Is Stream being deprecated?

[JessicaWalter31]

Hi folks,

I was in a meeting yesterday, and it was brought to my attention that there are plans to deprecate MS Stream and migrate everything to a SharePoint site and OneDrive?

If this is true, what does that timeline look like and how will that affect videos currently hosted on the Stream platform? Will the services Stream provides (video quality/playback speed/captions/transcripts etc.) remain in-tact? 

Thanks!

Jessica

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@JessicaWalter31Microsoft Stream is definitely changing to SharePoint/OneDrive (SP/OD) and being integrated into the Microsoft 365 family in a way that is more similar to the other Office apps. The new Microsoft Stream will work with all video files stored in SP/OD, there will be a new Stream web app (scheduled for June 2021 release) and all existing videos stored on Stream will be migrated over to SP/OD. All the updates with information on the changes to Stream, new features and timelines for migration can be found here (see the left menu for the different categories of information): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/stream/streamnew/features-new-version-stream

If it hasn't already done so, your tenant storage for Microsoft Teams meeting recordings will change to SP (Channel meetings) and OD (Standard calendar meetings).  Unfortunately, the change in the storage location for meeting recordings and the lack of the new web app or player have certainly created some issues for users needing to edit and share collections of recordings (previously done via Stream Channels). The 'Highlighted Content' web part with filters and SharePoint pages with videos arranged using tables and the 'File Viewer' web part seem to be the best workarounds at the moment.

[#3]

@millerblair just so you know, the workarounds needed for Stream now means hours spent now having to upload videos, which also slows down my connection. Also, once the videos are uploaded, they no longer generate captions that can be viewed side by side with the video. A VTT file can be downloaded, but that doesn't help if I need to find a conversation on a 4-hour recording. Is Microsoft going to find a better solution for the interim? 

[#4]

@kgohlsen I am well aware of the hours required to get meeting content onto 'Stream Classic' (Microsoft's Term for the old Stream being phased out), as I have used these workarounds myself. I also support teachers across a District with 4,000 teachers who are finding that extra time uploading to Stream Classic, or the loss of functionality by using the SP/OD sharing options frustrating. I don't represent Microsoft in any capacity and was just providing some suggestions given the current state of Stream.

For the most part, I have abandoned the uploading to Stream Classic and am instead using the SP/OD methods that I shared. I have been able to add auto-generated captions to videos that I do upload to Stream Classic. Aside from the inability to add captions to these videos at the moment and edit then in Stream, I would say the sharing and permission options are better and more flexible. I am hoping that the new Stream web app will be an improvement in the end. However, the implementation of the changes to meeting storage without a new web app in place was I'll advised and has lead to the difficulties you've experienced. It doesn't look like from the road map that any solutions will be provided in the interim. So, the best we can hope for is ontime delivery of the new Stream web app.

[#5]

@millerblair sorry for the emotional response, I am so frustrated with this implementation. I'd love to try your workaround, but your bare bones description does not help for those who don't know their way around SP very well, especially given how unintuitive it is. Is there a video or tutorial that would show me how to do that?