New booking experience next month in Outlook

Microsoft has announced a new Booking experience coming to Outlook on the Web. The company is introducing a new Web-based personal booking page that can be integrated with the Outlook calendar, which should help make scheduling appointments easier and more efficient for users.

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“With Bookings in Outlook, people can schedule a meeting or appointment with you. You can create custom meeting types to share with others, so they can easily schedule time with you based on your availability and preferences. You both get an email confirmation and participants can update or cancel scheduled meetings with you from your Bookings page in Outlook,” Microsoft explained in a support document.

In the web version of Outlook, the Personal Bookings page comes with two different views, including the Organizer view and Schedule view. In the Organizer view, users can create custom appointment types so their colleagues can easily find a suitable meeting time that works for both parties. In addition, the scheduling view is visible to other people when an Outlook user shares their personal booking page.

Microsoft says customers can access new booking experiences through the Outlook web calendar or by going to the personal bookings page. Once set up and published, users can share the personalized booking page with their colleagues.

Bookings in Outlook in June

The List of Microsoft 365 roadmaps suggests that this new feature will be rolled out in preview to commercial customers in mid-June. The company plans to make this feature available by default to all Microsoft 365 Business and Microsoft 365 / Office 365 E1 / E3 / E5, F1, F3, A3 and A5 subscribers. It is up to IT administrators to disable this feature for users in their organization.

Overall, the Booking experience should be a welcome addition for business users (especially SMEs with limited resources). Microsoft hopes it should eliminate the need to use third-party tools and help small businesses manage customer appointments.

Source: Petri