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]

Hi @Sally_Richardson @AmirHaque-MSFT 

I have been looking forward to the release of the Scheduling Poll. I had a chance to test it to prepare a demonstration.

I was not a FindTime user, so I am coming with an unbiased perspective. I had mentioned what I liked about this feature's potential in my previous post in July. (I don't want to sound like a "hater" in this post.) Here are several limitations that I found with Outlook's latest feature, Scheduling Poll. 

• Delegates unable to respond on behalf of others 
• Many Admin Assistants manage calendars for executives and leaders. Now that Scheduling Poll is a core feature in Outlook, more subscribers will be using this feature. However, this missing functionality may be a deal breaker. 
• Hold Dates on My Calendar Setting
• It's great that the proposed dates are available on the Organizer's calendar. It is also imperative that the invitees hold the dates on their calendars. Some users' calendars are booked 30 to 60 days ahead, depending on the role.  By the time the organizer lands on a date, it may not be available.  It may be best to give the attendee the option to hold the dates or not. 
• Editing Voting Poll
• It was odd editing the meeting name, location, and duration from the dashboard rather than from the actual Organizer's vote page, where everything else is managed. 
• Reminder message
• I was not surprised that the Organizer could not generate a custom reminder message, but I can see users asking for it.
• Also, the reminder email goes to all attendees instead of just the non-responders. This could be a time waster for those who acted immediately.
• Anyone added after the poll is created does not get the reminder message. You must send it manually.
• Add an Attendee from the Voting Page
  • The user does not get the invite. You must send it from your email after adding them from the Voting Page first.
• Others
• The Organizer and invitees need easy access back to Outlook. I get it. The voting page and dashboard have been navigated from Outlook to accommodate external attendees, but it would be nice to get back to Outlook from these web pages via a link.
• The above functionality also explains why the Organizer and internal invitees must add the full email address on the voting page. This functionality is painful since users have never entered colleagues or teammates' email addresses. I am still determining how your developers will work their magic with this request, but it is on my wish list.
• This not a limitation but can you give a real-life work example when to use "Require attendee to verify identity.  I was drawing a blank. Is it targeted to internal and external attendees?
• One more. I would love the option to have the Scheduling Poll icon in the top navigation for easy access to navigate to the dashboard.

Still, I plan to use Scheduling Poll. It will save time in coordinating meetings.

I anticipate and look forward to the subsequent updates. My fingers are crossed that some of these limitations are rolled out in May 2023.

• /Teresa
• #traccreations4e

[#3]

How to create a Scheduling Poll is still not documented :\
cc @Sally_Richardson 

[#4]

You can find the information at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/create-a-scheduling-poll-34176e59-c87a-4a19-85a4-bb35050ac...

[#5]

@Anick_BELANGER_SIMARDthanks a lot!

[#6]

@askhetan, @Simon45, and to all,

I have created a video of the New Scheduling Poll feature in Outlook.  

I discussed the key components, best practices, limitations, and benefits. And I demonstrated how to create a poll, apply the settings, monitor the responses, and confirm a meeting.  You will also learn about the verification code feature and much more.

Hope this helps existing and new Scheduling Poll users. 

#TeamSchedulingPoll

/Teresa

#traccreations4e

[#7]

@Teresa_Cyrus , this video is marked as private, do you have an alternate link available for us to view your video?

Thank you greatly for putting this together.

[#8]

@Chickos 

Thanks. I thought I had updated all links. 🤦🏿‍:female_sign:

Video: https://youtu.be/GnggdDhBBLE

Please like the above post or mark it as the best response to assist others with the same question.

Thanks again.

/Teresa

[#9]

I get an error when I try to use the Scheduling Poll option in Outlook:

and another one when I try to access my Findtime dashboard at https://outlook.office.com/findtime/dashboard:

I've tried deleting Findtime from our tenant and re-adding it, but it doesn't seem to have an effect.

Any suggestions?

[#10]

@Samuel Stevenson 

Which version of FindTime are you using?

Note: FindTime is an Outlook Windows app.  I clicked on your link and was able to get to the FindTime dashboard.

The Scheduling Poll is an Outlook for the Web feature and I was able to access this Dashboard as well.  

I have MS 365 Business Plan. 

[#11]

Hi @Sally_Richardson,

I'm excited to have stumbled across this announcement! Do you know if the scheduling poll is available in the Government Cloud? Or when it might be available?

Thanks,

[#12]

Hi Rachel, Scheduling poll has already been deployed to GCC Moderate tenants, they should be able to use it (in OWA). It's not available for GCC High tenants, it's in our backlog at this moment and we don't have an ETA to share at this time, when it'll be available for GCC-H tenants.

[#13]

Thanks, @amir_Hague! I appreciate the information.

[#14]

Sorry for the delayed response here, but this seems like a transitional issue in our service, that you may have hit art that time. I'm hoping Scheduling poll is working fine for you now. If you see any technical issue in future, best would be to open a support case with M365 Support to get it addressed in a timely manner, see: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/support/

[#15]

Thanks Teresa for this feedback, it helps in product development. Several items in your list are in our backlog as other customers have also put in request for those. We can't promise which of those will make it into the product, but as soon as we finalize to work on any of those, you may see those listed on our official M365 product roadmap site (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap). In case any of these items are major road blockers for you in using 'Scheduling poll' experience, please contact our Support (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/get-help-support) to provide that feedback, preferably with a strong business impact statement, so that we can provide a formal response on that. Thank you!

[#16]

@Sally_Richardson 

Hi there,

In our org we use the Find-Time add-in in combination with the M365 Apps Semi-Annual Channel, currently v2208.

During the transition period to the next office build that includes the FindTime build-in.

Will we be able to keep deploying the add-in from the Admin center?

We want to start communication about the fact that this addin is built-in on the Outlook Web.

But only if the desktop version keeps working and there is no period where the add-in in desktop is removed and we are still on an older build of the Office Apps.

Anything you can tell me to assure me ?

The Add-in will be removed from the store in May 2023.

But will we keep the possibility to deploy the current add-in version from our Admin center?

Thanks for your feedback!

[#17]

@AmirHaque-MSFT many of our users are reporting that the FindTime app on the old Mac experience has stopped working.  They receive a"unable to load plug in" error.

This is different from what you posted regarding the transition experience. 

[#18]

this is no longer working.

[#19]

FindTime stopped working in Outlook desktop for our users as of yesterday. Getting the error below. 

[#20]

me too :(

can we open a support case??

[#21]

@ph_ly @AmirHaque-MSFT 

We are on v2208 in our environment also experiencing issues as of yesterday 2/28:

Accessing "Scheduling polls" through web apps (Outlook.office.com) is working as intended.