Microsoft is making additional features of Places available to all licenses that grant access to the calendar in Outlook and Teams. The expansion will take effect on April 1, 2026.
Microsoft is expanding the availability of Places, the workplace experience designed to help employees better find and plan colleagues, spaces, and services in the office. The expansion applies to customers with licenses that include calendar access in Outlook and Teams.
Microsoft mentions Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, and Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium, among others. Outlook 365 E1, E3, and E5, Exchange Online, and various Teams licenses are also included in the change, in addition to other Microsoft 365 and Office 365 licenses with calendar functionality.
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Places Finder
With the expansion, users gain access to Places Finder. This feature adds context when searching for and booking meeting rooms, such as images, floor plans, custom attributes, and information about available technology. Microsoft says that this allows organizations to switch from Room Finder to the more extensive Places Finder experience on a larger scale, by integrating spaces into the Places Directory.
In addition, there will be a new event calendaring experience in which Places Finder helps to quickly find available meeting rooms based on capacity, location, and availability.
Places Explorer in Outlook and Teams
Places Explorer is also becoming part of the expansion. This is a map-based experience for space reservations and exploring workplaces by location. Users can see details about workplaces, spaces, and what is happening at a location. Access is via the Places app within Microsoft Outlook and Teams.
The changes will apply from April 1, 2026, to customers with users on licenses that provide calendar access in Outlook and Teams.