Introducing Scheduling poll in Outlook!

[Sally_Richardson]

Announcing FindTime as a native feature in Outlook!

We are excited to introduce Scheduling poll, bringing the capabilities of FindTime as a native feature in Outlook. Scheduling poll is currently available to all users of Outlook on the Web and Mac. It is available to Classic Outlook for Windows users in Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, and Semi-Annual Enterprise Preview. It is now available to Classic Outlook users on the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Version 2308) as of January 2024, and will be available to the Semi-Annual Extended Channel later in June 2024.

Users who do not have access to Scheduling Poll yet can either switch to the Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, or Semi-Annual Enterprise Preview in Classic Outlook for Windows; or they can use Outlook on the Web to create polls. Please go here for more details on 'Scheduling poll' feature.

What’s the same

As we bring Scheduling poll directly to Outlook, users can expect to have a similar set of features and workflow as the existing FindTime add-in.

What’s different

Scheduling poll uses the same modern design and framework we use in the updated Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows, making it easier to maintain and enhance for the future.

Important: What is happening to the FindTime add-in?

The FindTime add-in will stop working and be removed from Outlook for Windows, Web and Mac. Scheduling Poll is the replacement feature, which is built directly into Outlook clients for all users as a native feature.

When this will happen:

You can expect the FindTime add-in to stop working as early as December 11, 2023. We will start making the change on December 11, 2023, and expect to complete it by the end of that week.

How this will affect your organization:

Once the change has rolled out users will need to utilize Scheduling Poll as a replacement of the FindTime add-in.

When will the new Scheduling Poll feature be available?

Currently, Scheduling Poll is available to all customers worldwide for Outlook on the web and the new Mac Outlook, except for those in GCC High. It is also available to Classic Outlook for Windows users in Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, and Semi-Annual Enterprise Preview. It will become available to Classic Outlook users on the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel in January 2024, and to the Semi-Annual Extended Channel in June 2024.

What will happen to my current user experience?

When your tenant gets the update, the native feature will be added to their Outlook ribbon replacing FindTime (see more details to access Scheduling Poll here). Users do not need to do anything, this change will happen automatically, and users will be able to keep creating scheduling polls as easily as before.

FindTime Deprecation FAQs

1.  What does the deletion of https://findtime.microsoft.com/ mean?

A. This webpage provides information about how to use the FindTime add-in and given that we are replacing it with Scheduling Poll, we are deleting this page. When users try to access this page post 12/12/2022, they will be redirected to the polls dashboard - https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard. The add-in itself should still function as is. It will not be deprecated until Scheduling Poll is released to all supported Outlook apps - in Outlook web, Mac and Win32.

2.  What do I need to do to transition from FindTime to Scheduling Poll?

A. Nothing! When Scheduling poll is rolled out to your tenant, the entry point to the FindTime Add-in will be hidden and you should see a button to open the Scheduling poll pane in the Outlook compose ribbon instead (more details here). We have made UX updates to help improve the experience. The functionality should remain the same and you should be able to create new polls just like before.

3.  What happens to my existing polls?

A. All the polls you created through the FindTime add-in should remain active and actionable through the voting page and the polls dashboard even if the add-in is deprecated and replaced by the Scheduling poll UI. The only thing that has changed is the way you create a poll.

[#2]

Does any usage reporting exist that we can utilize for targeted communications?

[#3]

Sorry, there is no report available for M365 Admins to consume around FindTime or Scheduling poll feature usage.

[#4]

In FindTime there was an option to ensure that emails were in the same language as FindTime.

This option does not exist with the schedulling poll. In environments where English is not the main language, we end up with emails notifying a vote and when a consensus is reached in English.

Is there a way to prevent this?

[#5]

Hello. I noticed the FindTime add-in is now missing from my users Outlook for Windows app, mine as well.

I noticed on this post it says the FindTime add in will be retired on 12-11-23. Now that this add-in is gone, how would we go about creating a meeting poll? I can only see the functionality for Schedule Poll on Outlook for the Web, but we must have this feature on the Outlook for Windows application. How can I access this feature on the Outlook for Windows application?

[#6]

Your organization needs to be on an Office 365 update channel deploys it. From MC688929:

Scheduling Poll is currently available to all users of Outlook on the Web and Mac. It is available to Classic Outlook for Windows users in Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, and Semi-Annual Enterprise Preview. It will become available to Classic Outlook users on the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel in January 2024, and to the Semi-Annual Extended Channel in June 2024.

Users who do not have access to Scheduling Poll yet can either switch to the Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, or Semi-Annual Enterprise Preview in Classic Outlook for Windows; or they can use Outlook on the Web to create polls.

[#7]

@Sally_Richardson Is there any update on delegate support? 

[#8]

@Sally_Richardson can you tell us if the addin will be removed from the Admin Center / Integrated Apps if we had an active deployment?
It seems the addin was removed now on the clients and is also no longer listed in AppSource Portal. But in the Admincenter it still listed as deployed in our tenant. Is MS going to remove that or should we do that ourselves? If we remove it on our own, it will not affect the availability of the Scheduling Poll Feature to our endusers, right?

[#9]

We currently have FindTime deployed via the M365 admin centre and are currently running Office 2016,2019 and 2021 LTSC, FindTime has disappeared from these and scheduling poll hasn't appeared, is this only supporting with Microsoft 365 Apps for business? 

[#10]

I was looking for a quiet new year, but you do realise you have killed the FindTime add-in at least a calendar month ahead of the Scheduling Poll functionality being released to Classic Outlook users on the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (v2308)?

And that is per your release schedule!  As we're still in an EOY change freeze and are only patching for security, we'll be on SAEC 2302 until SAEC 2308's Feb build!

[#11]

@Sally_Richardson you said it isn't available to GCC customers right now but didn't indicate when. That app is super useful and saves a lot of time. I have to say that it is irresponsible of Microsoft to just yank a useful app with no replacement available.

[#12]

@Sally_Richardson 
Scheduling Poll does not have feature parity with the older FindTime app. A real impediment to using this in any reasonable fashion is the inability to enter a custom meeting length. This was literally the first question we got from users trying to use this. See this thread for the details:
Scheduling Poll custom meeting time - Microsoft Community

Is further development planned and is this on the roadmap? I'm unable to find any info on this very basic usability issue which went MIA when FindTime was superceded.

[#13]

@Sally_Richardson Hi Sally, is there an updated timeline to when delegates will be able to respond to the polls on behalf of someone else?

[#14]

Sorry, there's no ETA on that capability, still in our backlog ...

[#15]

I tried digging in the comments but could not find it. Why can't non-O365 users respond to Scheduling Polls now? Is there a workaround to this?

[#16]

Why put a hat on a hat when MS could just give us a way for an organizer to grant free-for-all edit access only to meeting attendeees? I mean, what *is* the point of sending a meeting "invitation" if it's implied that you must have already asked them, and they have already agreed to attend? There is no meeting without the participation of attendees, it's just junk data. In reality no one is your "organizer," and no one is going to give you a "take it or leave it" invitation to a meeting except for the occasional all-hands. The recipient needs to be equally capable of correcting or changing details.

[#17]

@AmirHaque-MSFT I have an updated Outlook but there is no scheduling poll anywhere. I can't update the ribbon, see it in appointments, or even new email. I'd love to use this supposedly native option but can't find it. Please advise. 

[#18]

We're in a similar situation, Exchange OnPrem users encountering a "Something went wrong" ...OwaUserHasNoMailboxAndNoLicenseAssignedException... error when clicking on the poll link.

A clunky workaround is to open the poll response link in an incognito browser window. You can then verify the recipient address using an emailed code (copy the number from the message and past it in to the incognito window rather than clicking verify) and it appears to work.

Hope that helps!

[#19]

Same for us. Non-prem users getting "UserHasNoMailboxAndNoLicenseAssignedError" message. O365 support suggested the workaround was to create a Microsoft Form instead......not a good answer. Please fix this issue, as the whole point of Scheduling Poll is to involve non-prem users.

[#20]

Hi. I can see the 'Scheduling Poll' icon. When users click on it i get the message 'We can't open the Scheduling Poll right now. Please try again later' error

When a Global admin tries the same thing it all works.

How do i enable this for standard users? All users (admin\standard) have the same Office 365 licenses.  I updated Outlook (office suite), still the error