Everything you need to know about the new Microsoft Loop application

The increasing reliance on remote work and hybrid work models has led to an increased importance of productivity tools and applications that facilitate smooth collaboration between employees. This has prompted Microsoft to intensify its efforts in integrating generative artificial intelligence technologies into its products and introducing new products such as the Loop application.

Last week, Microsoft launched the public preview version of the collaborative workspace application, Loop, which aims to facilitate team work on tasks and projects and organize them.

So, what is the new Microsoft Loop application, what features does it offer, and how can you use it?

Firstly, what is Microsoft Loop application?

The Microsoft Loop app offers a new way to work with Microsoft Office applications, enabling users to manage tasks, projects, and collaborations seamlessly across all devices. »With the app, users can create collaborative documents using any Microsoft Office application, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, allowing teams to think, plan, and create together.

Loop app emulates the collaborative nature of Google Workspace applications by allowing up to 50 people to collaborate on a single document at the same time.

The Loop app consists of three core elements: Components, Workspaces, and Pages.

»One of the key features that distinguishes the Loop app is its shareable components, which allow you to instantly share any page with your team and collaborate on it in real-time. These components can also be shared in the Teams chat app or Outlook email app, and will remain synced across all of those applications, allowing for direct editing within any of them.

The shared components in the Loop app are constantly updated and can be modified by team members. For example, if you and your colleagues are working on a data table, you can include this table as a component in a message in Teams or an email message in Outlook, and any changes to the table will be reflected in all applications.

Meanwhile, pages are where components can be created using ready-made templates for quick starting, and when creating new pages, you will be suggested with templates, designs, and images based on the keywords you write.

Workspaces provide collaborative areas where you and your team can organize all the relevant information about your project in one place, making it easy to see what everyone is doing and how they are progressing in their tasks.

Secondly, How to use Microsoft Loop app?

Microsoft has released the public preview version of the Loop app for all users and to access it, all you have to do is go to the Microsoft Loop website and log in using your Microsoft account.

To start your new collaborative project, you can begin with workspaces, where you can enter relevant keywords related to your project and Loop will suggest suitable tools for you to use.

After that, the application will create pages to organize your content, and new pages will suggest templates, designs, and images based on your keywords. And if your project requires input from someone outside your team, you can share certain information or components with people outside your organization.

In addition, you can copy the components and paste them into any Microsoft Office application, and you can share pages as web links or direct pages. Users can also comment directly on the page or choose to comment from their email in Outlook, similar to Google Docs.

You can also add progress tracking tools within the project to keep people informed of what needs to be done next, and certain tasks can be synced in the Loop app with Microsoft Planner and To Do, creating a task list for you.

The Loop app can provide notifications on desktop and mobile devices, alerting you to signals, assigned tasks, and responses to comments. Additionally, the app provides security controls and permissions to protect your data.

In addition, the Loop application integrates with new artificial intelligence features called "Copilot" that are provided by Microsoft in their productivity applications to assist users in writing text, finding new ideas, and getting answers to questions. You can ask Copilot to provide suggestions, change writing style, or reformat text. Once Copilot creates what you are looking for, you can share it as a Loop component in any Microsoft 365 application. This feature can also help you summarize information within Loop and edit and share summaries with others in real-time.