Microsoft Entra ID Governance introduces Account Discovery to identify local and orphaned application accounts outside Entra ID, improving access visibility and control. Public preview starts mid-April 2026; general availability begins August 2026. The feature is off by default and requires admin opt-in, with no user impact unless acted upon.
Introduction
Microsoft Entra ID Governance now includes Account discovery, a new capability that helps administrators identify application accounts that exist outside of Microsoft Entra ID. Account discovery finds local and orphaned accounts in connected applications and identifies accounts that can be matched to Microsoft Entra ID users. This improves visibility into existing access, simplifies application onboarding into governance, and helps organizations bring unmanaged access under centralized control.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 559476.
When this will happen:
How this affects your organization:
Who is affected:
What will happen:
What you can do to prepare:
No action is required if you do not plan to use the preview.
If you want to test the functionality:
Learn more: Discover identities in target applications with Account Discovery (preview) | Microsoft Learn
Compliance considerations:
No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.