Learn about Schedule Send, a new feature being added to Microsoft Teams in November 2022, and Schedule Send Suggestions, coming out by the end of this year.
There has been a lot of information announced in the last week with Microsoft’s Ignite conference taking place. It’s always a fun week to see what’s new, what’s coming, and the direction Microsoft is guiding this generation of work.
With so many things that we could talk about, I wanted to highlight a simple, straightforward feature Microsoft is making generally available within Teams that will improve the employee experience and enable organizations to provide their employees with better work-life balance. It’s called Schedule Send and it’s coming in November.*
What Is Schedule Send?
You know how we can schedule an email in Outlook to be delivered after some amount of delay?
Maybe we drafted the email at night and wanted to wait until the morning to send it out.
Well, starting in November of this year, we will have the ability to craft Teams chat messages on our own time (after the kids go to bed, before our morning workout, over the lunch hour, etc.) when it’s convenient for us AND determine when we want that message to be delivered to ensure we are being respectful of our coworker’s schedule.
What If We Don't Know When To Schedule It?
While Schedule Send is a step in the right direction, the challenge of truly understanding when the best time to send our messages still remains; until the end of 2022 that is.
By year end, Microsoft will take Schedule Send a step further and make Schedule Send Suggestions. Working with and leveraging Microsoft Viva Insights, Schedule Send Suggestions will provide us with recommendations on when those messages should be sent to our particular recipient. We don’t need to know their time zone or when they prefer to work, this information will be gathered and provided to us.
Final Thoughts
For a seemingly small feature announcement, I think this will prove to be very useful over time for many organizations. Think about time zone conflicts, personal schedules, vacations, you name it.
To first be able to determine when to send the messages, and later be able to rely on intelligence to inform you of when best to send, employees are limiting distractions, working on their own time, and feeling less stressed to respond to messages at inconvenient times. Pretty cool if you ask me.
Jon Shepherd
Director of Sales
*Microsoft has announced Schedule Send to be generally available in November and Schedule Send Suggestions to be generally available by the end of 2022*
Source : https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/enhance-collaboration-with-microsoft-teams-chat-and-channels/ba-p/3644534