SharePoint Alerts Retirement: Impact and Alternatives

The retirement of SharePoint Alerts marks a significant shift for organizations relying on Microsoft's notification system. Learn about the impact and explore alternatives to ensure seamless operations.

Microsoft has announced the gradual retirement of SharePoint Alerts, a staple feature used to notify users of content changes in libraries or lists. Alerts are simple but increasingly out of step with modern user expectations and Microsoft’s evolving roadmap. Their deprecation signals a broader shift: moving from passive, disconnected notifications to proactive, contextual, and integrated experiences.

For organizations that rely on SharePoint Alerts, this change presents both a disruption and an opportunity. For Atlas, we see it as the perfect moment to rethink how notifications can drive smarter and more relevant engagement with enterprise knowledge. 

Understanding the SharePoint Alerts retirement timeline

Microsoft has announced that SharePoint Alerts will be retired by July 2026. July 2025 marks the start, with phase-out for any new tenants and this is extended to all tenants by September 2025. By October 2025, any SharePoint Alert will expire 30 days after its first run unless manually extended by the user. By July 2026, the ability to use and extend SharePoint Alerts will be completely removed.

This timeline is critical for firms relying heavily on SharePoint Alerts for their operational notifications. 

Impact, challenges and opportunities

The retirement of SharePoint Alerts presents both challenges and opportunities for organizations, particularly in the legal industry where timely notifications are pivotal. Firms will need to adapt to new systems and potentially reassess their notification workflows. This can be daunting but also offers an opportunity to modernize and improve efficiency.

The transition may involve initial disruptions, but it also provides a chance to leverage more advanced and integrated notification systems like Power Automate and SharePoint Rules. These modern alternatives offer enhanced functionality and better alignment with digital transformation goals.

Utilizing the Microsoft 365 Assessment Tool for a smooth transition

To facilitate a smooth transition away from SharePoint Alerts, Microsoft recommends using the Microsoft 365 Assessment Tool. This tool helps organizations identify existing SharePoint Alerts within their tenant and plan their migration. By proactively using this assessment tool, firms can minimize disruptions and ensure a seamless shift to modern notification systems. 

Alternatives: Power Automate, SharePoint Rules or Atlas

As SharePoint Alerts are phased out, Microsoft recommends transitioning to Power Automate or SharePoint Rules. Power Automate, part of the Microsoft 365 suite, offers robust automation capabilities that can handle complex workflows and integrate seamlessly with other applications. It allows for greater customization and scalability compared to traditional SharePoint Alerts.

SharePoint Rules provide a straightforward and efficient solution for managing notifications directly within SharePoint Online. SharePoint Rules is also user-friendly and do not require additional licensing. By comparison, Power Automate delivers more advanced and flexible automation options, enabling integration between SharePoint and numerous Microsoft or third-party services. However, it is important to note that Power Automate may incur extra costs, as it requires a separate license depending on your Microsoft 365 subscription.

Both built-in solutions though also present some limitations, including that "Readers" (i.e. users that are given read only permissions in the site) and External users (guest users from outside the organization) cannot configure their own alerts using SharePoint Rules or Power Automate, as these features are not available to them.

Here's how Atlas will evolve alerts and notifications

Atlas already includes a robust and centralized Alerts and Notifications feature; we are working on a new version that will go far beyond what SharePoint Alerts offered. But we’re not just replacing like-for-like, we’re offering a capability that supports intelligent and actionable notifications.

• Users can save a set of rules via a new webpart that can be displayed on any page to manage all of their alerts centrally (without needing to navigate to the specific library or list itself).
• Users will have access to a dynamic content dashboard they can access anytime in the future where they can view and administer their Alerts.
• Alerts can be pushed via email or via the standard Atlas Alerts feature visible within Atlas.
• Atlas notifications are context-aware, drawing from the metadata-rich foundation of your content. Whether it’s a critical compliance update or new research in a specific workspace, notifications will be delivered based on relevance to the user or groups preference configured, not just changes to a file or page.