an audience-based model with three options:

Configuration facts:

• Set Standard or Deferred at Copilot > Settings > View all > Copilot Release Preferences: General Availability. Roles that can do it: Office Apps Administrator, Security Administrator or AI Administrator. Changes take up to 24 hours.
• You can add exceptions by user or Entra security group: up to 100 in total, counting each member of an added group. To make a pilot group get features early, set the tenant to Deferred and add the group as Standard (and the reverse to defer a group).
• Updates that are not deferred-eligible reach Deferred users on the same schedule as Standard. Major updates are tagged in Message center and announced at least 30 days ahead when action is needed.
• Users can be in Frontier and also have a Standard or Deferred preference; the preference applies to features that are not Frontier features. Moving users from Standard to Deferred can lose features not yet available in Deferred.
• Targeted release is being retired. From November 2026 admins can no longer add, remove or modify Targeted release enrolment, and it ends in January 2027. Users then follow their Standard or Deferred preference. A unified release preferences experience for Frontier, Standard and Deferred arrives in November 2026, so the navigation may change. Microsoft 365 Apps and Windows update channels, and Insider programmes, are not affected.
• In GCC, GCC High and DoD, only Standard release is supported; Deferred and Frontier are not available.
• Copilot Frontier is its own setting, where an admin chooses which users or groups can reach eligible preview features. Cowork’s app-building skill and the Copilot onboarding experience are examples of Frontier features.

Common trap: Treating Targeted release as the way to give pilot users early access going forward - it is being retired; use Frontier for pre-GA preview, or Standard with Deferred for the rest of the tenant.

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This note is one section of Ultra Transcenders AB-650: Administering Microsoft 365 and AI Services, an independent study guide that explains every topic the exam covers by technology, with comparison tables, diagrams and the common traps, plus a glossary linked to Microsoft Learn.

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