Microsoft is seeking to assist customers get some peace and quiet to be productive because of a brand new Outlook replace.

The e-mail consumer is introducing “Focus Time”, which can enable customers to silence all notifications for a set time frame, permitting them to energy by way of these important duties.

In an replace on the official Microsoft 365 roadmap (opens in new tab), the corporate notes that customers will have the ability to block out time of their Outlook calendar to get slightly peace. Doing so will mute notifications not simply from Outlook, but in addition from Microsoft Groups, chopping customers off from two of probably the most disruptive presences for a lot of employees.

Focus time in Outlook

The put up additionally added that customers will have the ability to block out “focus occasions” immediately from their Outlook calendar, which must be seen to anybody else that has entry to a particular calendar, which means colleagues, co-workers or purchasers ought to go away you in peace.

The replace continues to be listed as being “in improvement” presently, however has a mooted common availability date of January 2023. When launched, Microsoft is seeking to make the characteristic obtainable to Outlook customers throughout Net, desktop, iOS and Android.

The information is pretty much like a characteristic beforehand launched by Google Workspace to its calendar app. Its “focus time” instrument permits customers to dam out intervals of time the place they’ll keep away from conferences and get their heads down for precise work. 

Setting such a marker in a Google Calendar will even enable customers to routinely decline conferences, which means no last-minute rush to complete off work.

The agency’s calendar (opens in new tab) app can also be making it simpler to identify some free time for an appointment or assembly with an upgraded schedule sharing characteristic that might enhance smaller companies by upgrading its “reserving web page” system, the place customers can show their availability with different contacts, by including a brand new Share button for smoother sharing.

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