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Microsoft Entra Blog
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Upcoming changes to the Azure AD sign-in experience

Alex Simons (AZURE)'s avatar
Alex Simons (AZURE)
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Feb 26, 2020

Howdy folks,

 

I’m excited to announce that a visual design update is coming to the Azure AD and Microsoft 365 sign-in experience in April. The freshened default background image on our sign-in screens will be one percent the size of the previous image—reducing bandwidth requirements and improving  perceived page load times, especially on slower networks.

 

 

This is solely a visual user interface (UI) change with no changes to functionality and only affects screens where our default background image (screenshot on the left) shows up today. If you’ve configured a custom background image in Company Branding for your tenant there is no change to your users. However, if this change affects your users, we recommend updating any documentation that contains screenshots and to give your help desk a heads up.

 

We plan on rolling this out globally in the first week of April. We always love to hear your feedback and suggestions and look forward to hearing from you! Let us know what you think in the comments below.  

 

Best regards,

Alex Simons (@Alex_A_Simons)

Corporate VP of Program Management

Microsoft Identity Division

Updated Aug 19, 2021
Version 6.0
  • Eric Marsi's avatar
    Eric Marsi
    MVP
    Feb 26, 2020
    It would be awesome to have the website have an interpreted theme type where if the Browser (PC and android) are in dark mode, the background has a darker overlay than the white. Dark theme is a amazing IMO and this just hurts the eyes.
  • AaronMSFT's avatar
    AaronMSFT
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Feb 26, 2020

    Can we make a "Dark Mode" version of the new screen, and either have it obey the O/S setting, or just make "Dark Mode" the default?

  • EpicWolverine's avatar
    EpicWolverine
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 26, 2020

    Is there a way to set the frosted effect to dark mode? I can see that blinding me at night. It’d be even better if it could change automatically based on browser settings. It looks nice and clean otherwise. 

  • Kelvin Xia's avatar
    Kelvin Xia
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Feb 27, 2020

    Thanks for the great feedback everyone! Dark mode support is definitely on our backlog. Stay tuned for updates in this area.

  • thommck-on-twitter's avatar
    thommck-on-twitter
    Brass Contributor
    Feb 26, 2020

    Glad we are getting some advanced notice this time. Is this going to show up in the o365/azure message center too? 

    The phrase "perceived page load times" is amusing. Still, any optimisation on bandwidth is a great improvement.

     

    I like how it's secretly a subtle Microsoft logo too ☺ 

  • HotCakeX's avatar
    HotCakeX
    MVP
    Feb 26, 2020

    Love the Acrylic/Transparent background. now it's more consistent with the rest of the Microsoft design (Windows 10, Microsoft Launcher, UWP apps etc)

  • Nzdudeinsydney's avatar
    Nzdudeinsydney
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 26, 2020

    Some smart advice I just saw:

     

    Customize that background with your firm's logo.  Instruct your users to expect it and not log in unless they see the firm logo.

     

    Is that something you're making easy to do/enforce at a tenant level?

  • Appanator's avatar
    Appanator
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 27, 2020

    Can you make "real" improvements to the software and not waste everyone's time with new backgrounds?

  • Alexey Goncharov's avatar
    Alexey Goncharov
    Iron Contributor
    Feb 27, 2020

    I’m fully supportive of new update as it improves end-user experience especially on mobile devices with limited network bandwidth. It would be great to have a theme for dark mode not only for browsers (Windows, Mac OS, Android, iOS and iPadOS) as well as for Office 365 apps which support a dark mode, such as Outlook, Teams, OneNote etc.