Accept & Do Not Send a Response

[Julia Foran]

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:

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? 

[#2]

@Julia Foran Hello Julia!

I'm just wondering if there is a link to this update in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap and if there is, that you can link it here please?

Thank you!!

[#3]

@Julia Foran yes and yes to both questions. Please make this change, it is much needed.

[#4]

@Julia Foran Until recently, I always thought/assumed that the third response updated tracking. It make no sense to me to not, so yes I'd like to see this changed, leaving the three options in place.

Thank you,

Donna

[#5]

@Julia Foran 

You write it as if the behavior has already been released?

Regards

Michael

[#6]

Yes I do like the change it give the ability to track the invites with out additioanl email traffic @Julia Foran 

[#7]

I would love to have the tracking feature added to the "Do Not Send A Response" feature so that accepting the meeting saves on the number of emails to the organizer and so that the organize receives an accurate count of attendees for each meeting.

[#8]

@Julia Foran 

Yes and yes.  The 'Do Not Send A Response' function puts the Organizer at a disadvantage by not recording the acceptance in the meeting tracker.  And, I believe that the people who use this response option believe that the Organizer will be able to view their Meeting Acceptance (and that they are saving the Organizer a redundant email in their inbox).  Right now it is more of an "Incognito" Accept option, which is not clear to the user.

[#9]

@Julia Foran 

Hi Julia. when is this to be delivered please - I have Office 365 Pro Plus locally installed, my mailbox is hosted in the MS O365 cloud, accessed via browser. I do not see this new feature yet at all?

Thanks

Paul 

[#10]

Yes, I have always assume that the organizer would not be sent an email, but that I would show as attending on the tracking. @Julia Foran 

[#11 · Accepted solution]

@Julia Foran 

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

[#12]

Yes to both questions!  We were just talking about this the other day and how it was frustrating when the tracking says None to the response even though the person accepted the invite but didnt send a response. @Julia Foran 

[#13]

Hi everybody, I am re-posting the update I provided in March:

Summary of status/feature:

When you respond to a meeting using Outlook the Web, iOS, Android, or Mac, the organizer's tracking list will be updated even if you choose not to send an email response.

This is not yet supported for Outlook for Windows -- we are updating the way the Windows client syncs and edits calendars, and the improvement will come as part of that release. We don't yet have a timeline for that.

Notes:

1. This works regardless of whether you and the organizer are in the same organization, as long as you are both hosted in Office 365.
2. If you respond to the meeting (or change your existing response) without sending a response using Outlook on the Windows, the organizer's tracking list will not be updated. The Outlook client on Windows needs to make a change to support this feature, but we do not yet have an ETA.
3. This only applies to meetings where responses were requested. If the organizer chose NOT to request responses, their tracking list will not be updated regardless of which client you use to respond.

[#14]

Hello @Julia Foran 

Has this feature been implemented for Mac?  Today I learned after I was asked to please respond to a meeting invite, that the "Accept but do not send a response" option does not actually show me accepting the meeting.  If I am using Mac OS, and the organizer is using Windows, will it update the status if I choose not to send a response? (our organization is hosted in Office 365)

[#15]

@prestong 

Yes, if you reply & do not send a response using Mac, the organizer using Windows will see your response in their tracking list. The Windows limitation is only if the attendee who is responding without sending a response is using Windows to respond.

Hope that helps.

[#16]

@Julia Foran  Hello Julia. I sent a test meeting using Outlook web, requested responses, had one person accept to response and another decline no response. Appointment shows as they didnt respond

[#17]

Yes and yes. Organizer's calendar should be updated with the response. At work, we thought it was a bug with our office 365 upgrade . Didn't know this was default behavior. Never noticed it in old Outlook.

@Julia Foran 

[#18]

@Julia Foran 

This change is long overdue.  Not recording the acceptance creates much confusion. 

[#19]

@Julia Foran this is how I always assumed it worked and have never checked. Why would it operate any differently? This should not be a question to the community but implemented as it is a design flaw. This post was raised 18 months ago and still nothing has changed, even though it has received a lot of attention??? Currently there has been 47.1k people to view the post, so if that doesn't tell you that people had to google it to find out why the "Accept but Do Not Send a Response" did not work as expected, then nothing will.

Furthermore, if I don't click either accept option then the invite stays in your calendar anyway as tentative, unless you decline or delete the event.

[#20]

@Julia Foran quote from your comment on 04-02-2019 03:10 PM "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."

My reply: That is not true as we have an Office 365 account and the tracking list is not updated. Again this should not matter as all clients should receive the same functionality. As per my previous message this is how it should have been designed in the first place.

PS I had to copy and paste what you wrote as my reply does not include the comment I am referring to, so that should be fixed in the next release.

[#21]

@Julia Foran I don't think the fix is working.  I am seeing the same behavior where it doesn't show accepted.