Transforming Teams Messages into Tasks on Microsoft Planner or Microsoft To Do has been made simpler and quicker. Informal tasks often arise in projects via email threads, file edits, or team chats, causing disruption and forgetting. Hence, Microsoft has established a way to capture such tasks the moment they occur. This feature was previously available on Outlook emails and comments on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint docs, and now it has been expanded to Microsoft Teams messages on desktop and web.
In response to customers' requests, the feature is now a native functionality in the Teams experience, eliminating the need for third-party apps or Power Automate flows. Transforming a message into a task is straightforward; hover over the message, select the ellipses from the pop-out menu, choose More actions, then click Create task.
The task opens a pop-out window in Teams for editing its details such as task name, priority, due date, and notes. Depending on the selected option, the task can be added to either the default Tasks list in To Do or a specific Planner plan. These tasks are visible on both Tasks in Teams and the standalone To Do or Planner apps.
If the task details seem extensive for a simple assignment, Teams automatically fills the task name and notes fields, facilitating task queuing and reducing the risk of forgetting while waiting for more information.
The ability to convert Teams messages into tasks is a significant upgrade in Microsoft's collaboration and productivity tools suite. It complements the existing features in Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint docs, providing a complete solution for capturing and monitoring ad hoc tasks in a team's workflow. This feature is not just a response to customer feedback, but also a step towards creating a more integrated and efficient task management system in Microsoft's tools.
Microsoft has released a new feature that allows users to quickly turn a message in Microsoft Teams into a task in Microsoft Planner or Microsoft To Do. To do this, users simply need to hover over the message, select the ellipses (...) from the pop-out menu > More actions > Create task. This will open a pop-out window directly in Teams where users can edit the task details, such as the task name, priority, due date, and notes. Users can also choose if they want to add the task to the default Tasks list in To Do or a specific Planner plan. When creating a task, Teams auto-populates the task name and notes fields, making it easier to get the task in the queue right away.
In addition to creating tasks, users can also assign tasks and decide whether to post a reply about it to the original Teams message thread. This new feature helps users quickly capture informal tasks the moment they happen and also eliminates the need to use third-party apps or create Power Automate flows to convert Teams messages into tasks.
Microsoft Planner, Microsoft To Do, Teams Message, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Power Automate