Please see the following scheduled Microsoft change:
Date: Between mid-January 2026 and mid-February 2026 (An exact implementation date for WSU’s Microsoft environment is unavailable.)
The following work is being completed: Microsoft is rolling out an upgrade of Planner that will introduce new capabilities and retire several features.
All affected groups: WSU Planner users
All affected processes: The Planner upgrade will introduce new features like task chats and custom templates, while retiring features including the old task comments, whiteboard tab for premium plans, iCalendar feed, Planner integration in Viva Goals, and Planner components in Loop pages.
Duration of impact: This is a permanent, Microsoft-driven change.
Necessary follow-up steps: None
Questions? Please contact Crimson Service Desk at crimsonservicedesk@wsu.edu or 509-335-4357.
Expected Planner Feature Changes
New Features
- Custom templates will allow you to create reusable, pre-designed plan layouts.
- Project manager agent will now be available in all plans for M365 Copilot licensed users, including basic plans.
Task Chat Experience
The previous task comments experience will be replaced by a new task chat feature that supports messages about the task that can include @mentions and rich text formatting, in response to a longstanding top customer request. The new chat feature only sends an email/Teams notification to a colleague that’s been @mentioned in the message.
The task chat experience will be available on Planner in Teams web/desktop and the Planner web experience, and the old experience for viewing comments will no longer be directly visible on a task. Instead, the task details pane will show a link to open a page in Outlook where task comments can be seen.
Users can continue to use and see the previous task comments experience in the iOS Planner app, Android Planner app, and Planner in Teams mobile. New task chat messages will not be visible in the mobile experience at this time.
There are no changes to email notifications for the existing task comments experience, meaning that an email notification will be sent to all group members associated with the plan when a task comment is added.
Whiteboard Tab
The whiteboard tab for premium plans will be retired. This feature automatically created a whiteboard for premium plans in Planner and allowed users to create tasks in Planner from that whiteboard’s sticky notes. Users will be unable to create tasks from a whiteboard as a result. Any existing whiteboard content will remain available via the Whiteboard app.
There is no replacement for this feature at this time.
Convert to Premium Plan
The ability to convert an existing basic plan to a premium plan will be temporarily unavailable. Similar functionality will become available again in the future. In the meantime, users will need to create a new premium plan and manually copy the tasks into the new plan.
Planner Integration in Viva Goals
Viva Goals will be retired on Dec. 31, 2025. When Viva Goals is retired, the entry point in Viva Goals for use with Planner will no longer be available.
iCalendar Feed Integration
The iCalendar feed, which allowed users to subscribe to their Planner tasks as an iCalendar feed that could be viewed in iCalendar-compatible applications like Outlook, is retiring. After this feature is retired, users will not be able to create new iCalendar feeds for their tasks or plans, and they will stop seeing their tasks in the iCalendar feeds they previous created.
There is no replacement for this feature at this time.
Planner Component in Loop Pages
Loop pages, which could previously be inserted by typing /planner in a Loop workspace, is retiring. After the retirement of this control, which will roll out independent of the Planner update rollout, it will no longer be possible to add a new component of this type in a Loop workspace.
Workspaces where these components were already present will display the Planner plan URL where the component was previously located. Tasks previously entered in these components will remain available in Planner.
Microsoft recommends the Task List Control in Loop to capture tasks.