Microsoft Loop: All You Need to Know

Microsoft Loop was first announced back in November 2021 as an addition to Microsoft’s 365 applications. From today, Loop is being rolled out as a public preview to anyone with a Microsoft 365 account. So let’s take a look at what Loop has to offer and how it can benefit your business.

This article covers all you need to know about Microsoft Loop:

  • What is Microsoft Loop?
  • How to enable Microsoft Loop for your organization.
  • Loop integration across Microsoft 365 apps.
  • Microsoft Loop’s key features:
    • Workspaces.
    • Pages.
    • Components.
    • Copilot.
    • Sharing & Notifications.

We’ve also created a video to show you all you need to know about Microsoft Loop:

What is Microsoft Loop?

Microsoft Loop is a new collaboration or “co-creation” tool produced by Microsoft as an addition to their 365 suite of applications. Loop was first announced on the 2nd of November 2021 and is now being rolled out as a public preview.

Loop promises to open a co-creative workspace, making it simple to build, ideate, and share projects across your Microsoft365 applications.

The three main elements of Loop are workspaces, pages, and sharable components. Think of workspaces as notebooks, and components as the page contents.

But what’s really unique about Loop is that it supercharges ideation with help from Copilot’s AI, allows and simplifies communication across projects, makes it easy to share work and progress, and makes it easy to access knowledge bases.

Simply put, Loop is a highly connective and AI integrated workspace, ideal for all your team projects.

How to enable Microsoft Loop for your organization.

info For a complete guide, read our post: How to Enable Microsoft Loop for your Organization.

As Microsoft Loop is currently in Public Preview, you will need to enable access within your 365 tenant. There are two main steps to achieve that. First, you will need to create a Security Group. And second, you will need to create a Cloud Policy Configuration.

  • Start by signing into your Microsoft admin center.
  • There, click the menu icon. [1]
  • Then go to Teams & groups” in the left menu. [2]
  • And choose “Active teams & groups” from the list of options. [3]
  • Now click Add a group.” [4]
  • Be sure to select “Security” as the group type. [1]
  • Then click the “Next” button. [2]
  • Enter a descriptive name for your group — we chose “Loop Security Group.” [1]
  • Then click “Next” at the bottom. [2]
  • Leave the “Role assignment” box unchecked and click “Next.” [1]
  • And then hit “Create Group.” [2]

Now add members to your static security group:

  • Return to the “Active teams & groups” page and click “Security” at the top. [1]
  • Click your Loop security group. [2]
  • Click on “Members” in the navigation pane on the right. [1]
  • Then click “View all and manage members.” [2]
  • Next, click on Add members” at the top. [1]
  • Then select the members you want to add.
  • To finish, click the “Add” button. [2]

The policy configuration will assign rights to your security group, allowing its members to access the Microsoft Loop app. It’s important to remember that this policy will only work for users who are members of the security group.

  • Start by signing into your Microsoft 365 Apps admin center.
  • There, head to Customization” in the left menu. [1]
  • Click on “Policy Management” from the list of options. [2]
  • Then click Create.” at the top. [3]
  • Name your policy — we called our’s “Loop policy.” [1]
  • Then click “Next.” [2]
  • Choose “This policy configuration applies to users in the specified group.” [1]
  • And hit Add group” below. [2]
  • Next, type the name of your security group into the search bar. [3]
  • Select your group from the dropdown box. [4]
  • Then click the “Save” button. [5]
  • Followed by “Next.” [6]

info Note: You can only apply this policy configuration to one security group.

  • Search for “Loop” in the search bar on the right. [1]
  • Then click the Loop policies to enable them. [2]
  • After clicking a policy, click the select box and choose “Enabled.” [1]
  • Then hit “Apply.” [2]
  • Followed by “Next.” [3]
  • To finish, click the “Save” button.

Loop integration across Microsoft 365 apps

Microsoft Loop components are currently available for use in Outlook, Teams, Whiteboard, and Word for the web. In this section, we’ll take a brief look at how Loop interfaces with these other Microsoft applications, and how it might improve your collaborative experience.

Outlook now comes with Loop integration for new mails in the public preview. There’s a built-in Loop option for adding components to the mail, or you can paste component links directly into the message section of your mail.

Currently, Loop components don’t work for calendar events. However, that may change when Loop reaches full release.

  • To use Microsoft Loop in Outlook, start by creating a “New mail.”
  • Then click the Loop icon in the menu bar at the top.
  • Select a component from the dropdown — we chose “Q&A.”
  • Begin editing and customizing your Loop component.
  • When you’re finished, add the recipient’s email address and hit “Send.”

Alternatively, you can paste a Loop link directly into the message area of the email:

  • To do that, head over to Loop and build a component.
  • When complete, click the copy icon in the top right.

In this example, we’ve created a “Table” component and added a list of attendees and meeting links for two scheduled Teams meetings.

  • Now head back to outlook Outlook and create a new mail.
  • In the message section, right-click and Paste or press Ctrl + v to paste the Loop component.
  • Then add the recipient’s email address and hit “Send.”

One of the most powerful ways of integrating Loop in Microsoft 365 is through the Teams application. You can use Loop in either the web or desktop version of Teams by pasting a component link into the chats. Or, you can add Loop to a Teams channel by using a website tab.

Paste a Loop component into a Teams chat:

  • To do that, head over to Loop and build a component.
  • When complete, click the copy icon in the top right.

In this example, we’ve created a “Table” component and added a list of attendees and meeting links for two scheduled Teams meetings.

  • Now head back to Teams and create a new mail.
  • In the message box, right-click and Paste or press Ctrl + v to paste the Loop component.
  • Then hit Enter or click the send icon.

Add Loop to a Teams channel:

  • To add Loop to a Teams channel, start by selecting a channel.
  • Then click the plus icon at the top to add a new tab. [1]
  • Select “Website” as the new tab. [2]
    • If you can’t see it, type “Website” into the search bar at the top.
  • Set the title to “Loop” or something descriptive. [1]
  • Then enter https://loop.microsoft.com into the URL bar. [2]
  • Finally, hit “Save.” [3]

You can now create pages, workspaces, and components directly from the Team’s channel. However, you need to grant access for team members to collaborate within the workspaces.

To use a Loop component in Microsoft Whiteboard you need to add a link to the page. That means the first step is to build a component in Loop and copy the link.

  • First, go to Loop and build a component.
  • When complete, click the copy icon in the top right.

In this example, we’ve created a “Table” component and added a list of attendees and meeting links for two scheduled Teams meetings.

  • Now head back to Whiteboard.
  • There, press Ctrl/command + V on your keyboard.
  • Alternatively, click the plus icon on the left to reveal more options. [1]
  • Scroll down and select Links.” [2]
  • Paste your component link into the input bar. [3]
  • Finally, hit the “Insert” button. [4]

Anyone with access to your whiteboard can now view the Loop component. However, if you want them to collaborate and modify the component, you need to grant them access.

Currently, Loop components only work with Word documents in OneDrive. Availability is also limited and you may find that Loop components are greyed-out or missing.

  • Type “Loop” into the search bar at the top to check if it’s available for you.
  • If Loop Components” is greyed-out, it means the feature is currently unavailable.
  • If Loop components are available, click on the “Insert” tab at the top. [1]
  • Then click Loop Components.” [2]
  • And select a component from the dropdown.

Microsoft Loop’s key features

Workspaces are environments where teams can create organized pages. You can think of workspaces as notebooks in OneNote — they can be specific projects or just topics of interest. The workspaces can therefore serve as hubs for collaborative work for each project.

How to create a new workspace in Loop:

  • Hover over the image at the top and click “Update cover.” [1]
  • Select one of the preset covers.
  • Then click “Select.”
  • To add an icon, click the plus button next to the title and choose from a list of emojis. [2]
  • Next, enter a title for your workspace. [3]
  • Finally, hit “Create.” [4]

Once you hit create, you’ll be taken into the workspace where you can begin creating pages. To return to the workspace view, click Loop” in the top left.

If you can’t see your new workspace, refresh the page.

You can view your workspaces in a List” or Grid” by switching between the two icons on the right.

How to add members to a workspace:

  • To add members to the workspace, hover over it and click the three dots. [1]
  • Then select Members” from the dropdown. [2]
  • Enter the names or email addresses of the people you’d like to add. [3]
  • Then hit the “Invite” button. [4]

Pages in Loop are similar to the pages in OneNote. However, the difference is that Loop pages allow you to add sharable, collaborative components. With Loop, you can also take advantage of AI to jumpstart your creativity.

  • Before adding pages, head up to the top right and click the three dots. [1]
  • Then click Settings” in the dropdown. [2]
  • Next, select Experiments” on the left. [3]
  • There, you can toggle on “Copilot” or “Jumpstart.”

Copilot is the AI mastermind that makes Loop collaboration so powerful, which we will discuss in more detail later on. If Copilot is greyed-out, or you can’t access the experimental features, it could be due to high-demand or because the feature isn’t available in your country or language. Copilot is currently available in North America and in English only.

As Loop is a developing project, the availability of Copilot may have changed since the publication of this article. To stay up-to-date with Loop’s progress, please check the Microsoft blog regularly for news and updates.

How to create a new page in Loop:

  • Click the plus icon next to your workspace’s name. [1]
  • Then select New page” from the list. [2]
  • You can now select a template at the bottom.
  • Or add a page title at the top. [3]
  • Hover over the page title to find the options to “Add icon” and “Add cover.” [4]

How to create a new ideas page in Loop:

Ideas pages are distinct sections found in every workspace. You can view a list of current ideas by clicking on Ideas.” And you can add a new ideas page by clicking the plus icon.

Components are where the magic really happens. In Loop, you can turn just about anything into a sharable, collaborative component. And when you share the components, you can edit them from wherever you shared them, with all iterations of the component synced for real-time collaboration.

  • Start by clicking anywhere in the page content and typing a / forward slash.
  • You can scroll down the popup list to browse the available templates.
  • We’re going to create a task list, which you can find quickly by typing /task.
  • Then select “Task list” from the popup.
  • Now enter the task names and assign them to your team members.
  • If you haven’t granted access, click the plus icon next to their name.
  • Then select “Share and notify” in the dialog box.

info Note: if you share from within a component, you will only grant access to items within the page. You will not grant access to other pages in the workspace. To grant access to the workspace, you can click “Members” under the workspace name on the left and add team members from there.

To share the task list, you could share the whole page. But components allow you to share individual elements of a page across various Microsoft365 apps.

  • To start, make sure you’ve granted access to the assigned members.
  • Then click anywhere inside the task list and click the six squares icon on the left.
  • Now click Create Loop component” from the dropdown.
  • Click the copy icon in the top right of the Loop component.
  • You can then share the component with your team members.

How to share Loop Components:

Once you’ve copied the Loop component, you can share it across various Microsoft365 applications. For example, open a Teams chat and paste the link to the Loop component into the message box, and send. Now, team members can collaborate on specific components directly from Teams.

Check where the component has been shared:

You can check all the locations where your component has been shared by hovering over the component and clicking the Shared locations” icon in the top right. If you can’t see the icon, it means you haven’t shared the component in any other Microsoft 365 applications.

Team members who are assigned tasks in Loop will be notified of their tasks by email and reminded of the due date. Tasks built in Loop also appear in To Do, which you can access from Microsoft Outlook.

Team members will only be notified of their assignment if they have been granted access to the Loop component, page, or workspace. If you see a plus icon beside their name instead of an @ symbol, it means you need to grant those users access.

  • To do that, simply click the plus icon next to their name. [1]
  • Then hit the “Share and notify” button. [2]

If Google is your search engine, then Copilot is your creativity engine. You can ask Copilot to generate ideas or templates to kickstart the creative process. Or, you can use it to solve problems and answer questions like a standard search engine. The difference is that Copilot can understand and respond in natural language.

We explained earlier that Copilot might not be available to some users, depending on demand and location. However, once Copilot has been enabled in Loop, you can use the / forward slash to add a Copilot component to your page.

/Copilot

You can then ask Copilot to do whatever you like, such as create a task list for a blog post:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is Microsoft Loop used for?

Microsoft Loop is used to collaborate on projects from just about any location within your Microsoft 365 suite. You can do that by copying a link to a component and pasting it into another application, such as Microsoft Teams. You can then edit the component in real-time with your team members.

What is the difference between Loop and OneNote?

The main difference between Loop and OneNote is the ability to use components. In Loop, you can share individual elements within a page and edit them in real-time across various Microsoft365 applications. You also have access to Copilot — Microsoft’s AI buddy — which can help kickstart projects and perform tasks.

What is a fluid file type?

A .fluid file is the file type for Microsoft Loop components. They are stored in OneDrive and can synchronize across various Microsoft 365 applications to provide real-time collaboration.

Conclusion

Microsoft Loop is a new application for the 365 suite, which is currently in Public Preview. To use Loop, your IT admins will have to enable it for a security group. Once enabled, you’ll have access to Loop, where you can create workspaces, pages, and components, to work with your team in real-time across a variety of applications.

It’s important to note that some aspects of this article may be out of date as Loop is developing project. Also, availability may be limited in certain regions and languages. For example, Copilot is only available in North America and in English only.

Thanks for reading, and check back for more Loop updates!

John Gleave

John Gleave has been a researcher, content writer, and senior editor at Business Tech Planet since 2022. John was formerly a data analyst and web designer with expertise in several programming languages, such as JavaScript, JQuery, PHP, CSS, SQL, and more! With a passion for writing and technology, he has now focused his skills on crafting tech guides for BTP. You can connect with John on LinkedIn.

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