Create reusable plans faster with custom templates in Planner
Turn any basic plan in Microsoft Planner into a reusable, shareable template to speed up planning and ensure consistency across plans. Custom templates capture key plan elements such as tasks, goals, buckets, labels, notes, attachments, and checklists to help teams plan faster and stay consistent. To publish a template, create and customize a basic plan to fit your needs. When you're ready, select Share and choose Publish as Template. Enter a template name and description, pick the Microsoft 365 group to share it with, choose which parts of the plan to include, and select Publish. fields selected. Once published, the template can be reused to create new basic plans. To create a plan from a template, click Create a plan, then go to either Shared or Created by me and select a template to use. How teams use custom templates Standardized onboarding processes An HR team onboarding new hires each month can use a custom template to create plans with the right tasks, buckets, and checklists already in place, helping ensure each onboarding follows the same process. Fast project setup with templates A marketing team launches frequent campaigns and uses a custom template to spin up new plans instantly. With pre-filled tasks, attachments, and checklists built in, they save time and stay aligned on key details. Addressing your feedback Tell us what you think about custom templates by selecting the Feedback icon (person with a chat bubble) in the top right corner of the app, then select Feedback from the dropdown menu. 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. Learn more Learn how to use custom templates in Planner. Learn how to export and manage Planner custom template data. Visit planner.cloud.microsoft to access Planner directly from your browser. Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Check out the Planner adoption page and Planner help & learning page to learn more about Planner. Visit the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates for 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.Introducing a refreshed design, task chat, and more in Microsoft Planner
We’re excited to announce that a modernized user interface and new features are now rolling out to basic plans in both Planner in Teams and Planner for the web. The updated design offers enhanced navigation, responsive layouts, a new goals view for setting objectives and priorities, and task chat—one of your most requested features—to enable real-time collaboration and @ mentioning team members. This release aims to make planning easier for everyday users while preparing for future AI-powered capabilities. Our goal is to streamline planning by making it more intelligent and connected, so teams can concentrate on achieving results rather than managing tasks. What's new in Planner A refreshed design: With this rollout, users will be able to manage their plans in a cleaner, more modern interface that brings a more consistent planning experience across work. Planner’s new look was designed to feel simpler, allowing users to find what they need. It reduces visual clutter, improves layout and spacing, and creates a more focused workspace. Task chat with @ mentions: A new task chat is coming to basic plans, bringing real-time, threaded conversations directly into tasks, including @ mentions, rich formatting, emojis, and notifications to help keep decisions tied to the specific task at hand. Plan members who are @ mentioned in a task will receive a notification in their Teams Activity feed and via email and can select the notification which takes them directly to the task card for additional context. Note that previously, users received notifications for every task comment, but as a result of customer feedback, we now only send notifications to mentioned users. The ability to @ mention team members directly in a task has been a top request, and we’re excited to roll this out in a familiar, chat-based experience. Please note, premium plans will continue to utilize the existing task conversation experience. This will converge into the new experience at a later point in time. Goals view: Basic plans will now include a dedicated Goals view, allowing teams to set clear, well-defined objectives to help prioritize work. By connecting tasks to shared goals, teams achieve greater alignment, gain clarity on priorities, and track progress and outcomes—driving the plan forward together. Access to Goals view in basic plans requires either a Planner premium license or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Notes on availability Please note that not all users will see the new Planner interface at the same time. This refreshed interface, along with Task chat and Goals view, begins rolling out to basic plans today and will continue to roll out over the coming weeks. This is only the beginning This redesign lays the groundwork for many more improvements coming to Planner in the next few weeks and months, including: Project Manager agent in basic plans – to help with task execution and the creation of status reports. Custom templates. Planner in Outlook. Stay tuned for announcements regarding these updates and more aligned to our long-term vision for integrated work management. Feature availability, naming, and timelines are subject to change. Please refer to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap for the latest status. Addressing your feedback We heard your feedback about inconsistencies between basic and premium plans. This refresh starts closing those gaps, so features appear consistently across plans based on your license. For example, users with a Planner premium license will now see Goals in basic plans, and users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license will soon have access to Project Manager Agent in basic plans as well. Tell us what you think about the new Planner interface, Task chat, and Goals view by selecting More (circled question mark icon) in the top right corner of the app, then selecting Feedback from the dropdown menu. 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. Learn more Visit planner.cloud.microsoft to access Planner directly from your browser. Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Learn more about Planner in our Frequently asked questions. Check out the Planner adoption page and Planner help & learning page to learn more about Planner. Visit the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates for Planner. Walk through the interactive demos for Project Manager Agent in Planner and Project Manager Agent skills in Teams meetings.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.What's new in Microsoft Planner – June 2025
Discover the latest enhancements in Planner, designed to help you manage your work more efficiently. This month, we’re excited to highlight new features and updates that make planning, organizing, and tracking tasks simpler than ever. Get real-time task notifications for Project Manager agent via email In May, we introduced real-time task notifications for Project Manager agent in Planner in Teams, alerting you when a task is completed and ready for review or when your input is needed to move it forward. We’re now expanding these capabilities to send you notifications via email. This enhancement gives you more flexibility in how you stay informed, helping you maintain momentum on critical tasks—even when you’re away from Teams. Whether you prefer to manage your day from your inbox or your Activity feed, these notifications ensure you never miss a beat on the tasks assigned to Project Manager agent. Boost efficiency with Planner's bulk editing feature Planner’s new bulk editing feature is here to simplify task management. In the Grid view of any basic plan, you can now update multiple tasks simultaneously—assign tasks, adjust priorities, update progress, and modify start and due dates—all in one go. To get started, navigate to a basic plan and select the Grid view. Then, select a set of tasks you want to update by either selecting and dragging the tasks or by using Ctrl + the up arrow or down arrow. Use Project Manager agent to generate status reports - now in public preview The new Status Reports feature in Planner in Teams enables you to auto-synthesize your plan's progress, milestones, risks, and next steps, ensuring everyone on your team has shared visibility. All report features, including the ability to share the status report as a newsletter, are now available in public preview for all English users. Support for additional languages is being rolled out in the coming days. Learn more about how to generate status reports in minutes with Project Manager agent in Planner. Project Manager agent now supported in 40+ languages We’re excited to share that Project Manager agent is now multi-lingual! With this update, you can now use the Project Manager agent to generate and execute on tasks in any language that is also available for Microsoft 365 Copilot, excluding Arabic and Hebrew for now. Note that Arabic and Hebrew support, as well as the ability to generate status reports in these languages, will be available later this week. See the full list of supported languages for Microsoft 365 Copilot. ICYMI: A look back at what we shipped earlier this year Now that we’re halfway through the year, our team would love to recap some of our favorite Planner features that have shipped recently: Project Manager agent in public preview: 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. See our announcement blog post to learn more. Custom backgrounds: Personalize your workspace with images or themes, enhancing visual appeal and organization. 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. Board view 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. Reorder columns across all plans: 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. Generate status reports using Project Manager agent: The new Status Reports feature in Planner in Teams enables you to auto-synthesize your plan's progress, milestones, risks, and next steps, ensuring everyone on your team has shared visibility. Learn more about how to generate status reports in minutes with Project Manager agent in Planner. Retirement of Microsoft Project for the web: We also wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone that starting August 1st, 2025, we will be transitioning all users to Microsoft Planner. As an effort to provide a unified work management experience, we are retiring Project for the web, as well as the Project and Roadmap apps in Microsoft Teams. No actions are necessary in preparation for this change as all licensing should carry over seamlessly. Learn more about this change in our announcement blog post. Do you have a Planner feature you’ve been enjoying recently? Let us know in the comments! Share your feedback Tell us what you think about the new 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.The next chapter for AI-powered work management in Microsoft Planner
Today at Microsoft Ignite, we’re excited to share the next major evolution in work management—one that builds on the journey we began in April 2024, when we unified Microsoft To Do, Planner, and Project for the web into a single, modern experience we called the new Planner. Now available in Microsoft Teams and as a web app, Planner has further been enhanced with the Project Manager Agent, an AI-powered assistant that helps streamline your planning process. Now, we’re taking the next step by bringing advanced AI skills through Project Manager Agent to our platform—delivering intelligent automation and a seamless planning environment that can help empower teams to move faster, stay aligned, and deliver results with less friction. A day in the life: From conversation to coordination It’s Monday morning. A product launch team gathers—some in person, some remote. Instead of action items getting lost in chat threads or emails, Facilitator and Project Manager Agent are now part of the meeting experience. During the meeting, Facilitator listens for spoken intent and captures decisions as actionable tasks. Team members can also prompt Facilitator through the meeting chat to add, update, or assign tasks in real time. This ensures that nothing is missed and that tasks are created directly from the flow of conversation. Project Manager Agent structures these tasks within Planner, assigning owners and due dates as directed by the team. The agent helps team members organize and track their work efficiently by making it easier to create, assign, and update tasks within Teams meetings. Furthermore, the Project Manager Agent works alongside Facilitator to generate a marketing plan, so the team can use the document as a reference for stakeholders. The agents are able to create the document, pulling context from the meeting transcript, meeting chat, and files shared during the meeting. The document is posted in the meeting chat and is also available as an attachment to the task in the meeting plan. As the meeting wraps up, the plan is live in Planner, with clear ownership and next steps. Everyone leaves the meeting aligned, knowing exactly what needs to be done and who is responsible. This is the story we’re showcasing at Ignite: how Planner and agents are helping teams drive work across Teams. What’s rolling out soon to general availability Below is a list of features that are currently available in public preview and rolling out to general availability in the next two weeks. Project Manager Agent skills in Teams meetings: Leveraging the skills of Project Manager Agent, Facilitator can create tasks during meetings and automatically extract tasks from meeting transcripts to ensure nothing is overlooked. These tasks are captured in meeting notes and seamlessly synced to Planner for enhanced post-meeting tracking. Additionally, the Facilitator can generate documents from meetings, helping resolve the "cold start" challenge. Simply @mention Facilitator to create, assign, or access tasks, or to generate required documents. Project Manager Agent skills in Teams channels: Leveraging the skills of Project Manager Agent in Teams channels, users can create tasks, set due dates, and assign tasks seamlessly within their collaborative workspace by @mentioning the respective Channel Agent. Learn more about Project Manager Agent skills in Teams meetings and channels in our announcement blog post. What’s new for Project Manager Agent and Planner Below is a list of features that are new to Project Manager Agent, Channel Agent in Teams, and Planner. Workback plans in Teams channels: Project Manager Agent and the Channel Agent together now support the creation of AI-powered workback plans, automatically generating a reverse timeline of tasks and milestones based on the target deadline and goal provided. A screenshot of a Teams channel shows a conversation with the Channel Agent. The Channel Agent has created a workback plan with tasks and due dates. Ask questions about your plans in Teams channels: You can now ask the Channel Agent questions related to your plans in Planner. Simply @mention the Channel Agent directly in your channel conversation with questions such as: What tasks are assigned to me? What tasks need to be completed this week? Create and update tasks with Channel Agent: You can also ask the Channel Agent to create new tasks and update existing ones. Simply @mention the Channel Agent with prompts such as: Create a task to complete the Quarterly Business Review deck. Assign the LT review prep task to Daniel. For more information, see how to create project tasks using Channel Agent. Status reports with Planner data: Channel Agent uses its knowledge to create status reports for channel members. These status reports are delivered as a Loop file within the channel, allowing team members to review, edit, collaborate, and share with others. Previously, the Channel Agent would generate status reports based on messages in its respective channel, as well as meeting summaries for any meetings the agent was added to. Now, status reports generated by the Channel Agent are enriched with Planner data to provide additional context, improve project visibility for all stakeholders, and enable better decision making by highlighting progress, risks, and blockers. Learn how to generate a status report using Channel Agent. Please note, these new capabilities in Teams channels are currently available in public preview. A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required to create, interact with, and manage Channel Agent in Teams. Learn how to get started with Channel Agent for Teams channels. Support for Information Barriers: Microsoft Purview Information Barriers are policies in Microsoft 365 that a compliance admin can configure to prevent individuals or groups from communicating and collaborating with each other. Support for Information Barriers in Planner enables organizations to restrict access to plans and tasks based on user groups. This feature can help prevent data leaks, enforce internal policies, and support regulatory mandates by limiting plan visibility and collaboration to authorized segments. Support for Information Barriers is now generally available in basic plans only across: Planner for the web Planner in Teams (web, desktop, and mobile) Learn more about Information Barriers in Microsoft Planner. What’s coming soon to Planner Below is a list of additional compliance features that are currently rolling out or starting to roll out in Planner next month. Please note, these features are not being demoed at Ignite. Check the Microsoft 365 public roadmap for rollout status and additional details. Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) label support in Planner: Up until now, Planner has supported container labels for Microsoft 365 Group-backed and Roster plans, restricting access based on label permissions. This update will enable support for content labels, enforcing Data Loss Prevention controls, such as: Preventing users from copying task content, exporting plans to Excel or other formats, and forwarding tasks or plans to unauthorized users. Restricting users from printing plans or tasks when the content label includes a “block print” directive and restricting users from any form of hard copy generation of sensitive plans. Displaying watermarks on plans and tasks when required and ensuring watermark visibility across all supported clients (web, desktop, and mobile). Inheriting content labels from Loop Task List components or other linked containers, applying the same restriction to the Roster plan created from a Loop file, and respecting label changes. Informing users when label restrictions are in effect, preventing actions that violate label policies, and offering downgrade prompts if label changes would revoke access for certain users. With this rollout, users will be able to apply and modify content labels on Group-backed plans. Roster plans created from meetings will inherit the meeting label. eDiscovery support for Roster plans: Up until now, Planner has only provided eDiscovery support for modern Group-backed plans. This update will enable eDiscovery support for Roster plans as well. Once rolled out to your organization, admins will be able to pull the task data relevant to a user by selecting the individual’s mailbox. When the eDiscovery admin selects a user’s mailbox as the data source, they would see the task that the user was assigned to. Join our sessions at Ignite 2025! Whether you’re on site at the Moscone Center or joining us online, dive deeper with demos and Q&A. We’ll share additional details on the features above and announce some exciting updates coming soon to Planner. Theater session (THR761): Accelerating productivity with Planner and Project Manager agent in Microsoft Teams Time: Thursday, November 20 at 10:00 AM Pacific Speakers: George Bullock, Robyn Guarriello Duration: 25 minutes (in person, live Q&A) Breakout session (BRK287): Planner & agents: Driving work across Teams, Outlook, and Copilot Chat Time: Thursday, November 20 at 4:45 PM Pacific Speakers: Howard Crow, Robyn Guarriello Duration: 45 minutes (in person, streamed live, and on demand) Expert meetups: Visit the Copilot & Agents station for hands-on demos and unblocked Q&A with product experts. Learn more Watch the on-demand Breakout session from Ignite 2025. Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Check out the Planner adoption page and Planner help & learning page to learn more about Planner. Visit the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates for Planner. Walk through the interactive demos for Project Manager Agent in Planner and Project Manager Agent skills in Teams meetings. Take these hands-on learning courses to enhance your AI business solutions with Copilot and agents at work.In case you missed it: A roundup of the latest Planner announcements
The Microsoft Planner team recently celebrated two pivotal milestones: International Project Management Day and Microsoft Ignite. To round out the year, here’s a quick look at some of the new and existing features we announced. 7 hidden gems to effectively manage your tasks In honor of International Project Management Day on November 6, our team published a blog post to highlight lesser-known but powerful Planner features that help teams work more efficiently across Planner and Microsoft Teams. These features include the ability to bulk edit tasks, export plans to Excel, and auto-generate status reports. To learn more, check out our blog post, “7 hidden gems to effectively manage your tasks in Microsoft Planner.” Planner at Microsoft Ignite At Microsoft Ignite 2025, we unveiled a major wave of updates that deepen the integration between Planner, Teams, and the Project Manager Agent—bringing AI-powered coordination, automation, and compliance capabilities into everyday workflows. In meetings, Facilitator now listens for spoken intent, captures decisions as actionable tasks, and generates documents using meeting context. Tasks are automatically synced to Planner, reducing manual follow-up and ensuring alignment as soon as the meeting wraps. In Teams channels, the Channel Agent can create and update tasks, answer plan-related questions, and produce richer status reports. These status reports are now enhanced with Planner data for better visibility into progress, risks, and blockers. Workback plan generation is now available in channels, helping teams quickly create reverse timelines based on a target deadline. Please note, the Teams meetings and channel capabilities mentioned above are available in public preview and require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. To learn more about Project Manager Agent skills in Teams meetings and channels, as well as newly released compliance features, see our recent blog post, “The next chapter for AI-powered work management in Microsoft Planner.” The new Planner in Teams for GCC High Also worth mentioning is the availability of the new Planner in Teams for our customers in the GCC High environment. As of October, all existing tasks, basic plans, and premium plans have been migrated to the new Planner in Teams. GCC High customers can now plan, track, and collaborate on work alongside their chats, meetings, and files. Learn more and access some of our most frequently asked questions in our recent blog post: The new Planner in Microsoft Teams is now available to customers in GCC High. Feedback We want to hear from you about how these features and others can make working with Planner more effective. Tell us what you think using the Feedback button in the top-right corner of the web app, or by selecting the ? icon in the top-right corner of Planner in Teams, then selecting Feedback. 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! Planner resources Watch the on-demand Breakout session from Ignite 2025. Walk through the interactive demos for Project Manager Agent in Planner and Project Manager Agent skills in Teams meetings. Learn more about Planner on 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. Visit the Planner help page to learn more about Planner.What’s new in Microsoft Planner – September 2025
This month, we introduced the Project Manager Agent in Microsoft Teams meetings and channels and enhanced Planner’s security. These features make collaborating with your team more effective while keeping your work secure. Project Manager Agent skills now available in Teams meetings and channels Project Manager Agent skills are now available in Microsoft Teams meetings and channels, meaning you can turn meeting conversations into actionable tasks, assign and update items right in the chat, and even generate polished documents with a simple prompt. Meeting tasks sync automatically to Planner for seamless follow-up, and you can filter or retrieve tasks based on due date, assignee, or topic, all without leaving Teams. In channels, each team gets a dedicated agent to create tasks, set due dates, answer plan-related questions, and keep projects moving. To get started, @mention the Facilitator during meetings or your channel agent to create or manage tasks as you go. Learn more about powering up project management in Teams with the Project Manager Agent. Enhancing task assignment security in Planner Planner now supports Information Barrier (IB) policies. If your compliance admin has configured IB policies to restrict communication and collaboration between user segments, these restrictions (already supported in Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive) will now extend to Planner as well. Users from one segment will not be able to share plans with users in another. This security improvement came as a result of customer feedback. Thank you for your continued input in making Planner better! Share your feedback Tell us what you think about the new Planner using the Feedback button in the top right corner of the app. You can also leave thumbs up/thumbs down feedback any time you try a Project Manager Agent-enabled capability. We 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.What’s new in Microsoft Planner – August 2025
Our team has released a range of updates in Microsoft Planner’s Project Manager agent including improved suggestions, and seamless access through existing premium plans, and a new entry point in the web—enabling a more efficient planning experience. Additionally, Government Community Cloud (GCC) High customers can now access the new Planner for the web. Read on to learn more about how you can adopt these updates into your workflows! Project Manager agent now available in existing premium plans We’re excited to announce that Project Manager agent is now live and fully integrated across all existing shared premium plans in Microsoft Planner! With Project Manager agent available in the everyday context of premium plans, users can work more efficiently and collaboratively with their teammates. Project Manager agent now available in Planner for the web Project Manager agent is now integrated and available within Planner for the web, making task management and project coordination more accessible to users directly through their browser. This update allows teams to leverage Project Manager agent’s intelligent capabilities—such as plan generation, status report creation, and task execution—regardless of which endpoint they use Planner. Project Manager agent now supports web search The Project Manager agent in Planner can now search the web in real time to enhance the output of tasks it executes. It intelligently identifies which tasks can benefit from external information, performs the search, and incorporates relevant insights and references directly into the Project Manager agent output. This capability respects your organization’s existing controls—if web search is enabled for a user, it works automatically with no additional setup required. Smarter plan generation with quality improvements We’ve rolled out improvements for Project Manager agent that significantly increase the quality of generated plans. Whether you're planning a sprint or setting quarterly goals, Project Manager agent now delivers smarter, more actionable suggestions. Try it out by going to the Goals view of any premium plan and selecting Generate tasks when you input a goal. New entry point for AI chat Project Manager agent chat (previously Copilot in Planner) is now available through a new floating button at the bottom right of your plan. This update makes it easier to interact with Project Manager agent from anywhere within your plan, allowing you to ask questions, get help organizing tasks, or understand what’s next. Project Manager agent chat is available to users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license in personal and shared premium plans. New Planner for the web available to GCC High customers The new Planner for the web experience is now available to customers in the GCC High environment, marking an important milestone for secure task management in highly regulated organizations. With this release, users can access all their tasks, basic plans, and premium plans directly on the web—no migration required. Note that a few premium features are not yet available in GCC High, such as Copilot in Planner and task history for premium plans. Read more in our announcement blog post. Share your feedback Tell us what you think about the new Planner using the Feedback button in the top right corner of the app. You can also leave thumbs up/thumbs down feedback any time you try a Project Manager agent-enabled capability. We 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.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.
