What is Microsoft Loop

Microsoft Loop is a web-based text editing tool that simplifies the process of taking and sharing notes and information with everyone, including coworkers and guests.

Loop is an innovative collaborative application that unites teams, content, and tasks across your various tools and devices. Loop merges a dynamic and adaptable canvas with movable components that seamlessly sync across applications, allowing teams to brainstorm, strategize, and create collaboratively.

Licensing

Most features of Microsoft Loop are available to everyone with a work or school account (Microsoft Entra account, formerly Azure Active Directory account). Anyone with access to the Loop app can view Loop pages and components, view the Loop components they’ve recently used across other apps like Teams and Outlook, view Loop workspaces to which they’ve been added, and more.

To have access to all Loop app features, users with work accounts (Microsoft Entra accounts) need one of the following Microsoft 365 plans:

• Microsoft 365 Business Standard
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium
• Microsoft 365 E3
• Microsoft 365 E5
• Microsoft 365 A3
• Microsoft 365 A5

Having one of those Microsoft 365 plans enables three additional capabilities in the Loop app:

• Creating new Loop workspaces
• Adding members to Loop workspaces
• Removing members from Loop workspaces

Users with only an Office 365 E3, E5, A3, or A5 plan do not qualify for access to those additional capabilities. A Microsoft 365 E3, E5, A3, or A5 plan and/or Microsoft 365 Extra Features plan is required.

Benefits of Loop

Microsoft Loop is an ideal solution for teams requiring flexible and efficient collaboration. Its robust and adaptable canvas, along with portable components that remain synchronized across Microsoft 365 applications, enables seamless teamwork and co-creation. Additionally, with its integrated features for personality and style, Loop introduces a fresh approach to collaboration that caters to the needs of today’s hybrid environment.

With Microsoft Loop, you can effortlessly manage everything required for your project in a single workspace. You can communicate, meet, or collaborate on documents using flexible components that are constantly updated. This simplifies your tasks and aids in maintaining your organization.

Microsoft Loop is an ideal solution for maintaining connectivity and accomplishing tasks with your team. Its integrated features for emoji and expression support make natural communication effortless, while progress monitoring is simplified with notifications, highlighted changes, status labels, and task lists.

Loop also leverages the newest co-pilot capability for a better co-creation and collaboration experience.

The three elements of Loop

Loop provides an innovative way to collaborate and share information with your team and co-workers through components, pages and workspaces.

1. Loop components:

Loop components are flexible content units that maintain synchronization wherever they are utilized. These components enable collaboration seamlessly within various work contexts, whether on a Loop page, in a chat, email, meeting, or document. They can consist of lists, tables, notes, and other formats, ensuring you always have access to the most current information in your chosen application, such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Word, Whiteboard, and the Loop app.

Sharing components is simple, and they always reflect the most recent modifications and changes.

2. Loop pages:

In the Loop app, loop pages are adaptable canvases where you can connect your team and co-workers with all of your tasks, data, links, and components. Loop pages can begin small and expand to accommodate your ideas as they become larger. Loop pages can be embedded as Loop components or shared as links amongst M365 apps.

3. Loop workspaces:

Loop workspaces are shared spaces where you and your team can see and organize all of the project’s essential components, making it simple to monitor progress toward common objectives and catch up on what everyone is working on.

How do I use Loop components in other apps?

Loop components are currently supported in Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Word for the web, and Whiteboard. Learn more:

1. Loop Components in Microsoft Teams:

When you send a Loop component, everyone in your chat can edit and see changes instantly. That means you can collaborate right inside a chat message.

Go to the messaging area and start with a blank message. Select Loop components (Loop icon), choose a component type, enter some content to guide your collaboration, and press Send (Send a message icon). Everyone in your chat will be able to edit your message.

2. Loop Components in Outlook:

A Loop component (such as a table, paragraph, or task list) can be created in an Outlook email and then linked in a Teams chat. After that, others can view and make changes or comments, which will instantly show up in the Outlook email for you and everyone else to see.

Together, complete tasks more quickly. Organize questions and answers, track a group’s action items, or crowdsource an agenda. Loop components make these situations easier, to name a few. To begin working together, no one ever has to leave the mail.

Distribute parts. Loop components can now be shared into various Teams chats, calendar events, and Outlook emails. No matter where the changes are made, recipients can edit from any location and view updates immediately.

Start with chat or email and work your way up. You automatically save each Loop component you create to a OneDrive file. As a result, you may start working together in an Outlook email before switching to the Office.com file, which offers more visual editing space.

To create a loop component in outlook:

1. When writing a new mail or when replying to a mail, insert a new Loop component by going to Message > Loop Components. In a Calendar item, go to Insert > Loop Components.
2. Use the drop-down list to select the type of Loop component you want to insert.
3. Enter content into the new Loop component.

3. Loop Components in Word:

You can make a Loop component while working in a Word document, then send a link to it via email or Teams so that other people’s edits can be seen right away in your Word document. Anybody in your company who has access to the document can edit it and see the changes right away.

4. Loop Components in Whiteboard:

You can now create new Loop components in Whiteboard and copy/paste them to other Microsoft 365 applications (Teams, Outlook etc.) with inline edits saved across instances in real-time.

To create new Loop components in a whiteboard:

1. Open the whiteboard in which you want to create a new Loop component.
2. Select the “…” from the bottom chrome menu.
3. Select the Loop components option.
4. Choose from a Table, Task list, Voting Table, Progress Tracker or Checklist to insert on canvas. If using a mouse, please click on the canvas to insert the Loop component.

Features summary

Loop provides a wide range of applications especially for collaboration:

• Shared working spaces
• Granular units of productivity
• Flexible canvases and structured pages
• Widespread integration with M365 Apps: MS Teams, Outlook, Word and Whiteboard
• Dynamics 365 integration
• Track shared goals and tasks
• Loop workspaces
• Loop pages
• Loop components

Getting started with Loop and Loop templates

To use Loop in your company or school, your Microsoft 365 administrator must have it enabled. In that instance, there are multiple ways to access Loop:

• Microsoft 365 App Launcher
• Loop mobile app
• Integrated components in Teams, Outlook, Word and Whiteboard

Microsoft provides multiple templates for a quick start with Loop based on your needs. (Link: https://create.microsoft.com/en-us/loop-templates)

Conclusion

While loop is still a relatively young application, many new features were added throughout the last few months and are still being added periodically. You love seeing the many updates come to Loop. If you haven’t integrated Loop into your daily work, we would still highly recommend it.

From the outside looking in, it can sometimes feel like Loop is still trying to play catch-up with other apps such as OneNote. While this is totally understandable, the development on Loop is very active. Microsoft is pushing new features out in what seems like every week, and it’s really encouraging to see the product mature and become ready for more common use cases.