Are planner notifications actually being worked on?

Silver Contributor

Nothing in presentations, the roadmap, etc, that I have seen alludes to the fact of notifications being worked on for Planner.  All i've seen is maybe an occasional comment in these forums.

 

Is this something being done "behind the scenes" or is there a legit effort to make things better that can maybe be tracked in the roadmap?

 

The all or nothing approach is starting to get frowned upon by our users now that we are starting to use it.   I'm hoping for a simple "my updates" versus "all updates" kind of setting as part of the Group subscription/notification preferences.

15 Replies
Here is the user voice link for this request. MSFT is working on improving this but no update when it will be completed.
https://planner.uservoice.com/forums/330525-microsoft-planner-feedback-forum/suggestions/11444235-em...

@Santhosh Balakrishnan wrote:
Here is the user voice link for this request. MSFT is working on improving this but no update when it will be completed.
https://planner.uservoice.com/forums/330525-microsoft-planner-feedback-forum/suggestions/11444235-em...

It's been almost a full year since they 'started' working on notifications. For all intents and purposes, Planner development appears to be dead; there's been no significant updates since GA last summer.

We're working on it!

Hi @Dave Heller, can you please let me know if you have set any ETA for this?

I don't have a specific date yet, but I will share when I do.

Just sharing my opinion, (not sure how feasable this all is), but in my mind, it is pretty simple model and this is how it should work:

 

Plan-specific options (in the group inbox)

  • An option in the plan to enable/disable notifications shared to Group inbox in general (already there)
  • An option in the plan to enable/disable Task comments posted to the Group mailbox to the Group

User-specific options (in their personal inbox)

  • An option for users to subscribe to all Task updates
  • An option for users to subscribe to only updates where they are Assigned the Task or have Commented on the Task
  • An option to turn off all notifications, regardless of plan-specific settings

@Dave Heller People getting annoyed like this is a good sign for you, that means they want to use your product :)

 

Can you let us know who at Microsoft is stopping you guys from going on a hiring spree so you can increase your velocity on getting these features shipped? We'd like to begin a concerted harassment campaign on them so we can get and use the version of Planner we all think is possible. :D

Hi Brent - Thanks for the input! I'll pass it along. We ultimately want to have a greater level of control regarding notifications, per your suggestions.

Haha! I agree with you on the first part :)

We have a strong team in place that is more than capable of delivering a steady stream of innovation to the product, as you will see in coming months!

unfortunately even after 6 months...  we didn't see anything new..  We need to stop using Planner !!!! it's really amazing how Microsoft can't improve such a good tool.... loose users and let them go to another tool...

We're in same boat. Were ready to upgrade hundreds of people to Premium at our company specifically for Planner until we learned about the Planner Notifications issue. If there was an ETA, then at least we could know how to plan (ie: use Trello for x months / indefinitely? until Planner fixed). 

 

The lack of clarity is quite frustrating and "We're working on it" loses credibility after the 6-12 month mark; especially when there's no mention or hint of it on the Official Office 365 Development Roadmap -- So something's awry, if it's "being worked on", then why does it not show up on this list of items being worked on?

@Jason Koprowski @Deleted

 

Firstly, thank you both for your engagement in this forum. Your feedback specifically helps drive us to make Planner better by understanding what features are the most important for you. I hope that you will continue to contribute!

 

Regarding notifications, I don't have a specific ETA, but I can say the team is working hard to update notifications and build other features through the end of the year. In the next four weeks, we will release an updated roadmap with more specificity of what's coming when. 

 

Thank you again for your engagement, and I look forward to delivering on your needs for Planner. 

So we are expanding our use of Planner at our firm (about 30 people in my group) in spite of the many glitches, under the expectation that Microsoft will eventually work these things out. In the meantime, the iPlanner add-in has been a convenient work-around: it has a useful calendar invite tool that serves in place of individualized notifications (people get an invite for the due-date, which pops up in their inbox). However, now that we're using it, I've also noticed that notifications aren't as glorious as I anticipated: the nature of granular task assignments means that task details, and due dates, can change pretty frequently, and the stream of notifications (even personalized ones) can be challenging. Training staff to actually check Planner itself on a frequent basis, rather than checking email, appears to be the solution (for us).

Now, being able to copy/paste tasks - THAT would be useful.

Were in that same boat. Notifications is being turned off on general in Planner (because it is too much), so users instead have to keep manually checking on things. Not terrible per se, but also not modern or convenient at all.

Would be a nice feature to have a setting where each user could individually pick a time/duration to receive a summary Planner email that shows them all of their action items (overdue, due in the next week, etc). Each user could pick when they wanted to receive it weekly for example.

Hello,

 

I know this is not a perfect solution. But note that you can have action done within Microsoft Flow. You can, for example, automatically send e-mail or Skype private message when a Planner task is assign to you.