What is Microsoft Loop?
Microsoft Loop was announced in late 2022 and released to the public on March 22, 2023.
As described by Microsoft, Loop is a collaborative next-generation cocreation experience that enables teams to share content and tasks across apps and devices.
Why Loop?
The main characteristic of this app is the ability to synchronize all data across multiple apps in the Microsoft Office suite, hence its name, Microsoft Loop. It will keep everyone in the loop.
It features Jira and Trello integrations, as well as showing you in real-time who is seeing the same page as you are. Very useful stuff but not unique or new.
Download Microsoft Loop
The easiest way to download the app on Windows is through the Microsoft Store. Alternatively, you can go to official website and click Get Started. You need to sign in to your Microsoft account to get the app.
First Impression
The first time opening the app, we are greeted by the Getting Started workspace. Workspaces are Organizational units for teams or projects. Or, in more practical terms, they are groups of related pages used for team or project organization. Similar to Notion's... ahem... Workspaces, although this is not a comparison between the two.
On the sidebar, we can see multiple pages, like "Welcome", "Check the Basics" etc. These pages contain information about using the app. Very useful stuff, unless you've used Notion before.
How to use the app?
If you used Notion before, you will get the hang of it immediately. The layout is similar to Notion, with a sidebar for navigating your project on the left and the main content on the right of the sidebar. If the sidebar is hidden, look for a symbol of a box with an arrow to the right on the top left corner of the app window.
Inside the "Getting Started" workspace, which is created automatically for you, there are pages containing information about how to use the application. All the information you need to get started is contained in those pages.
The app treats entries as components. You can start typing anywhere to create a text component or press the / key to see a menu of available components to create, like headings, tables, lists, and more.
Microsoft introduced the so-called loop component, which is a collaborative tool that can be shared with people in your chat so that they can edit it in real time.
Public Preview Limitations
Apart from not being finished, there are some functional limitations Microsoft imposed on the app. There are different limitations depending on the type of your account.
Maximum size of a workspace is 5Gb.
If you want to get some serious work done and add images and lots of information, think about this size limitation when creating your workspace.
This is the only limitation of work and school accounts.
A maximum of 5 workspaces created by one user
This is a limitation applied only to personal Microsoft accounts. You can collaborate on more than 5 workspaces, you just cannot create them all.
A maximum of 50 members in a workspace
Another limitation for personal accounts only, this will allow you to add up to a maximum of 50 members to your project, which is more than enough, considering we not dealing with a work account.
Should you use it?
Microsoft Loop is still in public preview, which is just a fancy word for "In Beta" i.e. not ready yet, so I would not use it to manage complex work projects as is.
The size limitation for all types of accounts is also concerning, considering that you might need images to add to a workspace, and they add up. So, if your project relies heavily on pictures and descriptive designs, you might want to wait for Microsoft to provide a way to increase the maximum size of a workspace.
If you are already using the Microsoft Office suite and also collaborate a lot with your colleagues you should keep an eye out for it.
The design is clean. I could find all the buttons and sliders easily. Let's say that's good UX design and not the fact that Microsoft has cloned another popular app.
Lastly, my personal opinion is not to use the app yet for work projects and wait for the final version of the app. You can use it for personal projects just fine.
