Just Like the Other Outlook Clients
In mid-2020, Microsoft introduced new configuration settings to make online meetings the default when scheduled by OWA, Outlook for Mac, and Outlook mobile clients. Office 365 notification MC230567 (updated January 20) brings the news that Outlook for Windows gains a similar feature. According to Microsoft roadmap item 66021, the feature will be available in January 2021. It depends on updates to the Teams meeting add-in for Outlook and Outlook click-to-run (current channel). As I write, I see the change in Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise build 13530.20218.
Updating the Organization Configuration
OWA and Outlook mobile use an Exchange Online organizational setting (which can be overridden for individual mailboxes) to know if they should schedule online meetings. If the organizational setting is configured, Outlook for Windows will respect that setting and make meetings online by default. To configure the organizational setting, run the Set-OrganizationConfig cmdlet from the Exchange Online management module as follows:
Set-OrganizationConfig -OnlineMeetingsByDefaultEnabled $True
All Outlook clients now use the same organization setting to control when they create Teams online meetings. The default for a tenant is $False, meaning that the decision is then up to the user.
Even if OnlineMeetingsByDefaultEnabled is updated to $True, Outlook users can remove the online components from individual meetings by selecting the Don’t Host Online option from meeting settings (Figure 1).
Outlook for Windows also includes a setting in the Calendar section of its options to control if the client should create Teams meetings as the default (Figure 2). This option is effective only if OnlineMeetingsByDefaultEnabled is set to $False.
Users who choose not to enable online meetings by default can still schedule online events by selecting the Teams meeting add-in when creating a new meeting.
Teams Online Meetings
When Outlook creates a Teams meeting, it sets up a Teams online space for the event and adds the necessary properties to the meeting (Figure 3).
A welcome change in the Teams meeting add-on is that Outlook for Windows no longer calls a web page when a meeting organizer wants to set or change the options for a Teams online meeting (Figure 4).
No Support for Third-Party Online Meetings
Unlike Outlook mobile, you can’t configure third-party add-ins for online meetings to have Outlook for Windows use services like WebEx, Zoom, or BlueJeans instead of Teams. To setup new Outlook events for meetings hosted on these platforms, you need to paste the meeting details into the Outlook meeting before sending the event notification to participants.
This is a great example of a change that warranted a four-word update in the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook. It’s not that the topic isn’t interesting; it’s just that we have so much more to talk about when it comes to running an Office 365 tenant.
Any idea if this will roll out for the msi versions of Outlook or just Click to Run?
Just click to run, I believe.
Is there a delay once the option is enabled? I’ve enabled it however Outlook is still not defaulting to adding the meeting. The build number is higher than the one that you quoted (we are on the monthly update cycle – click to Run).
I don’t think much of a delay is involved. Maybe worth contacting Microsoft Support to ask them to have a look?
Thanks. I logged a call with them earlier and they said that it can take up to 24 hours (it had been about 6 hours at the time). I’ll wait a bit longer, if it hasn’t applied within that timeframe then they will investigate further.
Hi Tony. In regards to this line:
“If the organizational setting is configured, Outlook for Windows will respect that setting and make meetings online by default.”
I logged a call with MS Premier Support and according to them Outlook for Windows does not honour the organisational setting. I had a response from another MS representative who said the following:
“The Roadmap item referenced was for a feature released into Outlook to allow a user to manage their personal settings for making all meetings an online meeting by default. Not for something a tenant admin can configure for default across all users in the org.
The config/article from office365itpros.com does not deliver the outcome you are looking for. As suggested by the support engineer.
There is currently no way for a tenant wide setting to force all meetings to be online/Teams meetings. The user can do it at their personal settings level if desired. ”
Strange. Despite that, we have had this work for a handful of users, but not for the majority, despite being on the latest click-to-run build (we are on the monthly update channel).
Just thought I’d pass that on. It’s frustrating as we want all meetings to default to online meetings and we don’t want to rely on each user having to enable that option themselves.
Thanks for the heads-up. I shall go back to the development engineer who was my source for this info. In the meantime, the documentation for the cmdlet says:
-OnlineMeetingsByDefaultEnabled
This parameter is available only in the cloud-based service.
The OnlineMeetingsByDefaultEnabled parameter specifies whether to set all meetings as Teams or Skype for Business by default during meeting creation. Valid values are:
$true: All meetings are online by default.
$false: All meetings are not online by default. This is the default value.
You can override this setting on individual mailboxes by using the OnlineMeetingsByDefaultEnabled parameter on the Set-MailboxCalendarConfiguration cmdlet.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/set-organizationconfig?view=exchange-ps
So something’s up…