Short Version
Several changes are coming to Planner, including replacing the Comments section with a new task chat feature. Due mid-January to mid-February 2026.
Details
Several features are being added or removed from Planner.
New features:
- Tasks chats in basic plans will allow team members to collaborate directly on tasks using rich text formatting and @mentions, making it easier to discuss work and notify teammates. The new chat feature only sends an email/Teams notification to a colleague who’s been @mentioned in the message.
- Custom templates let you create reusable, pre-designed plan layouts tailored to your needs.
- The project manager agent will now be available in all plans for M365 Copilot licensed users.
Features to be retired:
- Comments will be retired for basic plan tasks, in favour of the above-mentioned chats:
- You can continue to use and see the previous task comments experience in the iOS and Android Planner apps, 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 on mobile, meaning that an email notification will be sent to all group members associated with the plan when a task comment is added.
- There is no change to the premium plan conversations feature at this time.
- The whiteboard tab for premium plans will be retired.
- Planner component in Loop pages.
- Planner integration in Viva Goals.
- iCalendar feed integration retirement.
Temporarily unavailable:
- The ability to convert an existing basic plan to a premium plan will be unavailable, for now.
- The workaround is to manually copy tasks from a basic to a premium plan.
Availability
Due mid-January to mid-February 2026.
Source, related links, and references
MC1193421.
Image(s): Microsoft.
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Page originally published
3rd January 2026, and kept up to date.
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