Microsoft Stream on SharePoint

Microsoft Stream has had two major incarnations. The current — and only supported — version is Stream (on SharePoint), which stores videos as files in OneDrive and SharePoint. The older Stream (Classic), with its own segregated video storage and separate admin model, was retired in 2024. Knowing which one you're dealing with prevents a lot of confusion.

Stream (on SharePoint) in practice

Every video stored in OneDrive or SharePoint can play in the modern Stream player without any special handling:

• Upload a .mp4 or other supported format to OneDrive or a SharePoint library — that's it.
• Permissions match the underlying file — Stream doesn't have its own permission model.
• Search uses Microsoft Search, including auto-generated transcripts.
• Sharing uses the standard OneDrive/SharePoint share dialog.
• Retention and sensitivity labels apply through Purview as they do for any file.

The player adds:

• Chapters for navigation.
• Auto-generated transcripts in many languages.
• Search within transcript during playback.
• Speed controls, captions, accessibility features.
• Comments and engagement signals.

Teams meeting recordings

When a Teams meeting is recorded, the recording is automatically saved to Stream-on-SharePoint — specifically, to the organiser's OneDrive (for non-channel meetings) or the channel's SharePoint site (for channel meetings). Permissions inherit from those locations.

For channel meetings, this means the recording is automatically accessible to channel members and follows the team's retention.

Stream web app

The Stream web app at microsoftstream.com (redirecting to stream.cloud.microsoft) is a portal-style experience for browsing your video content across the tenant. It surfaces:

• Videos you've created or starred.
• Videos shared with you.
• Watchlist and trending content.
• Live events (where applicable).

It's not a separate storage system — everything you see there lives in someone's OneDrive or SharePoint.

What Stream Classic did differently

For historical context: Stream Classic had its own backend storage, its own permission model (independent of SharePoint), its own retention, and its own admin portal. None of that exists in Stream (on SharePoint), which is structurally simpler.

Tenants with classic-era content needed to migrate it during 2023–2024. Microsoft published migration tools and timelines; orphaned legacy Stream URLs may still surface in old links but the content lives in SharePoint now.

Live events

Microsoft has consolidated live broadcasting into Town Halls in Teams (covered in its own guide), succeeding both Stream live events and Teams Live Events.

For most organisations, Stream (on SharePoint) is "just videos in SharePoint with a better player" — no special configuration required.