Microsoft Planner, a task and project tool used across WashU, has rolled out a significant update this spring that has added new capabilities and phased out several older ones. The update is designed to make it easier for employees to track work, collaborate with coworkers and stay aligned on priorities.
These changes affect Planner in Teams, Planner on the web (https://planner.cloud.microsoft/), and Planner used in Loop or other integrations.
Some of the recent improvements include the following:
- Improved task conversations: Task chat has replaced task comments in basic plans. This change will allow for conversations about work to happen in the same place as the tasks being completed. Users will be able to @ mention other users which will trigger an email notification.
- Reusable custom templates: Reusable templates make it easier to build consistent plans across teams and projects.
- Goals: Those with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses or Planner Premium can also now take advantage of Goals to track progress toward shared objectives in basic plans.
- Reports: Users with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses can now generate status reports directly from a Plan.
Along with these enhancements, Microsoft has retired a few Planner features, such as:
- The Whiteboard tab in premium plans. Existing Whiteboards will still be accessible through the Microsoft Whiteboard app.
- Integrations with Viva Goals, iCalendar feeds, and Loop components.
- The ability to subscribe to Planner tasks via iCalendar will be retired.
- Tasks already created will remain in Planner, and existing Loop pages will show a link to the Planner plan instead.
During the rollout period, some features, such as upgrading a basic plan to a premium plan, may be temporarily unavailable.
More information and views of the upcoming features are available on Microsoft’s Planner Blog.