Microsoft have finally (after a long wait), released the much-anticipated Microsoft Places into Public Preview. When it launches later in 2024, Places will be licensed as part of Microsoft Teams Premium.
What is Microsoft Places?
Microsoft Places, is Microsoft’s “AI-powered” (of course it is), connected workplace app that has been “designed to revitalise flexible work by helping employees coordinate where they work, modernise in-person connections, and provide valuable data for IT, Real Estate and Facilities Management to optimise the workplace.
What’s included in the Places Public Preview
At launch of the public preview, not all features will be available, but more features will roll over time based on feedback on those in the private preview and MVPs. The following is included initially.
- Location Plan: Allows people to share their proposed location schedule and see who else will be attending in-person – this makes in-person huddles, team lunches and “working together” easier.
- In-Person Meeting: Sounds like an odd one, but provides updates to meeting invites and calendaring to communicate the organisers “intention” for people to work together with an in-person meeting invite (no Online Meeting) – this is good for team meetings, workshops etc.
- New Hybrid RSVP: Intended to help us plan better – this shows a collated view of who is coming into the office, allowing people to adjust their location plan directly from their Calendar.
- Expanded Presence: Provides the ability for people to easily add their location to your presence state, indicating when they are in the office, working at home or from another specific location.
What won’t be available in the preview?
As discussed above, there are some features that Microsoft spoke about when they first announced Places back in 2022. These include:
- Access to the Places Directory: This will not be available yet as part of the public preview
- As such the following sub-services that this enables will also not be available including
- Space Analytics and occupancy data
- Ability to find rooms by buildings in the Places Finder
- Ability mention @nearby in Teams
Microsoft have also said that the integration of Places data into Microsoft Copilot will make coordination even easier. Coming in the second half of 2024, you will be able to use Copilot to understand which days are best to come into the office.
To me, personally, we will be playing with this in a demo environment as many of the key benefits I see are in the Places Directory.
Keep an eye on the Places Space to keep up-to-date with updates and changes as the public preview progresses.
Integration with Building and FM Providers
Microsoft are partnering with a wealth of FM and building companies across this market. With Microsoft Places, they have built a ecosystem of partners (listed below) who will build on top of the Places platform with new and existing solutions, leveraging, and enhancing data related to people, location, and space. Microsoft have listed the following launch partners but have said that more are coming rapidly.
- Avanade
- AppSpace
- AVI/SPL
- CBRE
- Cisco Spaces
- Chestron
- Eptura
- ISS
- JLL
- Service Now
- Verge Sense
I’m super excited by the integration into App Space and Cisco Spaces 🙂
How do I get on the Microsoft Places Public Preview?
The Microsoft Places public preview is available on request and IT need to sign up using the link below. You can register your primary “live” environment or demo/dev environment (we did both). To sign up follow this link here: