Almost two years after it first announced this change, Microsoft has issued a major update to the shared calendars feature in Outlook for Windows. It is alternatively described as “the biggest change to Outlook for Windows since its initial release in 1997” and something that users won’t even notice. So. Yeah.

“In July 2019, we announced the preview in Outlook for Windows which has remained opt-in until now, as we turn this on in production,” the Exchange Team writes in a new post to the Microsoft Tech Community. “Since summer 2019, we polished the experience and fixed bugs, thanks to many customer reports. With tens of thousands of daily users on the preview, we feel confident now that the experience is going to delight calendar delegates.”

Microsoft says that the new shared calendar experience will dramatically improve the reliability and sync latency for shared calendars and delegated calendars in all Outlook clients, and this change was already available in Outlook on the web, the new Outlook for Mac, and Outlook mobile. But now it has happened in Outlook for Windows as well.

“Despite all the [excitement], our hope is that users don’t even notice anything changed,” the Exchange team continues. “This is one of those improvements that should be invisible because it eliminates issues but doesn’t change the core product functionality. Calendars will sync faster, and we have eliminated any reliability issues when managing a calendar. Delegates might only notice that things are smoother but no specific, obvious changes.”

You can learn more about the changes from the Microsoft Support website. And thanks to Neowin for the tip.

Tagged with Outlook for Mac, Outlook for Windows, Outlook on the web