Microsoft added some important new features to its Outlook mobile client last month and has promised to add some more features by the end of this year. early 2023, Microsoft also plans to add a new feature to its email client to help users better focus on their work.
Microsoft is developing the Outlook Focus Time feature, which allows users to schedule focus events directly from the Outlook calendar. This will help users work without interruptions because Teams and Outlook notifications will not pop up during this time. This is very similar to how the Focus feature works in Windows 11.
When the feature arrives, users will be able to schedule focus events directly from the Outlook calendar. This is very similar to setting event types in the calendar, such as “out of the office,” “busy,” and so on. While Microsoft did not show how users will set it up, the most likely scenario is that when starting to create a new event from the Outlook calendar, the focus time will be the same as “free”, “busy”, “working elsewhere” and “out of office”. Work” and “Out of Office” options will be available.
Google Calendar and Microsoft Viva Insights applications allow users to schedule their priority events. Users can also set this up in Outlook with the Insights Outlook plug-in, but this requires a Viva Insights subscription, and scheduling focused events will be available for free to every Outlook user.
According to the Microsoft 365 roadmap page, Focused Time is expected to be available to all Outlook clients in January 2023.
