M365 Changelog: Microsoft Teams: The “Notify when available” feature is now live in the new Teams app

Summary

The "Notify when available" feature in Microsoft Teams notifies users when a colleague is available. It can be activated via the chat list or the "People" section in settings. Rollout begins mid-May 2024 for Targeted Release and late May 2024 for General Availability, with no admin action required. Users can manage or unsubscribe from notifications in settings.

MC797120 – The “Notify when available” feature, which allows Teams users to get notified when a colleague’s status changes to available, is going to be available shortly in Microsoft Teams.

A Teams user in your organization can subscribe to get notifications of individuals’ availability in two ways:

1) By right-clicking (or tapping “…”) on a person in the chat list view, and selecting “Notify when available”

2) In a new “People” section, available in the Teams app Settings -> Notifications and activity -> People

To stop receiving notifications, you can turn them off in your app settings (#2 above).

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-May 2024 and expects to complete by early June 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCCHigh, DoD): Microsoft will begin rolling out in late May 2024 and expects to complete by early June 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

By using this feature, users can receive notifications from Microsoft Teams whenever the status of a person changes, signifying that the person they are trying to collaborate with is available.

Step 1: Subscribe to a notification


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Step 2: Receive notification when the person becomes available


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Optional: Can unsubscribe at any time from chat list

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Optional: Can manage all subscriptions to “Notify when available” in settings

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Optional: Can manage individual subscriptions to “Notify when available” in settings:

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What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. At the moment there is no planned in-app messaging to advertise this change, however that will be assessed in the future based on customer feedback and overall discoverability.