Forum Discussion
MicrosoftAccept & Do Not Send a Response
Hi Calendar Community,
We'd like your feedback & reactions to a change we're considering:
Current experience:
When attendees receive a meeting invite, they are provided with 3 response options:
The first two options (Edit the response before sending & Send the response now) both send an email to the organizer, and the attendee's response is recorded in the organizer's tracking list.
The third option (Do not send a response) does not notify organizer, so the attendee's response remains as "None" in the organizer's tracking list.
What we'd like to change:
Many users report that they expect Do not send a response to be recorded in the organizer's tracking list, but just not to send an email. We are considering updating the behavior so that all 3 response options are recorded in the organizer's tracking list. Attendees can still use the Do not send a response option to avoid sending email to the organizer, but their response would now be recorded & shared with organizer.
Questions to the Community:
- Do you like this change? Does this match what you & others are expecting?
- What about when an organizer does not request responses (so there is just a simple Accept button without additional options)? Do you think the intention is to avoid email responses? In other words, would you expect this same behavior (responses are always recorded) to apply even when organizer does not request responses?
What's the status of this change to allow for tracking the response if the user selects "Accept Do Not Send a response"?
Thank you - Jack
307 Replies
- Hi, yes i like this change. Best Ralf
This is the behaviour I would expect to happen - so very happy for the change. That way a "No response" is truly that - people have neither accepted or declined.
Yes & yes!
Yes, please! So many users think that when they choose "do not send a response", it just means it doesn't send the email (a very thoughtful assumption) when, in reality, the meeting organizer has no way of knowing whether the person plans on attending. As someone who schedules a lot of meetings, it's caused issues over the years. The organizer needs to know who will be attending/not attending.
OMG! Yes and Yes! I've been using Outlook for decades and just found out last week that this isn't how it already works. Please make the change!
- Julia ForanHi everybody, we did ask the question earlier this year but didn't start work until recently. Each Outlook client uses different APIs and mechanisms to respond to meeting invites, so it's not a simple change on our side to quickly change this behavior. We are actively working on fixing this across all the clients & APIs, so we really appreciate your patience as we work on this improvement. I'll definitely update this forum as soon as it's released.
1. YES!
2. YES!
In my experience, users expect the response to be visible to the meeting organiser even if an email is not sent - the fact that this option does not behave the way users expect has cause considerable frustration and confusion in my office. Either the function should be updated or the wording should be clarified.
When is this going to be implemented? The questions were posted months ago!
I know there's a solution in the works - but here's a solve in the meantime. Bit of a roundabout, though should help.
Problem:
- When you “Accept but do not send a response” for a meeting invite, the organizer has no way of knowing if you accepted the meeting.
- If you “Accept and send a response,” the organizer gets bombarded with emails.
Solution:
- When invited to a meeting, always send a response but…
- Have everyone change their Outlook settings.
- File > Options > Mail
- Scroll down to the Tracking section, and check the boxes that say:
- “Update tracking information and then delete responses that don’t contain comments.”
- “After updating tracking information, move receipt to:” (select folder, e.g., Deleted Items)
Result: No one has to feel bad for filling up inboxes, BUT now all meeting organizers will know that you’re attending. And if you’re the organizer and there was a comment in the response, it’ll still show up in your inbox!
- Ha! Agreed. Not the most simple solve. But perhaps a win-win. I hate deleting meeting accepts in general - even if someone did want to notify me. :)
I believe this change may have already been implemented, but you have removed a feature that I use very often. I am invited to meetings, and do not wish to accept the invitation because I do not plan to attend the meeting. However, I have folks that work under me that attend those meetings and want to keep them in my calendar for reference. Now, I can only accept making the organizer think I am coming to the meeting, which is wrong, or decline and have the meeting removed from my calendar. From this perspective, this change is no good.
- Yes to both questions!
I think the organizer would want to see accurate tracking information and not always necessarily want to receive a bunch of response emails.
Just let us indicate our attendance and not send annoying emails. Yes, please make both changes. All responses should be recorded in the organizer's tracking list. Whether they request a response or not.
