Introducing a refreshed design, task chat, and more in Microsoft Planner

I’ve actually built an entire in-house CRM system using Microsoft Planner, so this update was both exciting and concerning for our workflow. One of the biggest issues we encountered after the refresh is that all historical comments are now gone. We heavily relied on the comment section to track lead handling status, communication history, updates, and the current state of each opportunity. Losing that history significantly impacts operational visibility and accountability.

Instead of removing or limiting comments, it would have been far more valuable to improve them with features such as:

• @mentions inside comments for immediate action or targeted notifications when attention is needed
• The ability to attach files directly inside comments for supporting documents, screenshots, quotations, contracts, and update references
• Distinct task roles:
  • Task Owner
  • Assignee(s)
  • Observers/Viewers

This would allow:

• Owners and assignees to receive notifications whenever the task is updated in any way
• Observers to monitor progress without receiving excessive notifications

Another feature that would dramatically improve Planner is granular task visibility permissions:

• Only users included as Owner, Assignee, or Observer should be able to fully open and view task details
• Other Planner members should only see that a task exists, without being able to access confidential details

This would transform Planner from just a collaborative group board into a powerful project tracking and CRM platform suitable for operations, sales pipelines, client management, and internal workflows.

Additional features that would make Planner incredibly robust:

• @everyone tagging for all Planner members or observers
• Multiple assignees per task
• True subtasks linked to a parent task for better accountability and work distribution
• Progress meters or weighted completion tracking
• Dependencies between tasks
• Activity timeline / audit logs
• Custom statuses and workflow automations
• Kanban + CRM-style views
• Internal notes separate from public comments
• Role-based permissions
• Time tracking and workload balancing
• Saved templates for recurring workflows
• AI-generated summaries of task activity
• SLA or deadline breach indicators
• Cross-board linking of related tasks

Having used multiple task management and project tracking platforms over the years, there’s a huge opportunity for Planner to evolve into a far more robust operational system while still maintaining Microsoft’s clean ecosystem integration.

Planner already has the foundation to become one of the best operational management tools available especially for organizations building custom workflows internally.