Microsoft Loop is an app that enables flexibility and real-time collaboration across Microsoft 365 platforms. Your team can stay connected at all times with live changes and other tools that foster seamless collaboration.
Loop consists of 3 basic elements: Components, Pages, and Workspaces. Loop Components can now be utilized in Microsoft Teams, so we will specifically detail its features.
What are Loop Components?
Loop Components are portable units that allow you to collaborate with colleagues from wherever you are working in Microsoft 365. Whether it be a chat, email, or meeting, Loop Components such as lists, tables, tasks can be edited and synced in real time.
Bringing Loop Components to Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams users can work even closer with colleagues by using Loop Components within Teams chats. Loop will automatically notify people you @mention through Teams notifications and emails. Want to see who made changes to a component? Simply click on any part of it for the details. Users also have the option to view the full Version History to track changes or recover content.
There’s no need to worry about losing components, either. All Loop Components in Teams are stored in your OneDrive for Business, so you can work confidently from anywhere.
Source: Microsoft
Ideas for using Loop Components in Chat
Microsoft has provided the list below of how users can take advantage of Loop Components in Microsoft Teams:
- “Co-author: Working with your team to find the right words? No need to create a whole new document. Now, you can quickly iterate on, say, the teaser for an upcoming presentation by adding the Paragraph component and co-authoring from right within the chat thread.
- Status report: It can be a real challenge to keep track of work that’s changing rapidly. Asking your team to switch (and learn!) one of the numerous project management solutions out there can risk slowing down a fast-moving project. Instead, try a Loop component with a collaborative table that tracks each deliverable in its own row. Everyone can follow along with easy-to-read columns for owner, status, and due date that are always up to date with the latest, no matter when stakeholders read the email or check in with their Teams chat.
- Topic gathering: There’s nothing worse than spending your team’s valuable time on the wrong topics. With Loop components, you can crowd-source and democratize gathering feedback, topics for an upcoming meeting, or ideas for a team event, all without needing to deal with an endless string of chat messages or emails.
- Mini breakout room: Have you ever seen a conversation fly off the rails when a few folks go off on a tangent? One of the most creative uses of Loop components we have seen is a sort of “mini breakout room,” right within the same chat. The component offers a “safe space” to align or resolve differences of opinion where every member of the chat can still see and participate in the side discussion if they need to, but while also allowing the main chat thread to move on to other topics.”¹
Have any questions about Microsoft Loop Components or Microsoft Teams? Opal Business Solutions is here to help! We are a trusted Microsoft Gold Partner with a team full of Microsoft experts. Click below to learn more information about Microsoft Teams.
¹ “Transforming creation and collaboration with Microsoft Loop components in Teams chat,” Daniel Vargas, 30 November 2021.
