Microsoft Loop is an online collaborative workspace that offers a variety of features to help users gather, organize, and build notes, ideas, and projects. It comes with templates for meetings, project planning, and personal tasks, and offers integration with other Microsoft and third-party tools and services such as Teams chat, Outlook emails, and Whiteboards, amongst others. It helps colleagues to work closer together and will adapt to the way you work, making your collaboration with others efficient and effective.
How does Microsoft Loop work?
Let's now have a look at a practical example of how Microsoft Loop works. For this example, we will use Loop meeting notes in Microsoft Teams. Have you seen the Notes button in a Teams meeting? Click it and you will see a panel with Agenda, Meeting notes and Follow-up tasks? This is Loop!
Loop components offer a new way to brainstorm, collaborate and make decisions. No matter where Loop information appears, it is kept updated and intact. As an example, the meeting organiser wrote the Agenda in the Teams meeting invitation before sending it out. The Meeting notes and Follow-up tasks were created collaboratively in Teams during the meeting. If someone opens the meeting invitation in Outlook after the meeting, the full Agenda, Meeting notes, and Follow-up tasks are all there.
All meeting participants by default will have access to this information. A list of all people who have access to the meeting notes is available from the Meeting notes screen. By clicking 'open in browser' meeting participants can access the same information in Microsoft Loop app on the web.
In Microsoft Loop app on the web meeting participants can share meeting notes and agenda with others.
If you add a follow up item and assign it to a person, the task will be visible for that person in Planner and To Do as well as in Meeting Notes. When a task is marked as Completed in the To Do app or Planner, the task appears as completed everywhere: in Teams, Outlook and anywhere else where this Loop component has been shared.
When a new task is assigned to the user, automatic notification will be emailed out to that user with a link to access that task in the meeting where that task was created or in Planner.
Where can Microsoft Loop components be used?
Microsoft Loop is tightly integrated with other Microsoft 365 services. You can create Microsoft Loop components anywhere where you can see the little Loop icon: in Teams Chats, Teams Channels, Outlook, Planner etc. As an example:
- In Outlook you can incorporate Loop content into your emails and meeting invitations so you can share and access essential project updates without leaving your email inbox.
- In Microsoft Teams you can share and access Loop components right within Teams to improve collaboration and stay better connected.
- In Microsoft Whiteboard you can share and access Loop components within your whiteboarding sessions for brainstorming and visual collaboration.
- In Word for the web you can include Loop content when collaborating on written content.
- In Microsoft Planner you can see all tasks assigned to you in the Microsoft Loop app. Microsoft Loop task list component stays in sync with Microsoft Planner and To Do.
- With Microsoft Copilot you can get helpful suggestions and prompts as you work in Loop.
Where is all this information being stored?
When you look at the Loop URL in the Microsoft Loop app, it does not make it clear.
Do not fear. According to Microsoft, the default data storage settings for Microsoft Loop are closely tied to your Microsoft 365 tenancy. Loop leverages the existing storage infrastructure within Microsoft 365, which includes OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online. When you create content in Loop, it is stored securely within your organisation's Microsoft 365 environment. Let's have a deeper dive into the Microsoft Loop storage, information governance and lifecycle management considerations now.
Information governance and lifecycle management for Microsoft Loop
Where Loop content is stored impacts the governance, data lifecycle, and compliance capabilities available for that content. Microsoft Loop is built on top of SharePoint and OneDrive, which means that Loop pages and components can be managed in the same way as all the other files in SharePoint and OneDrive.
The table below illustrates how Loop contents are stored in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. The storage location for Loop components is determined by where this content was originally created in Microsoft 365.
When a user leaves an organisation, OneDrive retention policies apply to the .loop files in their OneDrive just as they do to other content created by the user. In SharePoint all .loop files are covered by the same retention and lifecycle management applied to other content in SharePoint.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rules are enforced on all content (including Loop content) with end-user policy tip support. Sensitivity Labeling is available for Loop components in SharePoint and OneDrive.
Learn more
To find out more about Loop components in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem follow this link to read the overview of Loop components in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
To learn more about how to use Loop, check out our eLearning training course:
Microsoft Loop Training Course – United Kingdom
Microsoft Loop Training Course – North America
Microsoft Loop Training Course – Australasia
Jacqueline Stockwell (Australasia)
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