What's new in Microsoft Planner – December 2024
We’re excited to wrap up the year with some major updates, including the rollout of the new Planner for the web, portfolios, and Project Manager agent, to name a few. Customer feedback continues to inform improvements to our product, so be sure to check out the updates we have in the works at the end of this article! A look back at Planner’s Microsoft Ignite announcements We recently announced several new capabilities at the Microsoft Ignite conference to make it easier for you to coordinate your projects. Planner for the web: The new Planner for the web is now generally available, and it’s packed with features to help you manage all your work seamlessly across Microsoft To Do, Microsoft Planner, and Microsoft Project, while leveraging the AI capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Planner (preview). To try out the new Planner for the web, you can go to planner.cloud.microsoft today. Portfolios: With portfolios, users with a Planner and Project Plan 3 or Planner and Project Plan 5 license can easily group related plans, track progress from a high-level view, and organize tasks visually with the Roadmap view. This means you can keep an eye on all your plans in one place and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Read more at: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/plannerblog/manage-multiple-plans-effortlessly-with-the-new-portfolios-feature-in-microsoft-/4342145?previewMessage=true Project Manager agent: With Project Manager agent, we’re bringing the power of AI directly into your plans. As your virtual project manager, Project Manager agent serves to streamline your workflow by handling tasks so you can focus on the big picture. Learn more about Project Manager Agent in our Ignite blog: Unleashing the power of agents in Microsoft Planner | Microsoft Community Hub App-powered tasks in public preview The app-powered tasks feature offers your organization more control over what users see when they open their tasks in the Planner app in Microsoft Teams. Instead of showing only the standard set of task fields, you can provide users with an experience tailored to the task at hand. That experience might be a workflow-specific set of fields or step-by-step guidance to walk the user through a workflow from beginning to end. To use this feature, your organization will integrate a Teams app with the task, which will enable app-powered task functionality. Learn more about the public preview of tailored task experiences with app-powered tasks or how to manage app-powered tasks in Planner for tailored task experiences. Project Operations and Project Online plans in the new Planner You can now view Dynamics 365 Project Operations and Project Online plans in the My Plans section of Planner. This update makes it easier than ever to keep track of all your work in one convenient place. Bugs fixed in the new Planner We wanted to take a moment to thank you for your customer feedback, and this month we wanted to highlight two notable bug fixes that you helped us identify. Now, labels associated with tasks get transferred over when you copy a plan. Furthermore, you should expect date formats to match your locale settings. Coming soon Based on your valuable feedback, we’re rolling out new features to make your planning experience even better. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s coming soon: Smart backgrounds: Get ready to customize your plans like never before! With smart backgrounds, you’ll be able to quickly spot the right plans. This feature was part of our legacy Planner experience, and we’re now enabling it for basic plans in the new Planner. Board view for My Tasks: Board view in My Tasks offers a visual representation of your tasks similar to a kanban board, making it easier to track progress and manage your workload. See all your tasks at a glance and move them between columns to update their progress. Board view will be available in addition to the existing grid view in My Tasks in early 2025. New Planner tab in Teams: Collaboration just got easier! With the new Planner tab, you can add any plan—basic or premium—directly to a Teams channel. This means you can work on shared projects seamlessly, right alongside your conversations. Removing the default filter: We understand that changes can be challenging, especially when they affect your preferred way of working. When we released the new Planner, we introduced a default filter to hide completed tasks as a temporary measure to help manage clutter in existing plans. However, this made it difficult for many users to find their completed tasks. With the recent update that saves your filter settings, you now have more control over your task visibility - you no longer need to change the filter to match your preference each time you visit a plan. We are now removing the default filter to give you full control over your plans. Additional column customization options: We’re currently rolling out the ability to reorder your Grid columns in the My Tasks and My Day views and are planning to launch the ability to hide columns after. Stay tuned for next month’s update on how you can use this feature to focus on the most important details of your plan. Share your feedback Tell us your thoughts on the new Planner for the web by using the Feedback button in the top right corner of the app. We also encourage you to share any features you would like to see in the app by adding it to our Planner Feedback Portal. Your feedback helps inform our feature updates, and we look forward to hearing from you as you try Planner’s new and existing capabilities! Resources Check out the Planner adoption page. Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Check out the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates for Planner. Watch Planner demos for inspiration on how to get the most out of the new Planner app in Microsoft Teams. Watch the recording from September's What’s New and What’s Coming Next + AMA about the new Planner. Visit the Planner help page to learn more about the capabilities in the new Planner.What's new in Microsoft Planner - January 2025
Are you ready to take your planning game to the next level? This month, we’re excited to share some impactful features designed to help you organize, track, and manage your tasks more efficiently. Your input helps shape our updates, and we appreciate your feedback in driving this latest set of features. Thank you for being a part of our journey! Start plans more quickly Additional out-of-box premium templates Get started quickly with new out-of-box templates. We’ve added new premium templates—Goals & Objectives, Project Retrospective, Event Planning, Training Plan, and Sprint Retrospective—that can help you set goals, organize sprints, plan events, and more! A cropped screenshot of the Templates window where users can select from one of more than a dozen templates to create a new plan. Project Manager agent reaches public preview The Project Manager agent, announced at Ignite, is now available in public preview to Planner users with eligible licenses in North America and Asia-Pacific regions. We will be rolling it out to our European customers in the upcoming weeks. The Project Manager agent is an AI-powered virtual project manager designed to enhance your planning experience by streamlining workflows and handling tasks on your behalf. The Project Manager agent integrates AI directly into your plans, empowering you to focus on strategy, while enabling smarter team collaboration. Collaborate on tasks where you work Updated Planner experience in standard Microsoft Teams channels You can now seamlessly create and add both basic and premium plans directly to your standard Teams channels. This includes the ability to start a plan in a standard channel from any of our out-of-the-box templates. This unified experience means everything you need is now in one place, making it simpler to collaborate on shared projects right within your conversations. Get started by searching for Planner in the Open Apps icon of a standard Teams channel. A video demonstrating how to pin a tab for Planner and create a shared space for using the app in a Teams channel. Focus on the most meaningful tasks Add tasks from My Tasks and plans to your calendar You can now sync your Planner tasks with your calendar, making it easier to view your deadlines, meetings, and appointments together. To try it out, select Add plan to Outlook calendar in the drop-down menu in My Tasks or basic plans. A cropped screenshot of the My Plans drop-down highlighting where users can select the option to “Add plan to Outlook calendar.” Reorder columns in Grid view Personalize your Planner experience with the ability to reorder columns in My Day and My Tasks. Whether you prefer to see tasks by priority, due date, or any other criteria, reordering columns gives you the flexibility to set up Planner just the way you like it. Removal of default completed tasks filter Planner now gives you more control of your tasks – the default filter to hide completed tasks is no longer being applied in My Tasks and basic plans. Instead, you can choose which tasks to show by using the filter settings. We understand that changes can be challenging, especially when they affect your preferred way of working. When we released the new Planner, a default filter to hide completed tasks was introduced as a temporary measure to help manage clutter in existing plans. However, this made it difficult for many users to find their completed tasks. With the recent update that saves your filter settings, you now have more control over your task visibility - you no longer need to change the filter to match your preference each time you visit a plan. The default filter has now been removed. To hide completed tasks in My Tasks or a basic plan: Open the Filters menu. Apply the Not started and In progress filters under Progress. Manage more complex projects Convert your basic plans to premium You can now convert your basic plan to premium by selecting Timeline or any of the premium views in the plan header. With in-place plan conversion, you can now easily modify your plan to meet the needs of your team. This includes capabilities such as: Task dependencies: View and manage the relationship between interconnected tasks. Task history: Review all progress and changes made to tasks. Custom fields: Keep track of important information specific to your plans and workflows. Subtasks: Break down complex deliverables into smaller, more actionable tasks Check out the full list of advanced capabilities with premium plans in Planner. If you don’t have a premium license, you can still try the feature by acquiring a free 30-day trial. A cropped screenshot of a basic plan highlighting the Timeline drop-down where users can select one of three premium views to upgrade their basic plan: People, Goals, or Assignments. The Portfolios feature is generally available in Planner Portfolios can help simplify complex plan oversight by giving you a consolidated view of all your premium plans and tasks, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. Now, users with a Planner and Project Plan 3 or Planner and Project Plan 5 license can create, view, and edit portfolios; users with a Planner Plan 1 or Microsoft 365 commercial license can view portfolios shared with them in read-only mode. For more information, check out our blog on how to manage multiple plans effortlessly with the new Portfolios feature in Planner. New enhancements to Baselines Baselines capture your original project plan so you can compare it against actual progress, helping you monitor deviations and make informed decisions. Our most recent updates feature two new capabilities: Plan-level variance tracking: Track start, effort, and duration variances at the plan level. Spotlight tab: Focus on critical insights like critical path variance, upcoming tasks, and overdue tasks. For more information, check out our blog on how to use baselines. This functionality is available to all users with a Planner and Project Plan 3 or Planner and Project Plan 5 license. Features coming soon We’re looking forward to shipping more features to facilitate your task management processes! The following list represents features shipping soon. For a full list, check out the Microsoft 365 roadmap. Board View in My Day and My Tasks: One of the most requested features from our customers is now rolling out in Planner! The Board view offers a more visual and organized way to manage your tasks, helping you stay on top of your priorities and improve your productivity. Custom backgrounds: Get ready to customize your plans like never before! With smart backgrounds, you’ll be able to quickly spot the right plans. This feature was part of our legacy Planner experience, and we’re now enabling it for basic plans in the new Planner. Customize columns across Planner: Users will soon have the ability to reorder and toggle the visibility of columns in all Grid views in Planner. This feature follows the recent introduction of reordering columns in My Day and My Tasks. Share your feedback Your feedback helps inform our feature updates and we look forward to hearing from you as you try Planner’s new and existing capabilities! Provide feedback about Planner for the web by using the Feedback button in the top right corner of the app. We also encourage you to share your feature ideas by adding them to our Planner Feedback Portal. Resources Check out the Planner adoption page. Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Check out the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates for Planner. Watch Planner demos for inspiration on how to get the most out of the new Planner app in Microsoft Teams. Watch the recording from September's What’s New and What’s Coming Next + AMA about the new Planner. Visit the Planner help page to learn more about the capabilities in the new Planner.What's new in Microsoft Planner - February 2025
This month, we’re excited to announce the rollout of several new AI capabilities integrating Project Manager agent with your task management processes, as well as feature updates that address some of your most requested features. Thank you for continuing to share your thoughts as we continue to improve and build on the Planner experience! New AI capabilities with Project Manager agent Project Manager agent now launching in Europe We’re excited to announce that Project Manager agent is now rolling out to European-based customers with eligible licenses in public preview, following our initial release to Planner users in North America and Asia-Pacific. The Project Manager agent is an AI-powered virtual assistant designed to enhance planning experiences by streamlining workflows and managing tasks on your behalf. Read more about Project Manager agent in our blog post, “Unleashing the power of agents in Microsoft Planner.” Generate tasks from a PDF We've heard a strong desire from customers to automate the creation and execution of tasks using attachments. Now, you can upload PDF files to generate and complete tasks with Project Manager agent. Explore more collaborative experiences with Project Manager agent With a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, you can generate and execute tasks in plans alongside Project Manager agent. We are now rolling out functionality to enable users with a Microsoft 365 license to view and comment on content generated by Project Manager agent, so that you can better collaborate on these plans with others in your organization. Automatically create dependencies when generating tasks Tasks generated with Project Manager agent will automatically include task dependencies to recommend the order in which the tasks should be executed. To visualize these task dependencies, select the Timeline view of your plan. With this update, Project Manager agent can generate better content when executing tasks, as these dependencies help it understand the relationship and context between tasks in your plan. Create plans generated by Project Manager agent in a Microsoft Teams channel With the new update to the Planner experience in standard Teams channels, you can now quickly kickstart a plan in a Teams tab with the assistance of Project Manager agent. The latest enhancements to Planner Differentiate your plans with custom backgrounds With custom backgrounds, you can customize the theme of your basic plans to more easily distinguish between your projects. To add a background, open the Plan details of any basic plan by either selecting the plan name or the dropdown menu next to it in the plan header. From there, a side pane will open with suggested backgrounds tailored to your plan. This feature is still rolling out, so if you don’t see it yet we encourage you to come back and try again next week. This was a popular feature request when we launched the new Planner, and we’re excited for you to check it out! Note that if you previously had a plan with a custom background, that background should reappear in your plan with no action necessary. A screenshot of Planner shows the Grid view of a plan. The Plan details pane is open to the right with different background options. Organize your tasks with Board view, now in My Day and My Tasks With Board view now available in My Day and My Tasks, you can manage and prioritize your tasks in a more visual way. Read more about Board view in My Tasks and My Day and how you can use it to better organize your top priority tasks and help manage your workload. Join plans in public groups Plans created in public groups will now include a Join button, so you can easily add yourself to the plan. Recover recently deleted tasks You can now undo the deletion of a task by either selecting CTRL + Z or selecting Undo in the toast that appears at the bottom left of your screen. Share your feedback Your feedback helps inform our feature updates and we look forward to hearing from you as you try Planner’s new capabilities! Provide feedback about Planner by using the Feedback button in the top right corner of the app. We also encourage you to share your feature ideas by adding them to our Planner Feedback Portal. Resources Check out the Planner adoption page. Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Check out the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates. Watch Planner demos for inspiration on how to get the most out of Planner. Watch the recording from September's What’s New and What’s Coming Next + AMA about the new Planner. Visit the Planner help page to learn more about the capabilities in Planner.What's new in Microsoft Planner - March 2025
We're excited to introduce a range of updates designed to enhance your planning and task management experience. In this release, you'll find improvements such as the ability to reorder columns in basic plans, a comprehensive view of all due date categories in Board view, persistent filters in premium plans, and a fix for the default view in basic plans. These changes aim to provide you with greater flexibility, better organization, and a more seamless user experience. Let's dive into the details of these exciting new features! Reorder columns in basic plans You can now reorder columns in basic plans! This capability allows you to prioritize and organize your tasks in a way that best suits your workflow. Previously, reordering columns was only available in premium plans. With this update, reordering columns is available across all Grid views. To try it out, simply select and drag the column headers to rearrange them, or use the CTRL+Shift+< and CTRL+Shift+> keyboard shortcuts. Show all due date categories When you group by Due Date, the Board view will now show all due date categories, such as Today, Tomorrow, This week, Next week, and Future, regardless of whether there are tasks assigned. Previously, only categories with assigned tasks were displayed. This change provides a comprehensive overview of all potential due dates and helps you and your team in planning ahead by visualizing all time frames. Save filters across sessions in premium plans When using a premium plan, you can now persist filters across sessions. This means that any filters applied will remain active even after logging out and back into the application. This feature ensures consistency and saves time by maintaining your preferred view settings without needing reconfiguration each time you log in. Bug fix: Opening basic plan defaults to Board view We have fixed an issue to ensure that when you open a basic plan, it continues to default to Board view. Thank you for your feedback in helping us identify and catch this issue! Share your feedback Tell us your thoughts on the new Planner by using the Feedback button in the top right corner of the app. We also encourage you to share any features you would like to see in the app by adding it to our Planner Feedback Portal. Your feedback helps inform our feature updates, and we look forward to hearing from you as you try Planner’s new and existing capabilities! Resources Check out the Planner adoption page. Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Check out the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates for Planner. Watch Planner demos for inspiration on how to get the most out of the new Planner app in Microsoft Teams. Visit the Planner help page to learn more about the capabilities in the new Planner.Power up project management in Teams with the Project Manager Agent
New Project Manager Agent capabilities make it easier than ever for teams to stay organized, track progress, and work efficiently—wherever collaboration happens. Project Manager Agent skills are now in public preview for Teams meetings and Teams channels, unlocking new ways to streamline workflows and boost productivity right inside your conversations. Read on to learn more. Launch Demo Project Manager Agent skills in Teams meetings: Capture, assign, summarize, and kick off tasks Facilitator agent helps keep Teams meetings on track and remain productive, and thanks to its new integration with Project Manager Agent’s meeting skills, you can turn conversations into execution without leaving Teams. Facilitator pulls tasks from transcripts, so nothing gets missed, and meeting tasks automatically sync to Planner for advanced tracking beyond meetings. It can even generate documents from the meeting, helping to overcome the "cold start" problem. Just @mention Facilitator to create, assign, or retrieve tasks, or generate documents. Create tasks by simply @mentioning Facilitator during the meeting. Assign tasks with due dates and assignees right from the chat. Retrieve tasks based on criteria such as due date, assignee, or topic. Create documents: Create a Loop file or Word document with a simple prompt, and specify format and structure as needed. Sample prompts: @Facilitator create a task to circulate the meeting summary to all attendees. Quote the above created task and @Facilitator assign this task to me and set the due date to tomorrow at 10 AM. @Facilitator list all tasks from this meeting that are unassigned. @Facilitator create a Word document highlighting key decisions and rationale. @Facilitator create a proposal doc based on our discussion with sections: Overview, Recommendation, Approach, Appendix. Launch Demo Project Manager Agent skills in Teams channels: Task generation, progress tracking, and more Every standard and shared channel in Teams can now have its own dedicated agent, scoped to the conversations and context of that channel. Now, Project Manager Agent’s skills can be used by these channel agents, bringing powerful project management tools to your collaboration space. Ask the agent to create tasks, set due dates, or answer questions about plans and tasks, all within your team’s channel to keep everyone aligned and projects on track. To start, just @mention the channel’s agent (which takes on the name of the channel itself). Sample prompts (agent name varies by channel): @ProjectPlutoAgent, add a task “Draft customer email” in <plan>; assign to <owner>; due next Wednesday. @FinanceDepartmentAgent summarize tasks completed this week and those due next week in <plan>. @MarketingEventsAgent list blockers or tasks marked “at risk” in <plan>. Getting started with Project Manager Agent and Planner With the enhanced Project Manager Agent, enjoy smarter plan and task generation that turns ideas into actionable steps, along with enhanced tools for confident progress tracking. With support for 40 languages in meetings (and English US support only for channels), global teams can collaborate seamlessly, and a new on-canvas chat entry point makes interactions faster and more intuitive. All these features are included with both existing and new premium plans. Take the steps below to get started. Confirm licensing and access You’ll need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license to enable the public preview of Project Manager Agent. Project Manager Agent is available in new plans created with Project Manager Agent and all existing premium plans. Make sure Loop is enabled in your tenant for full functionality. Join Public preview for Microsoft Teams to get started with Project Manager Agent skills in Teams meetings and channels. Learn more Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Listen to the recent episode of the Microsoft podcast, Low Code Approach, about the latest updates to Project Manager Agent. Check out the Planner adoption page and Planner help & learning page. Visit the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates for Planner. Watch Planner demos for ideas on how to get the most out of Planner in Teams. Share your feedback Tell us what you think using the Feedback button in the top right corner of the Planner app. Leave thumbs up/thumbs down feedback any time you try a Project Manager Agent-enabled capability. Share feature requests by adding your ideas to the Planner Feedback Portal. The latest Project Manager Agent enhancements in Planner, plus expanded integration in Teams meetings and channels, help your team achieve goals faster. From capturing tasks in real time to generating plans and managing deliverables across platforms, these updates put powerful project management tools at your fingertips. Explore the public preview today and discover how Project Manager Agent can help your team stay organized, aligned, and ready to succeed.What’s new in Microsoft Planner – May 2025
This month, explore the latest enhancements to Microsoft Planner, including the streamlined Status Reports feature for project updates, expanded functionality of the Project Manager across multiple views, and preparations for transitioning from Project for the web to Planner. Thank you as always for your feedback in shaping our product! Generate status reports in minutes Are you looking to streamline your project updates? The new Status Reports feature in Planner in Teams is here to help! You can quickly and easily auto-synthesize your plan's progress, milestones, risks, and next steps, ensuring everyone on your team has shared visibility. Customize these reports to fit any audience and timeframe, making your updates more relevant and impactful. To get started, navigate to the Planner app in Teams and open a premium plan, or a plan with Project Manager that has at least ten tasks. Select the Reports tab, specify the reporting period, and add any specific details you want to include. The generated report will be displayed in a Loop component for real-time coediting, making collaboration easier than ever. You can also share the newsletter in SharePoint. Please note, this feature is currently rolling out to English-US customers and requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Loop license. For more information, see our latest blog post, “Generate status reports in minutes with Project Manager agent in Planner. Utilize Project Manager across multiple views Project Manager agent is no longer limited to Board view. Now users can also access the Project Manager in Grid, Timeline, and People view. This allows users to: Assign tasks to the Project Manager across all four views: Grid, Board, People, and Timeline. Access the Project Manager as a plan member in both People view and the assigned pivot in Board view. Drag and drop tasks to the Project Manager bucket to assign tasks to Project Manager in both Board and People view. Transition to Planner and prepare for the retirement of Project for the web Starting this August, Planner is set to replace Project for the web, bringing all your task management tools under one unified platform. Users will automatically be redirected to Planner, which offers enhanced features like Goals, Sprints, task history, and advanced dependencies, alongside AI powered tools like Copilot and Project Manager agent. No need to worry about migration or licensing changes—everything transitions seamlessly! To prepare for this change, administrators can notify users and update internal resources to reflect the new Planner environment. We’re currently working to close some of the gaps between Project for the web and Planner, such as the ability to view and manage non-default environment plans directly in Planner which was released last month. Learn more in our recent blog post, “Transitioning to Microsoft Planner and retiring Project for the web.” Share your feedback Tell us what you think about Planner using the Feedback button in the top right corner of the app. We also encourage you to share any feature requests by adding your ideas to the Planner Feedback Portal. Your feedback helps inform our feature updates, and we look forward to hearing from you as you try Planner’s new and existing capabilities! Resources Check out the Planner adoption page. Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Check out the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates for Planner. Watch Planner demos for inspiration on how to get the most out of Planner in Teams. Visit the Planner help page to learn more about the new Planner.
Planner with Resource Calendars
Hi, I have a team with differing working hours e.g. some are 8 and some 6 per day. Is there anyway I can setup this flexible resource availability for my resources under Planner? I was hoping to use the "Resource calendars" option but have been advised this is not released yet. We are running this under Planner Premium. Any advice is much appreciated! Thanks.
Subtasks - What level is needed?
My company is looking into utilizing our Planner so that multiple people have access to the same plan, but for the team to create subtasks we have to purchase premium plans. What level (1, 3 or 5) is needed to create a subtask? The breakdown found https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/planner/microsoft-planner-plans-and-pricing does not specify subtasks.
