Microsoft Planner Is Rolling Out To All Eligible Office 365 Subscribers

Microsoft Planner will be rolling out to all applicable Office 365 customers, Microsoft has announced, with today marking the start of the software's general availability. The rollout will be taking place over "the next several weeks," heading out to those with Education and Premium subscription plans, Office 365 Enterprise E1-E5, and Business Essentials. When it makes its way to you, you'll simply see a Planner tile pop up in the Office 365 launcher.

Microsoft Planner is, as the name suggests, a planning app designed for organizations, companies, and schools, making it easier for teams to work together by creating tasks and visually presenting them as simple graphs. Using the apps, a team can assign certain members to perform specific tasks, deadlines can be established, workers can collaborate and post updates, files can be shared, and more.

Most of these features are demonstrated in the video above. At its foundation, the software is designed to make it easier for many people to keep organized, and so Microsoft Planner sends out email notifications to update people on progress levels, as well. Some Office 365 users have already had access to Planner as a preview app. One such early user is the Camara Municipal de Cascais in Portugal, which has more than 1,000 workers using Planner for keeping track of various government projects.

It isn't clear whether the general availability version of Microsoft Planner has any features or big changes not found in Planner Preview app. However, Microsoft does say it will be adding some new features over coming months like giving external users access, opening the boards up to customization, making it possible to assign tasks to more than one person,and more.

SOURCE: Microsoft