Outlook now lets you hand over a meeting, so the weekly catch-up doesn't leave when its organiser does
By Brett Gavaghan, Founder of Adaptd ·
Microsoft is rolling out Change organizer in Outlook, so you can pass a meeting to a colleague instead of cancelling it and starting again. The first phase lands by late October, but classic Outlook misses out.
The short version
- Microsoft is adding a Change organizer option so you can transfer an Outlook meeting to a colleague without cancelling and re-sending it.
- Phase 1 rolls out from late September to late October 2026 in Outlook on the web, new Outlook for Windows and the Teams calendar.
- Add it to your offboarding checklist, and warn external guests they'll get a cancellation and a new invite.
Most businesses have one: a recurring meeting still owned by someone who left two years ago, which nobody can edit and everyone is scared to cancel. Microsoft is finally offering a way out.
What is Change organizer in Outlook?
Change organizer is a new Outlook option that transfers ownership of a meeting to another person in your organisation. You right-click the meeting, choose Change organizer, enter your colleague's name and add a note if you like. Nothing changes until they accept.
Internal attendees get a silent update and keep their reminders and settings. For a recurring series, future meetings move to the new organiser and past ones stay put. The previous organiser is dropped from the meeting unless someone invites them back, which may be the best news some people get all week.
Who gets it, and when?
Phase 1 of Change organizer is rolling out worldwide from late September to late October 2026 in Outlook on the web, new Outlook for Windows and the Microsoft 365 calendar in Teams. Classic Outlook for Windows won't get it.
Phase 1 only covers meetings that aren't online meetings. Microsoft plans a second phase for online meetings, where Teams meetings get a new link owned by the new organiser, and a third for Teams chat, recordings and transcripts. You can hand a meeting to one person in your organisation, and shared mailboxes and group calendars can't transfer.
What should your business do about it?
Your business should add Change organizer to its offboarding checklist, so departing staff hand over their recurring meetings before their account closes. Five minutes in someone's last week saves months of meeting limbo.
Two catches. External and on-premises attendees get a cancellation followed by a new invitation, so give clients a heads-up before you transfer a meeting they're in. And the new organiser may need separate access to attached files in OneDrive. My take: small feature, real fix. It won't make the meeting shorter, but at least someone will be allowed to.
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Wondering what this means for your business?
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