Launched this week on the Microsoft Office Store as well as within the web version of Outlook, a new feature integrates the ability to schedule a meeting at a nearby Starbucks. The coffee house meeting feature brings up a map of nearby Starbucks stores and inserts details about the location chosen by you into the body of the email. The feature also includes a link to driving directions as well as a link to order ahead of time using the Starbucks mobile app.
While meeting scheduling has obviously been an Outlook staple for many years, integrating the function with Starbucks adds a new twist for anyone that schedules meetings on the go. It’s ideal for people in large cities with multiple Starbucks locations and likely useful for freelancers who don’t have any office space. It could also be ideal for small start-ups that need to schedule a series of brief interviews for potential hires.
In addition to the Starbucks meeting feature, Outlook users can also purchase a Starbucks ecard and send that gift via email. Of course, this requires a Starbucks user account as well as a credit card for pay for the gift card. That card will be sent electronically, perhaps ideal if you are treating anyone attending your next Starbucks meeting.
This new feature is currently available to anyone running Outlook 2013 Service Pack 1 or later on a Windows device. At this time, Microsoft hasn’t released this feature for anyone using Outlook for Mac or Outlook Mobile; both feature launches are currently in the works. During the interim, Mac users can use Outlook on the Web in order to access the new Starbucks feature.
