Hummingbird is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook that allows users to easily schedule meetings and share calendars. It streamlines the meeting scheduling process by analyzing calendars, finding available times, and suggesting the best times to meet based on participant availability.
How does Hummingbird for Outlook work?
Hummingbird integrates directly into Outlook, enabling users to schedule meetings in just a few clicks. Here is an overview of how it works:
- A meeting organizer composes a new meeting invite in Outlook and adds participants.
- Hummingbird analyzes the calendars of all participants to find common free/busy times.
- It suggests the best meeting times based on participant availability, meeting duration, and the organizer’s preferences.
- The organizer can review the suggested times and select the best option for the meeting.
- Hummingbird automatically populates the meeting invite with the chosen time and sends invites to all participants.
By leveraging calendar availability data, Hummingbird eliminates the back-and-forth communication traditionally required to find a meeting time. This saves meeting organizers significant time and effort.
Key Features and Benefits
Here are some of the key features and benefits of using Hummingbird for Outlook:
- One-click scheduling – Schedule meetings easily without the hassle of coordinating schedules.
- Intelligent suggestions – Hummingbird suggests optimal meeting times based on participant availability.
- Busy time detection – Avoid booking over busy times on participants’ calendars.
- External calendar integration – Syncs with calendars from Google, iCloud, Office 365, and Exchange.
- Recurring meetings – Supports scheduling recurring meetings with customizable recurrence patterns.
- Meeting responses – See participant responses to meeting invites at a glance.
- Availability heat maps – Visualize participant availability with heat maps to find common free times.
By leveraging these features, Hummingbird enables meeting organizers to schedule meetings smarter and faster.
How to Install Hummingbird for Outlook
Installing Hummingbird is quick and easy. Here are the steps to set it up:
- Go to the Hummingbird website and click “Get It Now” to download the installer.
- Open the installer and follow the on-screen prompts to install Hummingbird.
- Once installed, open Outlook. You should see a Hummingbird tab in the Outlook ribbon.
- Click on the Hummingbird tab and select “Connect Calendar” to link your Outlook calendar.
- Grant Hummingbird access to your Outlook calendar data when prompted.
That’s it! Hummingbird will now be activated in Outlook for scheduling meetings. You can connect additional calendars (e.g. Google, iCloud) in the settings.
How to Use Hummingbird for Meeting Scheduling
Here is a simple step-by-step guide to using Hummingbird to schedule meetings in Outlook:
- Compose a new meeting invite in Outlook.
- Add participants to the invite.
- Click the Hummingbird tab and select “Suggest Times”.
- Hummingbird will analyze calendars and display suggested meeting times.
- Review the suggestions and pick the best time for your meeting.
- Click “Confirm” to add the selected time to your meeting invite.
- Customize your meeting invite as needed, then click “Send” to send invites.
Once you send the invites, participants will receive your meeting request with the scheduled time. Hummingbird makes it incredibly easy to find a time that works for everyone.
Hummingbird Pricing and Plans
Hummingbird offers the following subscription plans and pricing for Outlook users:
| Plan | Pricing | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $3 per user/month | All core scheduling features |
| Pro | $5 per user/month | Everything in Basic plus: Recurring meetings, availability heat maps, calendar integrations, etc. |
| Business | $9 per user/month | Everything in Pro plus: Admin dashboard, email support, SSO integration, etc. |
They offer discounts for annual subscriptions paid upfront. Teams can try Hummingbird for free with a 14-day trial period.
Conclusion
Hummingbird is an incredibly useful Outlook add-in for optimizing meeting scheduling. It eliminates the frustrating back-and-forth traditionally needed to coordinate schedules. With intelligent suggestions, easy calendar integrations, and powerful scheduling features, Hummingbird saves meeting organizers substantial time while ensuring meetings are booked at optimal times.
The seamless integration with Outlook makes Hummingbird easy to set up and highly convenient to use. For teams that need to schedule regular meetings, Hummingbird is an invaluable tool for improving efficiency. The various pricing plans make it accessible for organizations of all sizes.
In summary, if you use Outlook for meeting scheduling, Hummingbird is a game-changing tool to simplify and streamline the process. The time savings it provides quickly justifies the subscription cost. For maximum meeting productivity, Hummingbird for Outlook is highly recommended.
