New Report button in Outlook 2407 - How do i remove it?

for everyone on this thread we found the root cause and will raise a fix on Monday. It should address the issue of user reported settings not hiding the inbuild report button on classic outlook for windows in coming weeks

thanks for bearing with us.

Hi Dhairyya,

Can you help us or point us to a resource that can help explain best practices for end user reporting? It's become a bit confusing so guidance from Microsoft would be helpful.

Long ago, we deployed the "Report Message" add-in across the entire tenant. We understand the importance of reporting messages after attending many sessions with the Exchange and email security teams. Users are trained on how to report messages and understand that it not only helps the company, but it can also help other companies as well as Microsoft. We have been quite happy with their response as even mobile outlook users know how to report phishing emails.

Then within the last couple of months, we started to see the red outlined "Report" button show up on ribbons. This triggered calls from users, but we couldn't tell them why. We experimented with removing the Report Message add-in for a group of users so they would have just one report button. However, removing the add-in removed the ability for Outlook mobile users to report messages. We use Defender for Business on all endpoints including mobile.

We don't use any third-party services like KnowBe4 and rely on the excellent security stack from Microsoft. Most users continue to use Outlook classic, but a handful use OWA. Every mobile user uses Outlook mobile.

It seems a bit confusing to have two reporting methods, which is why we are looking for guidance.

Thanks very much.

-david

Hey David,

The long-term plan is to have consistent end user reporting in outlook across all clients (including support for shared and delegate mailboxes) using in-build report button. It is today available across Outlook for web, new outlook for windows, classic outlook for windows, outlook for mac. Android and iOS should ship soon - Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365

Once this report button is available consistently across all outlook clients with shared and delegate support, we will take the long path (years) to deprecate the report message and report phish add-in.

At the moment all three - report message, report phish and the inbuild button are available and they are like doors to the same house. So, whatever the end user uses the experience for the admin will be same as they call the same API internally which follow your user reported settings.

please let me know if you need more clarity or have any more questions.

Hi Dhairyya,

Thank you for your clear response which helped me understand what the future will eventually look like. Until then, we will try to minimize end user confusion with the reporting function. What do you think about this for our short-term plan?

Environment: all users use classic outlook on their windows 11 laptops and outlook mobile on their phones/tablets. 98% of mobile devices are running iOS and the other small group are android phone users. All users have been trained to report messages with an emphasis on phishing vs junk. Some like to report junk but not as important in the bigger picture. We run Defender for Business on all PC's and mobile devices.

Requirement: all windows/mobile clients need to have a consistent method to report messages

It would seem like the only option available to us would be to disable the built-in report button (the red outlined shield) in the Defender console under Settings, Email and collaboration, and User reported settings. In that section, we would disable the checkbox labeled Monitor reported messages in Outlook. Here is a screenshot:

Does this look correct to you? If not, what else should we consider?

On that same screen, there is an option to report messages within Teams. This is new to me so I wonder if we should enable it and let users know in case, they see something "phishy" in teams. Is this ok to have it enabled for end users to report within teams?

If these steps look good to you, our plan would be to continue to deploy the Report Message add-in via the main admin console, settings, and integrated apps. By deploying this add-in, it allows us to have the same Report Message button across all windows and outlook mobile clients.

And then sometime in the future, the built in Report button (red outlined shield) will be consistent across all platforms and clients, correct? If yes, do you have a best guess as to when this might happen? When it is stable and pervasive, we will then remove the Report Message add-in.

Hopefully, this all makes sense but if we are overlooking something, your opinion would mean a lot.

Thanks again for the guidance!

for everyone on this thread we found the root cause and will raise a fix on Monday. It should address the issue of user reported settings not hiding the inbuild report button on classic outlook for windows in coming weeks

thanks for bearing with us.

Is there any update on this? I still can see the report button in my Outlook even it should have been turned off from the settings.