[Feature]: Enterprise Governance Controls for WebView2 Traffic Used by M365 Applications

Describe the feature/enhancement you need

Microsoft 365 applications increasingly rely on WebView2 for content delivery, application bootstrap, profile population, synchronization, and update-related traffic. During enterprise testing and packet analysis, this traffic appears to bypass many of the administrative controls traditionally available through Delivery Optimization (DoSvc), BITS, BranchCache, and related Group Policy controls.

The result is that administrators currently have limited ability to govern WebView2-generated traffic used by applications such as New Teams, New Outlook, Loop, OneDrive, SharePoint-integrated workloads, and other modern Microsoft 365 experiences.

Microsoft Support has reproduced the behavior and escalated it internally to Product Group review. However, there remains no documented enterprise mechanism to manage this traffic with the same level of control previously available through Delivery Optimization.

We are requesting enterprise governance capabilities for WebView2-generated traffic, including policy-based controls, visibility, and bandwidth management options.

The scenario/use case where you would use this feature

Enterprise organizations often operate remote offices, healthcare facilities, schools, government locations, manufacturing sites, and bandwidth-constrained WAN environments.

Historically, administrators could manage Microsoft traffic using Delivery Optimization policies, BITS controls, BranchCache, peer caching, scheduling windows, and bandwidth throttling policies.

As Microsoft 365 applications increasingly leverage WebView2, administrators no longer have equivalent governance controls. During large-scale tenant migrations and application on-boarding events, endpoints can independently download significant amounts of content directly from Microsoft and affiliated CDN providers, creating operational challenges for constrained sites.

Desired capabilities include:
GPO and Intune policy controls for WebView2 traffic

• Bandwidth throttling options
• Time-of-day scheduling controls
• Delivery Optimization integration where applicable
• Enterprise reporting and visibility into WebView2 network activity
• Administrative controls comparable to those previously available for DoSvc-managed traffic

Community discussion among enterprise administrators has generated significant interest in this topic, with multiple organizations reporting similar observations and requesting additional governance capabilities.

How important is this request to you?

Critical. My app's basic functions wouldn't work without it.

Suggested implementation

The requested capability does not necessarily require changes to application behavior. The primary requirement is administrative governance.

Possible implementation approaches:

• Intune and Group Policy settings for WebView2 network traffic.
• Bandwidth throttling controls similar to Delivery Optimization.
• Time-of-day download restrictions.
• Administrative reporting showing WebView2-generated network activity.
• Policy controls allowing administrators to limit concurrent download activity.
• Integration with existing Delivery Optimization controls where applicable.
• Enterprise APIs exposing WebView2 transfer telemetry and utilization metrics.
• The ability to classify WebView2 traffic generated by Microsoft 365 applications separately from general browser traffic.

The goal is not to prevent WebView2 functionality, but to provide enterprise administrators with governance capabilities equivalent to those historically available through Delivery Optimization, BITS, and related Microsoft management frameworks.

What does your app do? Is there a pending deadline for this request?

This request originates from large-scale Microsoft 365 enterprise deployments and tenant migration activities.

Our organization is currently performing Microsoft 365 migration work involving tens of thousands of users. During testing and production migration events, WebView2-driven traffic generated by modern Microsoft 365 applications has created operational challenges because administrators lack governance controls that previously existed through Delivery Optimization.

The issue affects Microsoft 365 adoption, onboarding, synchronization, and update workflows involving applications such as New Teams, New Outlook, OneDrive, Loop, and related services.

There is no immediate deadline, however Microsoft Support has previously reproduced the behavior and escalated the matter for Product Group review. Enterprise administrators continue to report similar observations and are seeking administrative controls and visibility for WebView2-generated traffic.