What Microsoft changed
Microsoft is retiring the classic SharePoint "Alert me" feature in phases. Existing alerts started expiring from late 2025, creating new alerts was blocked across tenants from January 2026, and the feature is being fully removed through July 2026. After that, an alert set on a list, library, or item no longer sends anything.
Microsoft points people to the newer list rules for simple cases, and to Power Automate for anything more involved. Check the current detail on Microsoft's own SharePoint alerts retirement notice before you plan a change.
What to use instead
There are a few ways to get a notification when something lands in a list. Which one fits depends on how the data arrives.
- SharePoint list rules. The built-in replacement Microsoft is steering people to. A rule can email chosen people when an item is created or changes. Good for straightforward "tell me when a row is added".
- Power Automate. A flow on the list handles the messier cases: conditional recipients, formatted emails, or kicking off an approval as well as a notification.
- A form that emails on submit. If the row is arriving through a form, the tidiest place to send the email is the moment someone submits, rather than a separate alert layer watching the list.
When the form is the trigger
If people are submitting through a Forms 365 Web form, submission emails are built in. A form can send a receipt to the person who filled it in and notify up to ten addresses on your side, without a flow to build or an alert to renew. For an internal SharePoint list form built with Forms365 Workspace, pair it with a SharePoint list rule or a Power Automate flow for email, or use an on-submit webhook to push the submission to another system.
Want the email handled at submit?
Forms 365 Web sends receipts and notifications when a form is submitted. 14-day free trial.
Prefer to push submissions into another tool? See how to send a webhook on submit, or browse the other Forms 365 alerts.