Get looped in! We answered all your questions about Microsoft Loop

Here is everything you need to know about Microsoft Loop. This blog is based on FAQ, but we also cover how to use this tool in the different Microsoft 365 applications.

What is Microsoft Loop?

Microsoft Loop allows you and your team to work truly collaboratively, across multiple applications and in real-time bringing your ideas to life more quickly. It’s perfect for coordinating brainstorming sessions, keeping track of meeting notes, and managing task lists.

For example, in Loop you might create a table for people to vote on a team building activity. You can invite colleagues into your Loop workspace to cast their vote, or you can paste your table into an email and encourage your colleagues to vote directly within the email: the votes will all be synced in Loop. It is an intuitive application that makes collaboration easy.

What are the Microsoft Loop elements?

Microsoft Loop consists of three core elements:

Loop Components: With Loop Components, users have the ability to copy elements into different tools for optimal collaboration, whilst keeping the information within the component in sync and up to date at all times, whether that be within Word, Whiteboard or Outlook. For example, if a user creates a Loop table component within Microsoft Teams and shares that table with another user via email, any updates made, will be made in real-time, within both the email and Microsoft Teams.

The components range from notes and tables to more advanced elements that can be seen in Dynamics 365. Loop also offers a Status Tracker, a dynamic table that users can update when necessary, to ensure that other users stay up to date with the latest project status.

It’s also important to note that Microsoft have enabled the continuity of many Microsoft 365 elements, for example, permission settings and governance. If a Project Manager decides that a Loop component should be restricted to a specific set of users, the appropriate permissions can be set to reflect this. It’s also possible to @mention colleagues to ensure that they receive notifications of updates directed toward them. Alongside appearing in their feed, users also have the option of pinning components within Microsoft Teams, making it very easy to locate their content.

Loop Workspaces: These are the hub for your team’s collaboration. They are working areas, which provide spaces to ensure your colleagues have visibility of everything related to a project or idea. Checking back into the workspace allows a user to quickly see what they may have missed and begin contributing. This is similar to how channels are structured within Microsoft Teams. This can enhance project visibility for a Project Manager, ensuring that no work is duplicated by several team members. This enables the team to plan the success of a project collaboratively. Users are kept up to date with the wider activity of the team, and anyone can add comments or thoughts to someone else’s content, or even react virtually.

Loop Pages: Loop Pages are sections within Loop Workspaces that allow the team to order data, activities and tasks for designated members or topics.

How does Microsoft Loop integrate with the Microsoft suite?

Loop components can be used throughout the Microsoft suite, including Microsoft Teams meetings, documents and chat. This will enable your team to work seamlessly without flicking between several apps.

What are the key benefits of Microsoft Loop?

Efficient collaboration: Staff that work on documents and track each other’s progress in real-time will naturally become more efficient and streamlined.

Increased collaboration: Due to the remote nature of the working world, it can often be the case that team members are left feeling “out of the loop” or disconnected from their team and a project. Even if your team members are in different corners of the earth, they will experience a level of connectedness through real-time collaboration.

Project transparency: Microsoft Loop Workspaces empower users to gain full control of a project, allowing easy and efficient navigation to each item.

Is Microsoft Loop available? – Microsoft Loop Roadmap/timeline

Microsoft Loop was officially announced on the 2nd November 2021, before being released to the general public on March 22nd, 2023.

Is Microsoft Loop free? – Microsoft Loop pricing

Microsoft Loop is a free software, available within all Microsoft 365 / Office 365 plans.

How to access and enable Microsoft Loop?

You are able to access Microsoft Loop by going to the Loop homepage on desktop, or by downloading the Loop app on both IOS and Android. Once you have configured access, you are able to sign in with your Microsoft account and see a complete list of your Loop documents, as well as those that have been shared with you.

If you are an IT admin, reviewing the “settings management for Loop app” will help enable Microsoft Loop for your organisation.

How to use Microsoft Loop?

Once signed into the Loop app, you will land on your Loop homepage and see all your workspaces.

What is a workspace? A Loop workspace is a way for you to organise your Loop homepage in teams or projects for example. You can just click on the workspace and access it or click on the ellipses in the top right corner of the workspace to get more options.

To create a new workspace, click on the plus + sign in the top right corner of your dashboard. You can add a cover photo, a workspace title, and a suitable emoji. Once you hit create, you will access the new blank workspace where you can start creating Loop pages and add various Loop components.

You can also access the template gallery to get you started with a prefilled format.

How to use Microsoft Loop in other tools?

Loop components are currently supported in Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Word for the web, and Whiteboard, but no doubt we will be seeing Loop integrated soon into many other tools.

Let’s say you created a table in Loop, and you require your team’s input. You can choose to assign users to specific tasks by @ mentioning them. This will then show up in the user’s planner and sync with their Microsoft To Do app.

Alternatively, you can email this table to your colleagues to gather their input, which will sync within Loop. You can do this by selecting the table and clicking on the double line icon in the top left corner. Then select ‘create Loop component’ and copy it. Next, create an email and simply paste the component. If anyone makes amendments to this table within the email, it will be automatically updated in your Loop workspace. This can be achieved across the different tools that are supported by Loop.

How to use Microsoft Copilot with Microsoft Loop?

Microsoft 365 Copilot is a revolutionary tool that provides AI-powered solutions and suggestions to users. By doing so, it can help you to transform how your team collaborates across multiple projects. Copilot in Loop offers prompts such as “brainstorm” or “describe”, encouraging elevated productivity. Copilot can also draft a summary of Loop content within a workspace, ensuring that users can work succinctly and efficiently.

Are there any Microsoft Loop alternatives?

When reviewing the marketplace for a collaboration enabler such as Loop, there are a number of alternatives that provide similar capabilities. “Notion” was one of the first companies to try and reinvent collaboration tools for the modern workspace.
Launched in 2016, Notion shines in the area of personal productivity. Whilst it is unable to integrate across an ecosystem of applications like Microsoft Loop does, it grants users a sound level of freedom and flexibility.

How to use Loop for Project Management?

Project Managers will be all too familiar with having to create several workspaces that enable your team to work efficiently and collaboratively. With Loop your team will have a central, searchable repository where you can store all of your project’s documentation, with no limitations based on the format of the document.

If you have any further questions regarding Microsoft Loop, or any general Microsoft 365 related questions, please use the contact page to get in touch.

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