Sync channels on teams with my outlook calendar so people can see what I am doing before booking and it will come up as busy when they book something

Question

I have looked at using channels to share calendars with other team members so my team can book meetings with me.

There are a few flaws I can’t seem to amend.

1. When people book in, it doesn’t always tell them when I’m busy- I have shared my normal outlook calendar with one of them and so, when they put a time in it says busy under my name when they have invited me in. Will I have to share my outlook calendar with everyone because otherwise they won’t be able to see when I am busy on the channel? This makes it a bit annoying because then they have to flick between the two - surely there has to be a way to sync only my calendar with this channel?
2. my team want to be able to look at my calendar easily and see when I’m free and then book time with me. They can’t do this on their phone because:

A. Channels is not an option on teams app mobile

B. If I share my outlook calendar with them and let them edit. They can edit my current meetings which I obviously don’t want. But still have to go to a computer to put it on the channel

C. If I share my outlook calendar and let them see when I’m busy they still have to go to a computer to put in a meeting on the channel

3. On teams channel calendar why can’t you change the colour of peoples invites. They are all blue. If ‘toby’ books in something I want to see him as all green, ‘Katie’ as all pink etc. Is this not an option?

As you can tell, I’m getting pretty frustrated with it all. Something that seems so simple, is made impossible by these programs. I really hope it is me and this can be done easily.

I just want something that is simple to use for all of us. I have spent far to much time trying to figure this out

Answer 1

Dear Nat Dodd,

Thank you for connecting with us in Microsoft community. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

According to your description, you want to sync your Outlook calendar with Teams. I have checked a few things on my end, and I would like to address your concerns one by one:

Syncing Teams Channel Calendar with Outlook:

• Unfortunately, there isn’t a direct way to sync your Teams channel calendar with your personal Outlook calendar. However, you can manually create meetings in Teams channels, and they will appear in the channel’s calendar view. This will not automatically sync with your personal Outlook calendar.

Team Members Viewing Your Calendar and Booking Time:

• You are correct that there are limitations when it comes to viewing and booking time using Teams:
  • A. Mobile App: Unfortunately, The Teams mobile app doesn’t support channel calendars directly. You will need to access Teams on a computer to manage channel events.
  • B. Editing Permissions: Sharing your Outlook calendar with edit permissions can be risky. Instead, consider sharing a read-only version of your calendar with your team members. They won’t be able to edit your existing meetings.
  • C. Adding Meetings: Even if they can see your busy/free status, team members will still need to add meetings manually through Teams on a computer.

Changing Invite Colors in Teams Channel Calendar:

• Currently, Teams doesn’t allow customizing invite colors in the channel calendar. All invites appear in the default blue color.

Meanwhile, I also believe that some specific configuration or settings options should be developed under the Outlook application, I do understand your concerns about how it can help you be more productive in your busy daily work schedule, but since it's related Microsoft 365 product services and features option under product design, I believe that the related product team can develop some convenient configuration based on customer requests.

Therefore, Microsoft recommend submitting feedback by going in Ideas · Community (microsoft.com)

This community team and the Microsoft product development team are separate. Therefore, for features suggestions or design queries, users need to submit feedback to the Microsoft product design team from their side. Once a user sends feedback through the above means, it will sent directly to Microsoft and routed to the relevant product team so that can review it to do specific development in different OS devices.

To see more details on how to submit feedback, see this article Learn how to provide feedback to Microsoft - Microsoft 365 adminsMicrosoft Learning.

I hope I have provided you with all the required process information for this current scenario. If you need any further information from our side, please feel free to do so.

I would really appreciate your precious time. Thank you again for your kind cooperation.

Have a good day.

Sincerely  

Feroz Mahmud | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Hello Nat Dodd, I hope you're doing well! I wanted to drop you a quick note about your recent post on the Microsoft Community. Our team is actively looking into your situation, and we'll be sharing an update on the thread accordingly.

Your patience and cooperation mean a lot to us as we work through this. We truly appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely Feroz Mahmud | Microsoft Community Moderator