Sending updates in Teams calendar app without unwanted notifications

[Phil Maynard]

Modifying meeting invites through the Team Calendar app is sending updates to all attendees which is not what our end users are expecting! Does anyone in the community have any insight on this?

As more users within my organisation are making use of Microsoft Teams, they're beginning to bump into unexpected 'features'. For instance, a user was adding a new attendee to a scheduled meeting via the Calendar app in Teams. What they didn't realise is that it would send up an update to all attendees! The expectation was that it would either give the option in the same way Outlook does to only update added or removed attendees OR that it would work in the same way Outlook online does and only send updates to attendees are required - as per this article "Send updates" options for attendees are not displayed in Outlook on the web

Does anyone in the community have an insight on if this behaviour is going to be changed? I've raised a Uservoice post in case it's something that isn't currently being planned

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/908686-bug-reports/suggestions/39905293-manage-calendar-...

[#2]

Simply use Outlook/OWA to schedule your Teams meetings. The calendaring functionality in Teams covers the basics, but you cannot expect it to be as mature as Outlook's, and it will probably never be. And for channel meetings, I wouldn't expect much changes to happen with regards to the audience anyway.

[#3]

@Phil Maynard  Hi, I have the same question, do you know if it will be fixed?

Thanks.

[#4]

Unfortunately not :pensive_face: It looks like this is a 'feature'. I have a feeling that it's linked to the Graph API current capability. I noticed that in Power Automate, the current version of the 'Update Event (V4)' action has the same issue. This was raised on version 2 but I've not seen any update as yet. I think that until an update on this interface is made, I suspect any integrations with Outlook are going to have the same problem. Here's a link to a User Voice request made on the Update Event V2 issue - https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Ideas/Update-Event-v2-to-send-updates-only-to-new...

(This of course could be a completely separate issue :))

[#5]

@Vasil Michev 

Unfortunately that totally defeats the advantage of creating the meeting within Teams, which is that you can associate the meeting, it's notes, files, and chat with a channel. It seems to me that selecting who to notify is a pretty basic functionality worth including. I also note that for a recurring meeting created in Teams, I can't make any changes to the meeting from Outlook, which would allow me to access all the Outlook functionality.

[#6]

@Phil Maynard Agreed - this is very frustrating. If you add new attendees to a meeting.. the last thing you want to do is flood peoples in-boxes with meeting notices for meetings they have already accepted. Adding to the confusion about scheduled meetings.. 'Why am I getting all of these notifications?!"

You can't even add documents etc without sending an update to all attendees. 

I didn't realize that if I scheduled teams meetings through outlook.. I'd have more of the outlook scheduling functionality.. I will definitely start doing that from now on. 

Thank you for that!

[#7]

@ABirky 

It is unbelievable to me that there are so many things in Outlook/Teams Meetings that do not integrate when they are both Microsoft products!!  Attaching files can only be done in the Outlook side, adding people to a meeting can only be done on the Teams side, a recurring meeting can only be done on the Teams side AND if you want to change a recurring meeting from Tuesday to Wednesday for all of them, that can't be done either place.  This sorry integration seems to be something a rooking programmer would do, not Microsoft as a company.......good grief!!

[#8]

@Phil Maynard Sorry to re-ignite an old thread, but this "functionality" actually caused my email to his a daily recipient limit and now will be without email for 24 hours. 

[#9]

@Nick_H99 sorry to hear that!! There doesn't seem to be any movement on this from Microsoft's side that I can see. Very surprised as it seems such an obvious thing to resolve. Let's hope the Microsoft Teams and Outlook developers pick up on this soon...

[#10]

@Phil Maynard It's a big let down - I'm not going to use the calendar features at all while this is set like this.

I tried using Outlook by importing the sharepoint calendar into it, nope. Doesn't sync with sharepoint site the only way to sync between teams and it's associated sharepoint site is to manage within teams.

Doesn't really make sense.

[#11 · Accepted solution]

Use Outlook or Outlook on the web for now. For the latter the logic has been moved from the client https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/troubleshoot/outlook-on-the-web-issues/send-updates-option...

"By default, updates are not sent to all recipients but only to the specific adjusted recipients (added or deleted attendees)."

[#12]

Thanks for the update Christian. I've just run some tests using the Update Event (V4) action in Power Automate to add people to an event when they respond to a MS Form. I can confirm that the only the additional recipients have received the event notification. Before, all recipients would receive an update every time someone new was added by the flow. This is a fantastic update and opens up a range of opportunities. Thanks again :)

[#13]

@ABirky I do apologize for being direct, but if you want Outlook functionality, use Outlook. 

Teams is about collaboration. Why do you want to hide the fact that you are inviting someone to a meeting? Granted, it does get noisy if you are continually adding a new person to meetings before it takes off. Teams notifies everyone on the team so they will stay in touch. Would you want someone to start a video meeting in your channel and you not know about it?

Collaboration is about working together. We want to make sure that everyone knows what is going on and has the ability to get those notifications. If you don't want them, turn them off in your client.

[#14]

@Shaun Jennings 

Your response is really unhelpful. Perhaps your schedule is different than mine and that of my colleagues, but we're all overwhelmed with meetings and email these days. I have at least 3 days per week where I'm in meetings all day and I often have more email than I can read, let alone follow up on. Multiple meeting updates can be confusing: "Why am I getting this? Did the time change?" I don't have time for that.

I'm probably on 15 active Teams. Many Teams and meetings are long-lived and constantly evolving, so it's not just "while they're taking off." Finally, I'm perfectly fine with someone starting a video meeting in my channel without notifying me. I trust they're doing good work and will bring me in when appropriate. I don't need to be involved in every aspect and couldn't be if I wanted. 

I try to be respectful of my colleagues' time, so I'd like to be able to decide when an update is important and when it's not.  I'm not trying to hide anything. If they want to know who is on the current meeting invitation list, they can look at the schedule. If they want to know who's on the Team, they can check "manage team." Nothing is hidden. I'm not sure why you see something nefarious in this.

As for "turn it off in my client," I work for a large organization and I don't have that capability personally or the authority to make that decision for the organization.

The point is, this really makes the Teams added features unusable to me. So yes, after a few problems using the calendar inside Teams, I now only use Outlook.

[#15]

@ABirky Again, I do apologize for being direct and that my comment was not helpful. But I completely understand where you are coming from dealing with Teams Meetings and the updates. I have had to answer those questions before and had to have my end users readopt how they use Teams when creating and updating meetings. 

When I'm adding someone, I just use Outlook. Now, with the changes in Outlook, you can set your Outlook to always create a Teams meeting and maybe that is the solution for you. I will normally use Teams to create channel meetings and I will use Outlook to create calendar meetings. Each one has its purpose so I toggle between both.

As stated before, I think about how I collaborate with my peers and company. You are correct in saying that we should be respectful of our colleagues' time and their focus. I adjust how I do my updates based on how I wish for them to respond. I try to be mindful of how they will react to things (something I should have done with my previous comment).

[#16]

I too agree with you. If you happen to come across a a solution later, please let me know.

[#17]

@MicheleBates : Suggest you look into the following applications to avoid MS asynchronous communications traps:

1. NEVER use sharepoint

1.1 An FTP with a website interface can be more secure, faster, and better maintained.

1.2 better yet, a custom file storage routing utilizing a data based rather than location maintenance and then a front end to access data.... would be much better.... click-up is similar to this idea but not robust for file storage

2. Look into google workspace, slack, click-up, nuclino, and confluence / jira

3. clearly Microsoft is not interested in meeting the needs of customers, just forcing the to take software that is circa 2000 with its performance. Due to their market footprint, its has worked thus far, take the power back.