Microsoft Loop is a service the company has been working on for a few years, but it’s something that’s still shrouded in mystery for a lot of people. Some have called the app a clone of Notion, which may be accurate, but may also not really answer the question of what it is.
So, if you’re curious about Microsoft Loop, we’re here to help you understand what exactly it is and what you can do with it.
What is Microsoft Loop?
It’s a collaboration tool
Microsoft Loop is best described as an online collaborative platform, where you can work with teammates and colleagues on any project you want. That may sound a bit generic, but in fact, Microsoft Loop’s purpose can be very varied, because the tools it offers are also very wide-ranging. It can serve as a notebook and a project management tool, which can be shared with everyone on your team so you’re all on the same page (literally). Conceptually, the Loop app is very similar to Notion, which serves a lot of the same purposes with similar tools.
However, a notable part of Microsoft Loop are Loop components, which Microsoft actually announced before the Loop platform in general. Loop components allow you to bring content from Loop into other Microsoft apps so you can work on it from anywhere. This helps Loop stand out from its competition.
What can you do with Microsoft Loop?
Take notes and keep track of projects
Microsoft Loop appears very basic on the surface, but it’s a very versatile tool. The main interface of the Loop app is sort of similar to OneNote, and you can create multiple workspaces with numerous pages inside each one. You can invite people to work together on a workspace or only on a specific page, making it easy to share content with the right people whenever you need to.
Pages in Loop support all kinds of content. You can have plain text, lists or step-by-step guidance, checklists, tables, code, images, progress trackers, and even integrations like GitHub or Whiteboard to let you insert content into a Loop page. You can also mention other users and use this tool as a way to assign tasks to certain people in order to keep the group focused on each person’s tasks and ensure you can follow up with the right people. Most recently, Loop also added support for Microsoft Copilot, which has been spreading all across Microsoft’s ecosystem.
When you create a new page in Loop, you can also choose from a wide range of templates to create exactly the kind of page you want, whether that includes assignments, information on team members, a checklist for tasks, or anything else. These templates make it a lot easier to get started.
Essentially, Microsoft Loop lets you create a centralized hub for information and management on any given project, with all the tools you need to stay on top of it all.
What are Loop components?
Taking cooperation to the next level
At the heart of Microsoft Loop are what we call Loop components. This was the first part of Loop to be announced, before it even got its name. Initially, Microsoft presented these as part of the Fluid Framework, which is partly what powers Microsoft Loop.
Loop components let you take any part of a Loop page and turn it into something you can edit almost anywhere across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. For example. say you have a table in one of your Loop pages and you want to share it with your teammates. You can turn that tale into a Loop component and send it in a Teams channel, and that component can now be edited by everyone directly inside Teams, with those changes syncing back to the Loop page and everywhere else you insert that component.
Loop components can be inserted in Teams channels, Outlook emails, in Whiteboard, and in OneNote.
Who can use Microsoft Loop?
Many features are limited to business users
The main limitation of Microsoft Loop is that it’s only available to enterprise customers of Microsoft 365, or at least, many of its features are locked out of the reach of general users. The Microsoft Loop app is available to everyone, and all the basic features of the app itself work fine, including mentioning other users.
However, Microsoft only aims Loop at its business users and features like Loop components don’t work in the consumer versions of these apps. You also can’t add content from GitHub or Microsoft Whiteboard if you only have a personal Microsoft account, or if you have perpetual license of Office.
This does make Microsoft Loop less appealing if you’re not a business user, but the core of the tool itself is still very useful, and you can use it for free.
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João Carrasqueira, “Microsoft Loop explained: What Microsoft’s collaboration app is all about“, xda-developers.com, April 24th, 2014