Opt in to the Microsoft Places Public Preview

Microsoft Places is a new connected workplace app that reimagines flexible work

Places brings new life to flexible work by successfully unlocking closer connections between teams and colleagues, elevating an improved workplace experience, and driving confident decision-making related to space optimization.

Beginning today, organizations with a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan have access to exciting collaboration features part of Microsoft Places:

• Location Plans: Allow employees to share their proposed location schedule and see who else is attending in-person.
• In-Person Meetings: Easily communicate your intention to work together with an in-person meeting invite.
• Hybrid RSVP: Meeting participants can share whether they attend in person or remote.
• Peek Cards: Easily see who’s coming into the office and adjust your location plan, directly from your Outlook Calendar. Receive notifications to book space on days in office.
• Expanded Presence: Add location to your presence signal to indicate when you’re in the office or a particular office.

Important

To learn how to enable and configure these features for your organization, review the onboarding guide here.

This guide takes you through the following steps:

• Getting the latest version of Outlook to support Places
• Enabling the web app experience for your users
• Accessing the Teams Preview environment for Places Features
• Configuring Places for your organization

You may also opt in to try additional features as they become available

The following features are available for early access as part of the public preview program. We'll release these features in waves as we ramp up capacity to meet demand:

• Places Finder: Book desks or rooms with the value of additional data like images of the space, floorplans, information about technology available.
• Intelligent Booking: Receive recommended rooms or desk pools and with one select, book suggested space or browse other suggestions.
• Places Explorer: Get a singular view of the people, spaces, and experiences at each workplace location.
• Analytics features: Get access to intent and actual occupancy and utilization data.
• Auto-release policies: Allow reserved rooms to be automatically released if unoccupied.

Important

Ready to go? Fill out the Places Preview Additional Features Opt-in Form to opt in to additional preview features.

Prerequisites for additional feature access

Before opting in, review and confirm you meet the deployment requirements. See Deployment Guide for Places for more information.

FAQ

Preview includes early access features - The features in this preview are early-access features. They may change, experience temporary downtime, and may not be part of the final product. We advise deploying in test environments for preview features.

We are rolling out features as we expand capacity - We're releasing additional preview features to organizations in rolling releases as we expand our capacity to meet demand. We want everyone to have a great experience with Places, so not all organizations will make it in the first wave of access. Don’t worry, all organizations who sign up and meet the prerequisites will be given an opportunity to preview additional features ahead of general availability.

Preview features include features that may be part of a paid plan - The additional features behind the opt-in form may be part of a paid Microsoft plan. We'll provide guidance towards the end of the preview for how to transition and choose the right plan for your organization.

Why do I need to fill out the form to opt-in for additional features? - This form collects the essential information required to enable your organization for additional Places features and for us to calculate requisite capacity for preview customers.

What happens to my form data? - All form entries will be deleted on or before November 30, 2024, when the public preview program will close. Review the Microsoft Privacy Statement for further information on how Microsoft handles your data.