Microsoft Loop Will Bring Fluid Components to Office Apps and Teams
Loop provides a digital canvas based on portable components that workers can surface across the Microsoft 365 stack.
November 10, 2021
![Microsoft Loop logo Microsoft Loop logo](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt7e679e83007c8861/65243e8cb388be1ace79975a/Microsoft-Loop.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Microsoft
Described as the most significant addition to the Office application portfolio since the launch of Teams, Microsoft Loop will consist of Components, Workspaces and Pages. Loop will allow team participants to pull data from Office and Microsoft 365 into a digital canvas synchronized in real-time.
Context IQ is a set of new AI-based features that will predict the information people will need from Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 applications. Integrated with the Microsoft Graph, Context IQ will make suggestions based on predictions it determines will need in context of what they are working on. It’s designed to reduce the need to switch between applications. The first iteration of Context IQ will appear with the web-based Microsoft Editor tool launched last year. Context IQ will enable Microsoft Editor to suggest who to tag in emails, find available calendar times among groups, and suggest relevant files or documents.
The entire suite of Microsoft Viva apps, Insights, Learning and Topics, is now available. Microsoft said it will add a new objectives and key results module to Viva Learning next year, incorporating the OKR technology gained from its acquisition of Ally.io last month. Further, Microsoft is upgrading Viva Insights with improved effective meetings experience and manager insights. Microsoft said that the new partner integrations announced for Viva Learning and Viva Connections earlier this year, which include SAP SuccessFactors, Qualtrics, ServiceNow, Cornerstone OnDemand and UKG, are now available.
Microsoft Teams Connect, which provides secure, intercompany Teams communications, will let individuals across 50 different teams share channels. The added feature will be available for public preview next quarter. Microsoft said it will also extend chat to team members in other organizations using Teams personal accounts before the end of this year.
Microsoft’s new Virtual Green Room will let organizers and presenters socialize, monitor chat, conduct interviews, manage attendee settings and share content. This will let organizers and presenters manage what attendees see to ensure they don’t see information that should not be shared. Microsoft will release the new Virtual Green Room in preview early next year.
A public preview of Microsoft Defender for Business, an endpoint security solution for organizations with up to 300 employees, will be available later this month. Microsoft Defender for Business offers threat and vulnerability management, and ransomware mitigation, application control and web and network protection. Microsoft said it plans to offer it as a standalone solution and will include it in Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
Microsoft is expanding its video creation tool options by adding ClipChamp to Office. Microsoft acquired Clipchamp in September. The tool is for those with limited skills to create, edit and share pro-quality videos.
PowerPoint users can now better personalize their presentations video with the addition of a record feature. PowerPoint Recording Studio, now available, builds on the PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams, launched earlier this year. The recording studio addition provides customization features that allow for more visual demonstrations. PowerPoint Recording Studio also includes a Teleprompter view designed to help presenters pace themselves.
Later this month, Microsoft will release a preview of a JavaScript API for Excel, furthering the company’s effort to allow the spreadsheet to support more just text and numbers. This major change means that cells in Excel will be able to process richer data types such as content cards, images, matrices and arrays. Microsoft signaled last year that it was working to allow Excel to handle different unstructured content when it launched Power BI and Power Query data types. The JavaScript API for Excel preview release will let developers and partners create support for custom data types with images, entities, arrays and formatted numerical values tied to their own data sources.
A facelift to the Office.com homepage and the Office app for Windows is set to appear in the coming weeks, with a new design intended to make it easier to find files and content through the Quick Access feature. Office.com will offer “recommended actions” and feature a new “My Content” page that lets users simultaneously search for information in Teams, Outlook, OneDrive and SharePoint. A new Create page will provide quick access to all key apps and tools.
A facelift to the Office.com homepage and the Office app for Windows is set to appear in the coming weeks, with a new design intended to make it easier to find files and content through the Quick Access feature. Office.com will offer “recommended actions” and feature a new “My Content” page that lets users simultaneously search for information in Teams, Outlook, OneDrive and SharePoint. A new Create page will provide quick access to all key apps and tools.
Microsoft Loop, a new Office app set for imminent release, is poised to become a conduit for modern collaboration. Loop is a set of portable components that ultimately will move between Microsoft Teams, and Office and connected applications.
Based on the Microsoft Fluid Framework introduced last year, Loop seeks to make Office Apps and Teams significantly more dynamic. It consists of a flexible digital canvas based and portable components that workers can surface across the Microsoft 365 platform.
Microsoft’s Jared Spataro
“Loop is a new app for a communications-first and AI-first world,” corporate VP for Microsoft 365 Jared Spataro said during a keynote session at last week’s Microsoft Ignite virtual conference. “We’re composing content, comments, chats, reactions and live business process data together in a new collaborative canvas. And we’re reimagining how anyone can contribute directly in the flow of their work, whether from a chat, email, meeting or document.”
3 Microsoft Loop Elements
Loop has three core elements: Loop components, pages and workspaces. Microsoft describes Loop workspaces as the shared environments that individuals can surface in Teams or the Office app they are working in. People in groups can pull information from different sources and use it for project management.
Loop pages are canvases that let workers organize components and integrate files, links and data. Loop components are the interfaces that provide access to live data from different applications. Among the first components rolling out in preview is a voting stable that groups can use to make decisions. Status tracker is another component that will track the progress of projects.
In the coming months, the first Loop components in preview across Microsoft 365 apps will appear in Microsoft Teams, Outlook and OneNote, with other capabilities planned.
Loop is just one of many new capabilities coming to Office and Teams. The slideshow above provides a rundown of other new tools coming to enhance and protect Microsoft 365 and Teams.
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