SOLVED

Accept & Do Not Send a Response

Microsoft

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:Responses requested.png

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:

  1. Do you like this change? Does this match what you & others are expecting?
  2. 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? 
299 Replies

@Jennifer Lu is there any way to have that decision reconsidered?  I would think that on-site Outlook/Exchange would be the easiest implementation to develop.

Yes and Yes! Be sure to update the Text in the UI so users can be aware of this change and keep it simple!

Accept
Accept and Reply to the Organizer
Decline

@drullo @Jennifer Lu

The technology we're using to update the tracking list when the "do not send a response" option is selected is available only within Office 365, so it will only be available to mailboxes hosted in the service.

I'm not sure if this is now a resolved issue but I would love to see any meeting invitation response listed in tracking.  I often have meetings where people accept, decline, or indicate tentative without sending a response.  When that happens, and the tracking does not get updated and I look at that tracking information, I have no idea as to the intentions of attendees that I may consider to be key contributors.. 

 

Regarding question 2, If the organizer does not request a response to a meeting invitation then I would assume that they do not want to deal with the emails associated wit the responses but they may still want to be able to track who and how many invitees accept.

@Julia Foran 

Hi Julia,
Has this change been implemented?

@Julia Foran 

Yes, please make this change.  If I accept a meeting without sending an annoying email bothering the orgranizer that I will come, then I have still accepted the meeting and it should be recorded that I've accepted the meeting.  The current way is counter-intuitive to the way people think.

 

Thanks!

@Julia Foran Can you describe a use case where accepting the invitation, but choosing to hide the acceptance (do not respond) from the meeting organizer is beneficial or purposeful? 

Are you planning a fix for Outlook 2016? @Julia Foran 

@Julia Foran Do you have an ETA on when this improvement will be implemented? 

We do plan to make this change in Outlook 2016 for Windows, but do not have an ETA yet. When responding from Windows, you'll need to send a response to update the organizer's tracking.

 

As mentioned previously, the new behavior (update organizer but do not send an email) is released for all other clients.

Thank you Julia.  We appreciate this change very much!  @Julia Foran 

@Julia Foran it been over 9months now, any updates on this feature?  Thanks.

Hi @Julia Foran 

 

What does it mean "When responding from Windows"?

I'm running Office 365 Pro Plus

 

"We do plan to make this change in Outlook 2016 for Windows, but do not have an ETA yet. When responding from Windows, you'll need to send a response to update the organizer's tracking.

As mentioned previously, the new behavior (update organizer but do not send an email) is released for all other clients."

Yes to both.  When should we expect this to be implemented?

@Julia Foran 
Yes please to both!

 

2. Most people I have worked with believe accepting + don't send response updates the tracking of the meeting without spamming the organizer's inbox. It sounds like nothing but good. 
Is there a timeline for a decision either way?

@Julia Foran 

1) YES - I had the same expectation - that the organizer would still be able to track my response but would not have their inbox cluttered unnecessarily. This change should definitely be implemented.

 

2) YES - if accept is only option (organizer has not requested responses), organizer should not receive emails for each response, but Outlook should definitely update the tracking information.

 

Perhaps to satisfy those who did not expect this behavior, or wish to remain anonymous, a 4th option could be added, for responding just for oneself, and sending no tracking information at all to the organizer.

 

 

Yes and Yes! We really really need this change!

@Julia Foran 

1 - YES! For the longest time I thought this was the default behavior.

2 - YES! This is exactly why most people use this feature.

@Julia Foran 

 

Yes and yes! I always hit "do not send a response" because I hate sending extraneous emails. It took me a long time to figure out that not sending a response meant my response was not tracked. Please fix this!

@Julia Foran 

 

Did this ever get implemented