Highlights of Atlassian Cloud Feature Releases for Social Impact Teams

[#1]

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year!

Atlassian is continuously releasing LOTs of new features and enhancements to our apps in an effort to continue to bring more value to our customers. 

We've heard from many social impact teams that the volume of releases can be challenging to keep up with. So, we will start sharing a monthly post here with Atlassian for Nonprofits' opinion on the most important releases for social impact customers. 

You can find all our Cloud Documentation blog posts here for the extensive list of releases.

Or checkout our Cloud Roadmap: https://www.atlassian.com/wac/roadmap/cloud?

Let us know in the comments the type of feature releases that are most important to you that you'd like us to include in future. Or share a recent feature release that you think other social impact teams should know about!

December Release Highlights

Admin Experience

1. Control what content gets synced to Rovo from Microsoft Sharepoint & Google Drive

You can now control how Microsoft SharePoint and Google Drive content is synced into Rovo directly from the Admin Hub. This update lets you decide which files to include (by date) and how often they should be updated — giving you more flexibility and helping you keep data fresh with less manual work.

To limit or schedule Microsoft SharePoint or Google Drive content updates in the Admin Hub:

1. Go to admin.atlassian.com

2. Go to Settings, and then Rovo.

3. When adding a new Microsoft SharePoint or G Drive connector:

   • Click Choose content to include.

4. When updating an existing Microsoft SharePoint or G Drive connector:

   • Click the “…” actions menu on the existing Microsoft SharePoint row.

   • Select Choose content to include.

5. Select the Limit by date tab.

6. Pick a date range for the files you want included.

7. Click Save.

8. Set up your preferred update schedule and save your changes.

2. See how Rovo usage is trending in your org

Atlassian Rovo uses AI-driven insights to help you turn information into action. To follow usage trends, view the number of requests your users have sent to Rovo Chat or Agents. Use the date range filter to see usage trends over time.Explore Rovo featuresTo view usage trends for Atlassian Rovo:

1. Go to admin.atlassian.com. Select your organization if you have more than one.
2. Select Security > Insights.
3. Select the AI usage tab.
4. Navigate to the Requests sent to Rovo chart.

 Jira

1. Approvals are coming to Jira - Rolling Out

We’ve added native approvals for company-managed projects using Premium editions in Jira, allowing teams to streamline reviews and sign-offs directly within their workflows. Whether you're managing content reviews, code changes, or project deliverables, you can now set up approval steps that ensure proper governance and accountability.

The approvals feature includes:

• Custom approval fields and approver roles

• In-workflow approval steps and email notifications

• Approval tracking and audit history

• Support for single or multi-step approval chains

2. Create personalised onboarding experiences in Jira - Rolling out

Admins can create personalized welcome experiences with custom content, links, and branding, delivering tailored guidance to new users so they understand company context during their first-time onboarding.

To access and use the new custom onboarding targeting gate in Jira:

1. Sign in to your Jira site.

2. As a site admin, navigate to custom onboarding from Jira admin settings → products

3. Look for the new custom onboarding option to create, manage and get data insights on custom onboarding

3. Create work items from an image - Rolling out

Create work items from images in the backlog view. Snap a photo of sticky notes, screenshots, interface designs, or diagrams and Rovo will generate suggested work items from what it sees. Physical to digital, instantly.

Available in both Jira web and mobile.

To give this a try:

1. Visit the backlog view in your Jira space.

2. Hover on the in-line create button in the backlog.

3. Select the image icon that appears to the right of the create button.

4. Upload an image that you would like to create work from.

5. You have the option to individually accept or reject work items, or accept all recommended by Rovo.

JSM

1. Dedicated page for Atlassian Intelligence answers in the virtual service agent - Rolling out

We've moved the toggle for Atlassian Intelligence answers in the virtual service agent out of the Settings page and into its own AI answers page.

To turn Atlassian Intelligence answers on or off in your project's virtual service agent:

1. From your service project, select Project settings, then Channels & self service, then Virtual service agent.

2. Select AI answers.

3. To activate Atlassian Intelligence answers, turn the toggle on next to Atlassian Intelligence answers, and then select Activate.

   • Atlassian Intelligence answers will start working immediately in all of your connected channels.

4. To deactivate Atlassian Intelligence answers, turn the toggle off next to Atlassian Intelligence answers, and then select Deactivate.

   • Atlassian Intelligence answers will stop working immediately in all of your channels.

Read more about Atlassian Intelligence answers.

2. Virtual service agent in email is now generally available - Rolling out

We’re excited to announce that the virtual service agent in email is now generally available. You can activate the virtual service agent in email so that your customers can find the help they need. When your customers send requests to the email address connected to your project, the virtual service agent responds using Atlassian Intelligence answers.

Find out more about using virtual service agent in email

Confluence

1. Confluence: Import multiple Miro boards - Rolling out

You can now easily import multiple Miro boards into Confluence, transforming them into editable Confluence whiteboards. This feature streamlines the process of migrating your content from Miro to Confluence.

To import your Miro boards into Confluence, anyone with create space permission can:

1. Navigate to the Confluence space where you want to import the boards.

2. Select the option to import Miro boards.

3. Follow the on-screen instructions to upload your Miro boards.

4. Confirm the import to complete the process.

2. A new way to manage early Rovo and AI feature releases in Confluence - Rolling out

Create with Rovo will be available as a default-on beta for eligible Confluence sites. Create with Rovo (beta) allows you to create beautiful, shareable pages, live docs, and whiteboards instantaneously using natural language AI prompts.

Admins can opt out of Create wtih Rovo and related editor toolbar changes for their organization.

To disable early access for your users:

1. Go to Atlassian Administration. Select your organization if you have more than one.

2. Select Apps > AI settings > AI-enabled apps.

3. Select Beta features.

4. Turn off Enable early access features.

Rovo

1. Introducing improvements to agent building - Rolling out

We are introducing scenarios for Rovo agents in Atlassian Studio. This change allows you add multiple scenarios to an agent you're building. What are scenarios? Each scenario contains its own instructions, actions, and knowledge sources and they're tied to a trigger. That means you can use scenarios to determine how your agent responds in specific situations.

• Navigate to Studio via the app switcher.

• Edit an existing Rovo agent, or create a new one.

• In an open agent, select Scenarios

• Add a new scenario.

2. Search and category filtering for Rovo third-party connectors - Rolling out

We are introducing search and category filtering to help with finding third-party connectors to use with Rovo. This change allows you to search for connectors by name, and has a category filter, which allows you to filter the connector list by the type of connector (such as Collaboration, Communication, or Development.)

To access the new experience for Rovo, you must have Rovo enabled within your organization.

1. Go to the Cloud Admin section in your Atlassian app.

2. Go to the Rovo page.

3. Select the Add connector button to launch the add connector flow.

4. Utilize the Search and Category filter options to find the connector you wish to connect.

[Emma Schnee]

@Stephen Neil what type of features would your team find most useful to have flagged moving forward?

[Stephen Neil]

Hi @Emma Schnee  — thanks for pulling this together. I’m definitely one of those who struggles to keep up with the volume of changes, and this summary is really helpful. I hadn’t properly digested anything since early December, so I did have to wade through the updates before I felt I could answer you and this type of summary would save a lot of time. You picked up most of the items I’d noted, plus a couple I’d missed.

A few additional highlights I’ll be sharing with my team: developments on the Service Triage Agent (anything that expands agent capability or adds new automation possibilities is always welcome), the new Restore Workflows feature, and the improvements to sandbox copying with the ability to filter projects.

I’m not sure if there’s a route to provide feedback on the weekly Cloud Changes posts, but one thing that makes them harder to work through is that some updates appear under multiple product headings. As the number of changes has grown, the product-by-product structure creates duplication and can make it easy to lose track of what’s new — I often realise halfway through a section that I’ve already seen the same update elsewhere in the same page.

If possible, the ability to filter updates would really help with cognitive load. For example:

by licence type (to hide items that aren’t applicable), by audience role or capability (e.g. governance & compliance, security, org/site admin, project admin), or even just by a “New this week” view.

Any of those would make it much easier for teams like ours to focus on what’s relevant.

Thanks again for pulling this together — this kind of curated view is genuinely valuable for nonprofit teams trying to stay on top of a fast-moving platform.

[Emma Schnee]

Super helpful, thanks for sharing @Stephen Neil! I'll pass along that feedback on the Cloud Change posts to our internal team. 

Will also make a note for future updates to include new agent and automation capabilities. 

[Emma Schnee]

@Stephen Neil & others - our product managers were appreciative of the feedback. They also recommended that the best experience to learn about new Atlassian changes to your specific apps is if you go to App updates in admin.atlassian.com for any admins who have access.

You can find more details, including how to access App updates, in this support article: https://support.atlassian.com/organization-administration/docs/view-all-changes-to-an-atlassian-app/

Looks like it allows you to choose which app updates you're getting and they will only be related to the apps and the edition that you have. 

[Amanda Barber]

I just learned about the Custom Onboarding from this post and can't find any reference to it in the Jira changelog. This was a great way for me to get a quick view of what has changed and what I missed!