Trying to avoid an awkward meeting or chat with co-workers might now be harder than ever before, thanks to a new Microsoft Teams update.
The video conferencing platform has revealed it will soon allow users to set their working location for the day, meaning bosses, co-workers, and anyone else you're connected with on Microsoft Teams will know exactly where you are.
Of course, Microsoft says the update will also be useful in finding out the availability of workers for chats or meetings, whether you or your colleagues are in the office or not.
Microsoft Teams set location
Going forward, Microsoft Teams users will be able to get an overview of someone's current status, their working location, and their expected working hours, just by clicking on their avatar or profile photo.
The tool will also display their local time, and the next available calendar slot in Outlook, hopefully making booking a meeting much less painful for everyone.
In its entry on the Microsoft 365 roadmap (opens in new tab), the update is listed as being “in development” for the time being, but has an expected rollout start date of May 2025, meaning users may not have too long to wait.
Upon release, Microsoft says the feature will be available to users across Android, Mac, iOS and Desktop – meaning there really could be no escape from meetings going forward.
Opinion – is there no escape?
It's somewhat surprising that Microsoft Teams has taken so long to introduce such a feature, as setting your working location and hours has been present in Google Workspace for some time.
As someone who uses both services regularly for work purposes, knowing exactly where my boss or colleagues are is incredibly useful – for nothing else than making sure my virtual Teams background is set up properly.
Microsoft has made several huge moves towards the future of remote work in recent weeks, and such a productivity and flexibility-friendly tool is another step forward for users of online collaboration tools everywhere.
But sometimes we all want a bit of peace, whether that's to get some work done, or just to escape from the barrage of notifications and noises that plague our working lives – so hopefully there's some leeway in how this feature will work. We'll just have to wait and see…
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