Forum Discussion
MicrosoftInvite who you want in group calendars
Good news!
We've heard your feedback here on Tech Community as well as UserVoice that you really just want to:
- Put something on a shared group calendar
- Pick whomever you want to invite, which may not be the group itself.
Over the next few days, you will have more options when managing your group calendar: Just invite anyone you want. If you want to invite the entire group, simply add the group to the attendees list.
This change gives a lot more flexibility to the group calendar surface:
- Invite no one: this is good for putting milestones on the calendar as a visual reminder that it's coming up. If you want to add a copy of it to your own personal calendar, you can "Add to my calendar". This is also great for a vacation calendar, where you can create a ? vacation ? event on the group calendar.
- "Brownbag-style events": A lunchtime learning session is typically not mandatory for attendees, but is required for the organizer and the presenter. Now, you can create an event on the group calendar and add specific individuals without adding the group itself to the attendees list. This way, those individuals will get an invite from the group, and group members can freely add the event to their calendars. This is also good if you want your vacation time on the group calendar, as well as your manager's calendar.
- Invite the group and anyone else: For group meetings where you'd like everyone in the group to attend and edit, this is best. This is particularly handy for recurring meetings that take place over the course of many months where the a single organizer may not be around for its entire desired lifetime (i.e., if someone goes on vacation or leaves the team).
Across Outlook, not much is changing:
- In Outlook for Windows, removing the group from a group meeting will now, in fact, actually not sent the group an invitation.
- In the new Outlook on the web, we've updated the tooltips to match the functionality.
- In the classic Outlook on the web, we won't be supporting this update.
- In Outlook for iOS and Android, group calendaring is coming soon. 😉
Try it out, and let us know what you think!
Cheers,
Ethan
53 Replies
Ethan LiSo where is this functionality gone, to not invite the whole group to the group event? Seems to have disappeared, and it was working so well for us!
I notice the 'try the new outlook' toggle has gone, but the functionality of specific invites has also gone. Am I missing a way to have this working again?
Ethan LiIt appears through our testing that the Group Calendars are not consistent. In addition to the above functionality, how does this relate to the following:
- Group settings in Outlook--subscribe new members so they receive group email in their inbox--checked
- Group settings in Group Admin--Send copies of group conversations and events to group members--checked
I understand three scenarios explained--invite no one, brownbag-style, invite group but what are the recommended settings within the Group?
- Just look at this thread. This option seems like the one we want as the Event calendar on Sharepoint is incredibly limited. It's a pity it doesn't seem to be working as intended though. Will try it out on my tenant.
Ethan Li I seem to be having the same issue as one of the users above. Outlook for Windows... when creating a NEW meeting, only those invited get the notification. But, when UPDATING that meeting, the group itself gets notified/invited. :-(
- I think I found where the issue is (not a bug... just need to be aware how it works). When I invite myself I am set up as the organizer. But, if I delete my own name from the invite list, then the meeting automatically sets the group as the organizer which is why updates get sent to everyone.
I think.....??- Nevermind... my comments above weren't accurate. After a little while no matter what I try, the Group itself becomes the organizer (replacing my name) and any updates to the meeting go to the entire group thereafter. :-\
Ethan Li It doesn't appear to have been updated in our version of Outlook for Windows (desktop application). When a member of our group adds a calendar item to the group calendar, it sends a meeting invitation to everyone in the group. There isn't an option to create a simple appointment. When you create a new calendar item, it automatically opens a meeting request, with the To: line auto-populated with the group email address. If you remove the email address, the calendar item won't save. The version of Outlook on my computer is Microsoft Outlook 2016 MSO 16.0.4849.1000
I was able to add an all day event from OWA without sending a notification or meeting invitation to the group so I am assuming this is related to the desktop app.
If it makes a difference at all, our Group was created as a by-product of creating a Team, which I had made visible so that we could use the shared calendar.
Ethan,
Is there a way that we can have specifically invited people of a group see all meetings in this calendar and then any other contributors see only the meetings they set up and all other meetings scheduled by others show as "busy"
Here is a scenario.
We have a global publishing calendar that around 50 people post events that are happening around the world. We only want selected individuals (senior executives) to see all events and we want the contributor who posted an event to the calendar to see the event they posted but not any other contributors post and vise a versa. Is this possible?
Thanks,
Kyle
HIEthan Li ,
I think i identify a bug on Outlook Win10 64bit (o365 MSO 16.0.11.629.20.210).
I create a group event, remove the group and add user A and B. -> only A and B receive the event: OK
Open the group event, edit the date. -> The entire group receive the notif: NOT OK
After a little investigation, when i open the groupe event, on the first view i see only A and B BUT if i go the 'schedul assistant view' the group is in the attendee list.Ethan Li I am having the same problem cbarroso stated.
On the group calendar, I make an event, delete the group name from the invite list, add a few people, send.
When I open the invite again, it shows the group as the organizer under scheduling assistant, and the entire group has received the invite on their personal calendars.
I'm not seeing a solution - has this been solved?
I essentially would like everyone to have visibility to the group calendar, and to specifically add it to certain people's personal calendars.
Ethan LiWe have found that when a member creates an event and adds a "Reminder" that the group will force itself as an attendee and then all members of the group get the invitation. Is there a fix for this? We were hoping we could only invite specific members and possibly add a reminder for those specific members who were invited as attendees.
Hi Ethan,
My organisation is still on 'classic' Outlook on the web and it looks like this update has broken the 'Send a meeting invitation to group members' option. In the last couple of weeks I have noticed that when creating meetings in an O365 Group calendar with the 'Send a meeting invitation to group members' option selected, those meetings did not appeared in the members' calendars as previously.
When editing the event, the tick box is deselected and no amount of re-selecting it changes this behaviour.
This means that now there is no way for our users to automatically add a meeting entry in all group members' calendars, which is rather annoying.
Any plans to fix this?
Thanks.
