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

The new Task Chat feature in Planner represents a significant regression compared to the previous comments system.

Previously, when a comment was added to a task, all task participants received an email notification automatically. This ensured that everyone involved stayed informed about updates, discussions, and decisions related to the task.

With the new Task Chat functionality, notifications are only triggered when a user is explicitly mentioned. If someone posts an important update in the task chat without mentioning specific people, no notification is sent at all. As a result, critical information can easily go unnoticed by the rest of the team.

Mentions are useful for urgent or targeted communication through Teams notifications, and that functionality should absolutely remain. However, generic task messages should still generate a notification for all task participants, even if only through email and in a less intrusive way.

The current behavior creates communication gaps and reduces transparency and collaboration efficiency within Planner tasks. The previous comment notification system was significantly more reliable for project coordination.

Please consider restoring automatic notifications for general task messages or providing administrators/users with configurable notification options.