New Calendar button in Teams


screenshot of Calendar button in Teams
Have you spotted the new Calendar button in Teams? The Teams Calendar connects with your Exchange calendar so you should see the same appointments in this Calendar area as you see in Outlook.

Schedule Meetings

You can now use Teams to schedule meetings. If you schedule a meeting for a Team, everyone in your team will receive a calendar invitation with a link to ‘Join’ the meeting. If you are signed into Teams, you will also receive a pop-up notification when a meeting that you are invited to has started.

You can also use the meeting scheduler to invite people who are not Team members to join a meeting. This includes externals, but note that only Team members have access to the chat or any files in the Team area. Non-members will only be able to join the video conversation.

If you schedule a meeting outside of a Team,  there are no ‘members’ and all participants can access the meeting chat.

Easier for externals

External invitees do not have to have a Microsoft account to join the meeting, although they may have to download the Teams app if they are using a mobile device. External guests can test the link in advance of the meeting and check that they can at least reach the lobby.

As well as scheduling meetings in advance, you can also use the Meet Now button in the Teams Calendar to have impromptu meetings.

As we continue to make more use of Teams, these features can help with organising meetings and keeping track of when they are and how to join them. You can find out more about the meeting scheduler from the Microsoft website. We have also provided some custom tips below for University of Brighton staff:

BUG warning – Response text disappears

Please note that if you schedule a meeting within a Team, you will see the responses (Accept, tentative, Decline) in the meeting details, but  messages typed in reply to your invitation are not delivered to you. This is a known bug. When you are writing your invitation, ask your recipients to just use the response options to let you know whether they are coming or not. If they want to give you any other information, they should send you a separate email.

If you are scheduling a meeting that is not within a Team, messages sent in reply will be delivered to your Inbox.

How to use the meeting scheduler

Click on  a heading to find out more.

screenshot of Meet button in a Team, shows options Meet now and Schedule a meeting

The Meet button within a Team

  1. Go to the Team
  2. From the drop-down Meet button , select Schedule a meeting
  3. Add meeting title, date and time and meeting details.
  4. If desired, you can choose a different channel to hold the meeting in. You can't schedule meetings in a Private channel
  5. You don’t need to add the names of people in your Team. They will automatically receive an invitation.
  6. You can use the Scheduling Assistant to find the most suitable date and time for your invitees. 
    screenshot of top of Schedule Meeting dialog box in Teams. Shows tabs for Details and Scheduling Assistant
  7. If you want to add non-members, either type their name, if they are internal to the university, or their full email address if they are external.  As you type an external email address, you will be told that No results are found, but keep typing.  You should see the option to  Invite your contact, once you have entered a complete email address.
  8. If you are inviting guests to the meeting, provide instructions on testing the link in the meeting details.
  9. Ask your recipients to just use the response options to let you know whether they are coming or not. If they want to give you any other information, they should send you a separate email – see info on bug above.
  10. Send the invitation
  11. Before the meeting, you can use meeting Tracking to check responses to your invitation. Open the meeting Details – Tracking info appears on the right.screenshot of Tracking details in a Teams meeting window

screenshot of Meeting buttons in Teams Calendar shows Meet now and + New meeting

The new meeting buttons in the Teams Calendar

  1. Select the Calendar button
  2. Select New meeting button
  3. Add meeting title, date and time and meeting details.
  4. Enter the names of attendees. If they are external, enter their full email address. As you type you will be told that No results are found, but keep typing.  You should see the option to  Invite your contact , once you have entered a complete email address.
  5. You can use the Scheduling Assistant to find the most suitable date and time for your invitees. 
    screenshot of top of Schedule Meeting dialog box in Teams. Shows tabs for Details and Scheduling Assistant
  6. You can leave the channel blank.
  7. Send the invitation
  8. Before the meeting, you can use meeting Tracking to check responses to your invitation. Open the meeting Details – Tracking info appears on the right.screenshot of Tracking details in a Teams meeting window

As the meeting is not inside a Team, there are no restrictions on who can access the meeting Chat. All participants can see and post in the Chat area.

All team members and the invited non-members will receive a calendar invite. To join the meeting they can click the link in the invite. The first team member to join the meeting starts it.

screenshot of calendar invite

Calendar invite with Join link

External invitees will initially appear ‘in the lobby’ before being admitted (although lobby settings can be changed through Meeting options). Team members will see a notification whilst in the meeting showing who is in the lobby with an option to admit them.

Team members can alternatively join the meeting by going to the channel at the agreed time and waiting for the Join button. They should not use the Meet now button in the channel as this will start a separate meeting.

Scheduled meetings will also be displayed in the Calendar area in Teams. The one click Join button appears during the scheduled time slot.

screen shot of meeting as it appears in the Teams calendar

Meeting as it appears in Teams Calendar with Join button

Invited guests may want to join your meeting using their mobile device.

When they tap the link in the calendar invitation, they won’t need to sign into a MS account, but they will need to download the free Teams app if they don’t already have it. They can then sign in as guest. Always recommend to external attendees that they test the meeting invite out before the meeting. If they can reach the Lobby, all should be well.

The Meet Now button in the Teams Calendar allows you to start an impromptu meeting with colleagues.  The meeting will not be held in a team. Everyone in the meeting will be able to see and post in the Chat area. For internal colleagues, you can invite people by entering their names. For externals, you should use a link to invite them to the meeting. To use this feature:

  1. Select Meet now button
  2. You can rename the meeting to describe what it is about
  3. If you are planning to include externals, select 'Get link to Share'. You can share the link via email, or copy and paste the link to share in other ways, for example in a Calendar invitation. 
  4. Once you have started the meeting, you can bring in other people by going to the Participants tab. Either type their names (internal colleagues only) to call them straight into the meeting, or use the 'Share Invite' button.

You can paste the share link into an email message (or a Calendar invitation) created outside of Teams.

screenshot of Participants tab in Teams meeting. it shows the Share Invite button

 

Once you have scheduled a meeting you can set the meeting options. You don’t need to do this if you are happy with the default options (shown below). Note that it takes some time for the new meeting to be set-up in the calendar – it will initially appear greyed-out. When it is ready, right-click and select Edit. The Meeting options screen opens in a web page – you might have to hunt for it. If you are the meeting organizer, you can also edit meeting options from the calendar invite.

screen shot of meeting options dialog, shows who can bypass the lobby, announcement options, who can present, unmute options

Meeting options – opens in a web page

The lobby

You can set options to decide who waits in the Lobby using meeting options (above), but note that invited guests will not be able to join the meeting until a team member admits them, even if you selection the option to allow everyone to bypass the lobby.

Access to Chat

If the meeting is held within a Team, only team members can see and post in the chat area. If the meeting is outside of a Team, all participants can see and post in the meeting chat.

Internal:

Someone with a University of Brighton O365 account, usually restricted to our staff or students, but includes some people that work closely with the university, such as ‘external examiners’.

External:

Anyone who does not have a University of Brighton O365 account.

External Guest-Users:

Externals you have added to the Team. They have most of the features that internal members have, including access to the chat, access to the Teams files, but they don’t have access to video stored on Stream. (They are shown in the Team members list as ‘Guests’.) Further info on permissions and features for externals

Invitees:

People you have not added to the team, but you have invited to the meeting. These can be internal or external to the university. They will only ever have access to the video call for this meeting. They won’t see meeting chat and they won’t have access to Team files.

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