is there away to disable reactions to emails

[AB21805]

Hi all,

Is there away to disable reactions for outlook emails for all the org as an admin? 

[#2]

Afaik no, sorry.

[#3]

How about stopping the emails to say someone has liked your email ? This could be done via a rule?

[#4]

I suppose so, yes.

[#5]

I had a case open with Microsoft and no, there is no way to stop this. They shoehorned in this stupid feature, and the only way to stop those emails is by making a rule. That's right, no-reply emails, ticketing system emails, they all get a stupid digest of reactions that nobody ever asked for

It is unreal that we pay an absolute arm and a leg for this service and stuff like this is allowed to fly.

[#6]

If you'd like to turn off the suggested replies feature, use the following steps:
Select File > Options > Mail > Replies and forwards.
Clear the check box for Show suggested replies.
Select OK.

Greeting,
Rachel Gomez

[#7]

This is business messaging not a social media platform.

[#8]

@VNJoe Hi, I don’t understand what you mean by this? 

[#9]

It means:

- Email is business communication
- 'Liking' things is a social media mechanism, not a business messaging mechanism
- Any email "feature" that's not universal on all email systems (not a Microsoft tenant) is exclusionary
- Liking emails from customers that don't have O365 gives the impression an employee did something good and the customer the impression that their vendor did NOTHING because they don't get a response at all

It's pretty straightforward.

[#10]

All I was asking was how I could disable this as it’s something my company doesn’t want, the emails you get stating that someone has reacted to your email isn’t something we want either.

But from what I can see from others who have commented on here, is that it can’t be done so that’s fine I suppose we will have to leave it on, would just be a nicety if we could turn it off

[#11]

Yes, I know. I'm just highlighting all the issues this "feature" creates in a business communication platform. Most companies don't want this, not just you. It's a social media dynamic, not an email dynamic.

[#12]

This is an entirely unwelcome and unprofessional update.

[#13]

@wcsand , I don't know if this is new since December, but per MS's own documentation at

Reactions in Microsoft Outlook - Microsoft Support, in the Information for Administrator section, you SHOULD be able to open a support ticket for your tenant to be placed on a block list for this feature: 

[#14]

Sure, but how about sticking to "Secure by Default" and NOT enabling features by default? They throw that phrase around when it suits their needs...

[#15 · Accepted solution]

It's on the roadmap, supposedly starting next month:

@VNJoe, Absolutely agree, but I was offering a solution in the meantime: make them abide by their documentation. Hopefully the roadmap feature is still on track for release in June, but I'd personally consider opening a ticket anyway, in case the rollout gets delayed.

[#16]

No, you're great, thanks for sharing this! I'm planning on requesting it for all my customers who are complaining about these meaningless social media gags on a business system, hopefully there's a PowerShell command to run to disable it.

[#17]

Add this is as a rule to all your tenants for all messages in and out (put it in the header of all messages)

x-ms-reactions: disallow

[#18]

Insert your admin UPN below and run

# Connect to Exchange Online
Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName <email address removed for privacy reasons> -ShowProgress $true

# Define the custom header and its value
$CustomHeaderName = "x-ms-reactions"
$CustomHeaderValue = "disallow"

$RulePriority = 1

# Create the mail flow rule
New-TransportRule -Name "Drop Reactions" -SetHeaderName $CustomHeaderName -SetHeaderValue $CustomHeaderValue -Priority $RulePriority

# Disconnect from Exchange Online
Disconnect-ExchangeOnline -Confirm:$false

[#19]

@VNJoe 

Careful with this.

It disables the notification side but not the sending side.

Sending user still sees that they sent the Reaction, but recipient never receives it. 

[#20]

That's their own fault for smiling at an email instead of replying like a businessperson. Not my problem.