Get notifications about your Planner task assignments in Microsoft Teams
Published May 15 2019 09:37 AM 102K Views

Today, we’re happy to announce the availability of Planner notifications in Microsoft Teams. These notifications ensure you won’t have to leave Teams to stay on top of your work. We’ve heard you’re feedback about using the Planner tab in Teams, which is the hub for teamwork in Office 365, and we’re excited to power up the Planner-in-Teams experience with notifications.   

Starting today, if you’re an Office 365 Enterprise or Office 365 Education customer, you’ll receive Teams notifications whenever you’re assigned a Planner task (so long as that Planner plan has a tab in Teams). 

Your assignment notifications will appear in your Teams Activity feed and the Teams Chat pane and contain the following details: 

  • Task title 
  • Who assigned the task to you 
  • Which plan the task belongs to
  • Link to open the task details in Teams  

You’ll receive Teams notifications no matter where your task is assigned from, whether that’s the Planner mobile appPlanner on the web (tasks.office.com)or our SharePoint web part.

 

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Teams notifications appear in your Activity feed… 

 

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and in the Teams Chat pane. 

 

Teams notifications are not replacing Planner’s existing mobile push and email notifications. Youll continue to receive both in addition to the notifications in Teams.  

You should start receiving these notifications automatically, but if you’re not, you can enable them manually by going to the Planner web app, selecting “Settings,” and then “Notifications” under “Planner settings.” Check the “Someone assigns as task to me” box if it isn’t already selected, and you’re set. Remember, you’ll need to have your plan as a Planner tab in Teams to receive Teams notifications for it. 

You can read our support article for more information about Teams notifications for Planner assignments. The article also provides details for turning off these notifications. 

We always love hearing your feedback on new features. Leave us a comment below about your experience with this feature and other notifications you want to receive from Planner in Teams. You can also engage with fellow Planner users at our Tech Community page and help us decide what features to build next by voting on our UserVoice site. 

 

40 Comments
Brass Contributor

While this is a step forward, it is still not useful to us. We use Planner to create tasks, which are then selected by members, who "hang out" in a Teams General chat. We currently have a Flow built to create a notification that a Planner card has been created, which alerts members that there is a task up for grabs. Have been hoping to replace this workflow with something more native, but having to assign a task to get it to show up in Teams doesn't work for us. Any chance that this could be amended, ie: a notification in Teams that "A new Planner card xxx was created, assigned to xxx/not assigned" or something similar, to allow for our workflow?

Steel Contributor

Great feature. Love the integration with To Do too

Iron Contributor

I'm not seeing the behavior above.   Is this still rolling out?   Notifications are set properly.  

Brass Contributor

@Joanna Parkhurst 

 

I agree, it is a step in the right direction, but what we really need is a banner / activy feed notification within Teams for when someone adds to the conversation on the task card. I understand we currently get emails but the idea is to avoid emails.

 

The best combo would be that people assigned to the card get banner / activity feed notifications and people who comment on the card but are not on it get emails with added convo.

Iron Contributor

@Joanna Parkhurst And @Charles3393 really like that. Please make it possible to have the Planner task conversation within teams also. Or at least have a choice to where conversation should be. Best thing would to have it ”mirrored”. I.e it doesn’t matter where I comment, the comment will be visible everywhere. Then a plan with a “planner only user” can also be used with a “Teams only” user. If you get my drift...

Copper Contributor

Hi, this new functionality doesn't appear to be working. My understanding is that we a Office365 E3 licence,  I'm not an Office365 administrator, does anything need to be enabled by an administrator?  Thks

@darrensmith It's rolling out so expect it soon in your tenant. Admins don't need to do anything.

Copper Contributor

Nice enhancement.  I would like to see an option for planner in OneNote similar to the Outlook Task option. Looking for integration that shows when a task is assigned to someone in OneNote and the person assigned completes the task it updates OneNote. I currently use Outlook Task feature in OneNote to assign task right from Meeting Notes and can track progress from one location. Would also be nice to have a link that points back to the task in planner to view notes.

Copper Contributor

When is the rollout planned for Office 365 Business users? Thx.

Brass Contributor

This is a great step in the right direction but as others have commented already, adding the ability for conversations within tasks to behave the same way as conversations on documents in teams would significantly increase productivity.  Notify task owners whenever someone comments on the task in teams.  All conversations on a particular task can then be kept with the task but still be alerted to people assigned to that task.  This keeps everything nice and tidy.

Copper Contributor

Upvote for O365 Business

Iron Contributor

Great to see this rolled out! As others have said, we hope there's more integration with Planner comments and Teams to come.

Copper Contributor

Hi there,

it's almost August and the feature is not available on o365 E3 - why?

 

Cheers

Copper Contributor

This feature basically stopped working for our organization as of 7/10. Has there been a change?

Brass Contributor

The feature isn't working and email task notifications have stopped.  What has happened.... and yes, we have thoroughly checked the notification settings, user and plan owner.

 

 

Iron Contributor

It would be REALLY nice to have a connector working kind off the one for Trello. I.e being able to have planner tasks visible within a channel and have the dialogue there also.

Copper Contributor

@Nicolle Brice I can only support what you said. we are also missing the notification e-mails for newly assigned tasks. So our users are often not aware they have new tasks assigned to them. What exactly has happened and what can we do to change that?

 

Our settings have all the right tick marks so not sure what else to do. 

Regards, 

Philipp

Silver Contributor

@Joanna Parkhurst , I'm not seeing this and I have a Planner created from a Team and the proper notifications are on and it is a tab in the Team.  Hope it comes out soon as it is 3 months after roll out and I assume the roll out would be complete by now.  Thanks!

Iron Contributor

@Alejandro Araujo Rajzner Are there any news on this? I get the ”Planner bot” to notify me but I would really like a connector more like the one for Trello. I.e being able to connect a channel (if you add a tab with planner it should auto connect) to a planner board. Also being able to discuss, comment, and take actions natively within/from the channel.

 

Pls advise!

 

Copper Contributor

Love these changes. The weird thing was we got these Planner notifications to our Teams, but then they stopped appearing. Now they don't show up at all. 

@Joanna Parkhurst would you please comment on @Nicklas Lundqvist topic about a native Planner connector in Teams? Do we have anything in the Roadmap? If so, can we share anything?

Brass Contributor

Try this.... we unchecked a setting, saved, and then rechecked it and the planner notifications in Teams started again.  Might be a fluke because we tried other stuff, but worth a shot if MS fixed a bug, but you have to fix it on your version of the application.

 

Go to Planner web app, selecting “Settings,” and then “Notifications” - Three dots ...

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Let us know if this works for you please!

 
 

Hey all - thanks for sharing that you're having issues. We are seeing reports of inconsistent behavior for the Planner bot and are investigating a cause. If you are having issues, the more information you can provide the better! (ie. When they stopped, what plans they do/don't work for, etc.)

Thanks again for your patience,

Joanna

Iron Contributor

@Joanna Parkhurst For us (me) it appears to work fine. Although I would like a connector to plans also. With something like (or better) than Trello have.

 

It’s nice to be able to check out the bot, but - that’s more like “all planned cards”. I would like to have it within the channel that “houses” the plan. See my previous post from Aug 6th 2019.

Copper Contributor

so I do not get any notifications in Teams...And I checked already all notification settings serveral times. All right there...But still no notifications....

 

Any ideas?

Copper Contributor

@Lisa Larkin , in my case I unchecked/checked the notification box, and remove/add the Planner tab in Teams several times. Still can't get any notification anywhere in Teams. Haven't even seen Planner Bot appear once.

 

BTW, my license is O365 E1, suppose the feature should be available. 

Copper Contributor

Well, after several tests, I realised it might because I've been testing assigning tasks to myself. Had another colleague to assign the task to me, then I received the Bot message in both Chat and Activity feed. :cryingwithlaughter:

 

It to some extent makes sense that you needn't notification if the assignment's made by yourself, as you should be well aware of it.

Brass Contributor

@Richard_Wu  - I think we are E3 so not sure if that has anything to do with it. Nothing regarding notifications makes sense in Planner.  For example, you can create a task and assign it.  But if the assignee's don't add a comment, they don't get notified of any comments made by others.  So we have started saying Got it, whenever we are assigned, just so we know when others do something in the task and make a comment of their own.

Copper Contributor

How do we notify task owners on cards when we make updates?  I am getting emails when I edit them but are the card assignees?  How does that get configured?  There is a global mailbox but no one is reading those.

 

Brass Contributor

@ChrTaylorfrom what I can tell - and it makes no sense to me, every assignee has to comment on a task they are assigned to before they will get notifications of comments made by other assignee's.  It's really stupid, but when I create a task and add assignee's, including myself, I then have to comment on the task so I get notified when the other assignee's comment.  When they get notified they were assigned to the task, they have to add a comment so they get notified when I add comments in the future.  Makes no sense that all assignee's would not be notified when something on the planner task was commented on.  So I comment, "created task", and then assignee's comment "Got it" -  then we get notifications going forward.  There is likely other notification settings you have to review in Planner (I can't remember what I enabled or didn't enable).

Copper Contributor
@Joanna Parkhurst We are having issues with the Planner bot not working for anyone (besides the admin). When assigned a task, everyone is getting an email and (if they download the Planner app) a phone notification, but the Planner bot does not activate when a team member is assigned a task. We have tried having team members check and uncheck the box in Planner for the Web, looking at settings, etc. Is there any obvious things we are missing, or is this an error on the other end?
Copper Contributor

Our current options for notifications are as follows:

  1. When you are assigned a task (by someone else)
  2. When your task is late, due today, or due in the next 7 days.
  3. If you follow a channel attached to a Planner (and you receive ALL notifications from this channel.)
  4. If you have previously commented on a Task and someone replies or posts another comment.

Why do we not automatically receive updates from Tasks we are assigned? 
Example: There are 5 team members working on a new policy document. There are 7 things on the checklist. When User 1 modifies the document and added 2 clause that are on the checklist his actions may include the following inside of Teams.
A) He could check off those 2 items.
B) He could leave a comment for his team to checkout certain page numbers to see his updates.
C) Both of the above.
In the current setup, none of these actions will alert the rest of the team. 

If task comments, checklist updates, deadlines, and priorities are updated these actions should trigger notifications ONLY to those users assigned to this task. This would reduce redundancy in communication within a group and greatly enhance the transparency benefits of the Planner application.

Brass Contributor

Amen @AMatrej17!

 

When I create a task, and add assignee's, I have to go into the comment area myself and say something like, "Created", then the assignee has to go in and comment "Got it" -  In order for us to receive notifications going forward.  It's ridiculous that all assigned on the task do not get notifications when a task has been updated.

Copper Contributor

@Lisa Larkin I covered that in option 4 for notifications. But that defeats the purpose of posting it. That is like sending an email and then asking everyone to come to your office to let you know they received it. If the software is made for communicating why can we not communicate efficiently through it?

Copper Contributor

I'm not sure how lumping all sorts of notifications into one checkbox can possibly be considered a smart idea.  Getting emails 7 days before due, on the date due, and 7 days past due should all be separate options.

 

If I have a task that lasts for 10 days.  My user is going to get emailed every single day after day 3 to remind them of the due date?  What if I just want to email them on the due date?  Your current options just flood the user with what they will perceive as spam and they will end up ignoring things when they are actually due.

 

You've had this feature a while now and I'm surprised you haven't changed it to customize alerts further.  This is why I tend to argue for in-house solutions rather than locking into half-done Microsoft solutions that are introduced and then fail to get improved.

Copper Contributor

Est-ce qu'il y a une possibilité que lorsqu'une tâche assignée à un collègue qu'une notification nous soit envoyée par push ou courriel.?

Copper Contributor

What is really needed is reminder notifications for task due dates similar to Outlook. If I assign a team member a task and they have a week to do it, it would be great if I could set up a reminder for 1 day prior, etc. That's what I keep looking for reminders, not notifications. 

Copper Contributor

It would be really great to get a notification centered around the due date. Not the assignment. 

Copper Contributor

@Joanna Parkhurst 


Your assignment notifications will appear in your Teams Activity feed and the Teams Chat pane and contain the following details: 

 

 

Is this currently working yet?

 

Cause for us it doesn't work. We assign task to someone.

They get only a feed notification with a red icon. 

 

They don't see a red "new notification icon" in teams or in or in a channel. nor do they receive a chat notification. nor is the channel bold written.

 

The tasks assigned are for us still hidden even if we assign them and/or set priority to urgent.

 

All notifications are turned on. planner is a tab in that channel.

And we made contact with planner in the chat section.

Copper Contributor

In my tasks list, I see that a task has the ability to have two dates independently: a due date and a "reminder".

 

However, in planner, a task can only have a due date. This forces me to use the due date as the reminder if I don't want to forget about it and need to work on it over time.

 

Will planner tasks be getting a reminder feature any time soon?

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