Weeks after Microsoft surprised us all by making an unexpected appearance during Apple's iPhone 6S reveal, the company has released another standalone iPhone app: Invite.
The latest out of Microsoft's experimental "Garage" team, Invite is meant to make it easier for people to schedule meetings, regardless of what type of email account you have.
"Invite is designed to overcome the biggest obstacle when scheduling meetings — not being able to see the calendars of attendees outside your organization," a Microsoft blog post read.
Connect the app to your email account and you can start sending meeting invitations to coworkers and colleagues, even if they all work at different companies. Microsoft says the app "works best" for people with Office 365 subscriptions, but the app is compatible with Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.com email accounts as well.
IMAGE: MICROSOFT
Meeting invitations are sent as emails; attendees can check off the time that works for them from their browser. The app allows you to easily keep tabs on everyone's responses and you can sync meetings arranged within the app to your main calendar. The people you invite don't need to have the app installed to respond, though those who do can add the finalized times to their calendars and exchange messages about the meeting within the app.
Microsoft's Outlook email app already has a "send availability" feature that lets you share potential meeting times, but the company notes Invite takes this a step further by showing everyone's availability at once without the need to go back to go back and forth between your calendar and the email message, which can be an unwieldy step for meetings with many participants.
The app is iPhone only for now, but Microsoft says an Android and Windows Phone version are on the way.
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