Teams will soon suggest start times for users scheduling meetings across different time zones by syncing with each participant's location.
The new feature intends to simplify organising meetings across various time zones and will also include further suggestions to make the process more time-efficient and reduce potential confusion.
The 365 Roadmap wrote:
When scheduling a meeting with people from different time-zones, the user will be prompted with suggested start times and additional insights that correspond to the participants respective time zone, ensuring a more suitable time for all meeting participants."
In practice, the feature will mean Teams users will no longer have to double-check the timezones of colleagues or clients when scheduling the meeting, or a user losing track of when the meeting was supposed to occur. Its automatic syncing and informed suggestions should also save users' time from negotiating which time would best work as a compromise over email or messaging.
"Additional insights that correspond to the participant's respective time zone" potentially means Teams will also flag local holidays to simplify meeting scheduling further.
The feature will roll out in general availability for Web and Desktop in July.
Microsoft's Plan to Enhance International Meetings
This time zone syncing feature maintains Microsoft's interest in enhancing international meeting experiences, perhaps best illustrated by improving its live translation capabilities.
Live translation in Teams was first revealed last year when Microsoft partnered with the Welsh Government to offer live human translation services.
At the time, designated interpreters would translate during scheduled Teams meetings, and attendees could listen in real-time in a language of their choosing and switch languages during the meeting.
In 2022, Microsoft announced its intelligent message translation for Teams chat on mobile devices. This enabled iOS and Android users to translate a chat message into their preferred language. Microsoft stated these services would foster better collaboration between users who speak different native languages.
The launch of Teams Premium earlier this year saw Microsoft expand its live translation capabilities powered by its partnership with OpenAI. The feature gives users real-time translations from 40 spoken languages in caption form.
Meeting participants could read captions in their language, while only the meeting organiser needs a Teams Premium licence for all attendees to use the service.
