Preview how Outlook for Windows is updating Shared Calendars

Microsoft is continuing to invest in Outlook for Windows calendar capabilities to assist customers in managing their time and connecting with people who help them achieve more.  We are introducing an opportunity for Office 365 customers to preview new shared calendar capabilities aimed at improving the speed and reliability of how they sync.  

We are excited to bring you these changes and are eager to get your feedback before we update the default shared calendar experience.  If you are a delegate on someone else’s calendar, if you manage a shared calendar for a conference room, we want your feedback! 

Watch this short instructional video to learn how to opt in, learn about the updates we are rolling out and what you need to know.

Faster & more reliable sync

We’re improving how we synchronize changes you make on a shared calendar to the calendar owner and to everyone else who views that calendar. 

For example, if you’re a delegate for your manager’s calendar, you can be confident that the shared calendar meetings and appointments you see in your Outlook calendar matches what your manager sees on their calendar.

You can also be confident that new meetings or updated meetings will make it into your manager’s calendar before any other attendees receive the meeting invitations. In the past, changes could take a long time to reach the manager’s calendar, and sometimes the manager’s and attendees’ calendars would get out of sync. Now, the meeting request is sent to attendees’ mailboxes after the meeting reaches your manager’s calendar, so everyone has the same meeting details. Moreover, you’ll notice viewing and editing shared calendar events is as fast as managing your own calendar!

Additional changes 

There are some changes you’ll notice in the preview of the updated shared calendar experience since it’s somewhat different from your previous Outlook calendar experience.

When you are the organizer of a meeting in a shared calendar – for example, on behalf of your manager:

• You will be able to extend or end a recurring series, and it won’t impact the exceptions for that meeting that occurred in the past.
• Outlook will automatically send updates to only those attendees you changed on a meeting list.
• If you are drafting a meeting, it will not auto-save it to your Drafts folder, use the Save button or Ctrl-S instead. It will save as a draft meeting in your manager’s shared calendar.

If you’re an event or meeting attendee or a recipient of a shared calendar event:

• When you choose “Do Not Send a Response,” Outlook does not send a response in an email, but the organizer and other attendees in Office 365 will see your response in the Tracking status.

When forwarding a meeting to a new attendee with attachments, you can’t attach additional files. The new attendees will be able to view all existing attachments when they receive the forwarded meeting.

We appreciate hearing about what you think of the updated experience so please opt-in to try it out and then use shared calendars as you do today. 

Opt-in to try it out

After opting in, you’ll see (preview) appended to the calendar name for each shared calendar and know that the improvements are enabled in your Outlook for Windows.

It’s important to note that opting into this preview does not impact your experience with your core calendar and you can opt out of the preview at any time.

How do I send feedback?

We would like to hear your feedback about your experience using the updated shared calendar. Please send us your feedback through the in app help>feedback option if you need customer support or to report issues.  Please send questions or high-level feedback to olk-calendar-preview@microsoft.com.

By trying it out and sharing your feedback, you’re helping us learn more about how these updates can improve Outlook – thank you! In a few months, based on your feedback, we plan to roll out these updates to shared calendar and make it the default experience.  If you'd like more technical details about the changes, you can learn more here: aka.ms/calendarsharing.