Introducing List Sharing and Steps in Microsoft To-Do
Published Jun 04 2018 09:00 AM 196K Views

Our goal for Microsoft To-Do is to provide a personal and intuitive way to help people stay organized and get the most out of every day. We’ve listened to your feedback and have added two of the most requested features: the ability to collaborate and share lists; and break down tasks into smaller steps or subtasks.

Share your To-Do lists with family and colleagues

We’re excited to introduce list sharing in Microsoft To-Do, which enables you to collaborate on common lists and tasks and achieve your goals more quickly. Whether you want to share a list of work items with your colleagues or a grocery shopping list with a loved one, To-Do makes it easy to collaborate and get things done together.

 

Sharing a list in To-Do is quick and easy: Just tap on the icon in the top right to get started. Once you’ve created an invitation link, To-Do will instantly bring up a list of your favorite text, email and messaging apps so you can share it with your colleagues, friends or family. If the receiving user has the app installed on their device, they will receive a notification inviting them to accept the list. In case the user does not have the app installed, they will receive an invitation to download To-Do from the corresponding app store.

 

iOS Sharing Enterprise - iPhone 8.gif

 

You can create shared lists for both personal and work scenarios. For example, a shared grocery list with your spouse or roommate that allows either of you to add items to the list, tap the items to cross them off the list and automatically update it in seconds. Now you can make sure that your grocery shopping is more efficient and just easier altogether. List sharing also comes in handy for work-related tasks, such as shared meeting agendas between a manager and a report or team meeting agendas.

Easily break down your tasks into smaller steps
For larger and more complex to-dos such as planning a trip, learning a new skill or preparing an executive presentation, sometimes it’s easier to take one step at a time to achieve your goal more efficiently. Our new “Steps” feature allows you to easily break down any to-do into smaller subtasks.  For example, you can create a task named “Monthly Newsletter” and add multiple steps such as “Finalize graphic design”, “Write draft copy” or “Translate newsletter into Portuguese”.

 

Adding a Step is easy: simply tap on a task in your list, then on the task detail view under the task name, tap “Add step” and add a name for it. That’s all there is to it! Add more Steps by tapping “Next step”. You can even reorder or delete Steps as your plans change, just like regular to-dos.

 

Android Steps - Samsung S8.gif

 

As you complete each Step towards your goal, To-Do helps keep track of your progress. In your list view, beneath your to-do’s name, you can see how many Steps it contains, and how many you’ve completed. The number of Steps left to reach your goal is always visible, helping you stay on track, accountable, and in control.

 

We hope you enjoy using these latest features and would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on new functionality you’d like to see in the product. You can talk to us via our in-app contact form, on UserVoice, Twitter or on Facebook.  You can also download Microsoft To-Do for iPhone, Android, Windows and the web.

 

FAQs:

When can I get List Sharing in To-Do?
The latest update of To-Do is rolling out around the globe today and will be available to everyone this week.

Can I share lists with anyone?
If you’re using To-Do with a work or school account, you can share lists to anyone within your organization. If you’re using To-Do with your personal account, you can share lists with anyone else with a personal Microsoft account.

Can I manage who joins my shared list?
Yes, head to this support article for more details

 

 

 

 

91 Comments
Iron Contributor

Finally! I've been waiting so long for this.

Brass Contributor

Ok, Great step. Now I need to be able to share To-Do lists between my personal and work account.

Brass Contributor

And when will To-Do be finally added to the list of approved client apps so that we can actually use it within our company (as we only allow the approved clients (outlook)  to connect to exchange online).

 

Tried to exclude the To-Do app in the conditional access rule as a 'work-around', but To-Do doesn't seem to exist in the list of application, so can't be excluded…. (?)

Copper Contributor

Thank you! This was actually something I commented on as well. Amazing little app and amazing Microsoft is listening and improving apps and software! Keep it up!

Copper Contributor

PLEASE update us on the two most requested features on the UserVoice Page - Creating tasks from Email and Attaching Files to a Task!  If you would at least pin it down to a Year / Quarter it would be a HUGE help . . . 

Copper Contributor
One step closer to the wonderful Wunderlist we used to know and love. Keep up.
Copper Contributor

Thanks.. well done..

Deleted
Not applicable

MS decided to stop making WINDOWS PHONES.  This decision has angered me, & many others.  Listen to that, Microsoft.

Copper Contributor

Is there an API for this? It seems that the office.com Task API is only for my personal ToDo list integrated with Outlook?

Copper Contributor
Copper Contributor

@Chad OlsonThank you Chad! I thought it would just be valid for the root, non shared lists.

Copper Contributor
Hello Microsoft, well done! I really appreciate you've completed feature that I've supported. Right now I'd think about getting notification on shared member completing task.

Thanks for sticking with us  @Nawzil Najeeb! We're really happy that we were able to get it in to your hands!

Thanks @Kyle Wilcox! We'd also love  to add multi-account support, though we don't have a timeframe for it just yet. 

Hi @Kees Huizer, we are working to support Intune. Thank you for bearing with us in the meantime. 

Thank you for the kind words @Raymond Calla! We're looking forward to sharing our upcoming releases with you! Stay tuned! 

Hi @Wayne Roberts, while we don't have a release date to share publicly for attaching files just yet, I'm happy to say that it's definitely planned. While we don't have a concrete plan for email to task, we are working to deepen our Outlook integration, making it easier to create tasks directly from your email. Please stay tuned! 

Thanks @Yuriy Z! We much more planned that we are very excited to share with you! 

Thank you @Shahab Abbaszadeh!

Hi @Adrian Wentland thanks for the support and letting us know what you'd like to see next! We plan to add more features to shared lists, and notifications are definitely in discussion. I'll be sure to share your request with the team. Thanks again!

Iron Contributor

Are there plans to allow a work/school account to share with specific people instead of "shared with everyone" via the copy link?

Copper Contributor

What about notifications for shared members editing or updating tasks. will that be happening any time soon? Having to go through each shared task to see if members have updated is very frustrating,and is a few steps backwards from wunderlist which was using happily for some time.

Silver Contributor

So this only works in the app? What about web version? 

Hi @wroot, you can definitely use Steps and List Sharing on web! You can find platform specific instructions in our help portal. 
List Sharing on web: https://todosupport.helpshift.com/a/microsoft-to-do/?p=web&s=all-about-lists&f=how-can-i-share-a-lis...
Steps on web: https://todosupport.helpshift.com/a/microsoft-to-do/?p=web&s=getting-started&f=can-i-use-subtasks-wi...

Silver Contributor

Oh, i was actually trying to find share from My Day or To-Do, haven't tried to create a list. Thanks

No problem! :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Copper Contributor

Hi @Alberto Martinez Interiano @Keturah Cummings Is there any way to get notifications when someone uploads to a shared list?

Copper Contributor

Love the app so far, great work.

Will there be push notifications when people add or complete a shared task?

Iron Contributor

@Keturah Cummings , do you have an update or any kind of ETA on Intune integration for To Do. Kinda bummed I can't use it on my phone due to policies in effect :)

Hi @Steve Hernou, Intune support is in the works! While we don't have an ETA to announce publicly just yet, please know that it is coming. Thanks for bearing with us while we roll it out!

Iron Contributor

Thanks for your quick reply @Keturah Cummings , methinks you are holding out until Ignite :D 

Keep up the good work !

 
 
 

Hey no problem @Steve Hernou! Are you going to be at Ignite? If you are we hope you'll stop by our sessions: BRK1042 and THR102!

Copper Contributor

How can I assign a task to one of my family members?  Maybe get a notification when task is complete?

Thanks!

Hi @Brian Ferrenz, while it's not currently possible to assign tasks or receive notifications for changes within a shared list, I want you to know that we do plan to add both of those features. Thanks for bearing with us while we make improvements to List Sharing! 

Copper Contributor

Thanks for the quick reply! I just logged back into my old Wunderlist account so I can get my teens organized. I'll keep an ear out for when this feature migrates over.

Deleted
Not applicable

Hi @Deleted we are working to add multi-account support, so you'd be able to switch between your personal and work accounts to share a bit more easily. Would that be helpful for you? We are also looking to adding guest access support. 

Deleted
Not applicable

Hi Keturah,

 

That would be awesome as I love the app it is already really great tool.

Good to know, thanks! 

Brass Contributor
In MyDay, it would be very useful to have tasks automagically migrate to the bottom of the list when checked off.
Copper Contributor

 I've been teaching productivity for over 10yrs and have been so impressed by what MS has been doing. Your mobile apps are terrific. My big frustration is my inability to share a list (In To-Do) with my wife (who doesn't work for my company) on her personal acct. This is a huge gap and I'm stunned that I can't. It seems simple enough to fix. Is there a chance this function will one day be available......soon?  Thanks so much. - G

Copper Contributor

Please, Microsoft, add to this wonderful tool notifications on task creation or update and way to attach picture or onenote document/link to the task.

 

Thanks!!!

Copper Contributor

To-Do is almost as good as Wunderlist although some functions are still missing. I would like to be able to print or email (pdf?) a task list and it would be nice to optionally get an email when someone changes or completes a shared list. Keep up the good work!

Copper Contributor

Can we please have shared reminders on shared lists? I have shared lists with individuals within my organization and the reminders to complete the tasks are not shared. Often we make the list together (with reminders), then the other individual doesn't have the reminders in their list. Can we make this on option, please?

Hi @KevinMims we do plan to continue improving List Sharing and adding notifications to shared lists is definitely something we want to see as well. 

Steel Contributor
@Keturah Cummings given how much work and personal life blend together, I really want to be able to add two accounts to To-Do and have the option of seeing them merged rather than having to switch - I imported my Wunderlist tasks which were on my MSA but that means I can't also sync the tasks from my O365 account. Really hoping for a unified view, because otherwise sharing sub tasks for both home and work tasks will mean swapping accounts (by which time I've probably forgotten what I was going to share!)

For List sharing between two Office 365 accounts, I'm not sure why it's asking to login to live.com.

 

@Keturah Cummings 

Hey @Kevin Crossman are you sharing within the same organization? At the moment, it's only possible to share a list with members of the same organization. You can also share a list from your personal Microsoft account with other personal Microsoft accounts. 

Yes, within the same org using O365 accounts. That's why I thought it was really really odd to have to login to Live.com

Steel Contributor

the Office login uses the unified MSA/AAD login flow where you can type either an MSA or AAD/O365 email - is it maybe that your last login was an MSA and that's auto-populated?

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