We will be retiring the People Pane (formerly the Outlook Social Connector) feature from Outlook for Office 365 with minimum version 16.0.12712.10000 beginning in late July. Instead of the People Pane we recommend the utilization of the find related messages feature or the new faster search experience. For meeting items you can use the Scheduling Assistant and Tracking pane to see who is attending the meeting.
Key Points:
- Major: Retirement
- Timeline: Begin at the end of July and complete by the end of August
- Action: Review and educate users as appropriate
[How this will affect your organization:]
Users will no longer be able to show the people pane for messages and meetings, when this change is implemented. We'll be gradually rolling this out to customers at the end of July. We expect the roll out to be completed by the end of August.
[What you need to do to prepare:]
Instead of using the Outlook Social Connector add-ins People Pane, we recommend using the capabilities of Outlook Search to find meetings, appointments or messages from individuals or items with attachments. You can also find messages related to the one selected by right clicking on the message and selecting “Find Related” messages in the conversation or from the sender. In addition, for appointment and meeting items you should utilize the recently expanded functionality in the Tracking tab, or Scheduling Assistant.