Microsoft To Supercharge Teams Comms With Native SMS Messaging

The tech giant believes that the new capabilities will ease scheduling, enhance client communication, help manage workflows and improve efficiency.

Purva Ekatpure, Product Manager 2 at Microsoft, introduced the feature in a Microsoft Teams blog post: “In today’s fast-paced world, efficient scheduling is key to keeping businesses running smoothly."

“Whether you're a consultant, healthcare provider, or small business owner, the challenge of coordinating appointments can feel overwhelming."

This is where Microsoft Bookings steps in—a powerful tool designed to simplify and streamline the process of scheduling and managing appointments."

Microsoft Bookings is an online scheduling tool that businesses can use to manage their appointments. Bookings lets you create customisable booking pages through which everyone, from customers to co-workers, can schedule time with you without requiring time-consuming back-and-forth communications to organise a time.

With the latest update, booking users can send SMS notifications for appointments. These automated notifications include confirmations, service details, updates, and reminders, which help to reduce the number of missed appointments.

The functionality will be generally available in the US, Canada, and the UK.

A queue feature is also being added to Booking, enabling real-time visibility and control over incoming appointments.

Schedulers and admins will be able to see a consolidated view of all the appointments within the booking page they manage. If necessary, they can reassign appointments to different staff members, and the staff can assign appointments to themselves.

This will be made available in Bookings for Teams Premium users in early 2025.