Planner - All Key Changes (May 2026)

Planner - All Key Changes (May 2026)

What is this article about?

Microsoft fundamentally redesigned Planner at the beginning of 2026.
In addition to the new design, collaboration in particular has changed significantly.
👉 In this article, you’ll learn in a simple and easy-to-understand way:
what has changed
what has been removed
how you work differently now


1. New design – cleaner & clearer

Planner has received a modern update:
✅ fewer visual elements
✅ clearer structure
✅ better navigation
✅ faster orientation





2. Features – now centralized and easier to access

With the new Planner, important features are easier to reach.

New or now more visible in the plan:

  • Duplicate plan (directly in the menu) → easier to reuse
  • Export to Excel → directly accessible without detours
  • Plan details → faster access and background customization
  • Delete plan → now directly visible in the menu

👉 What this means for you:
Important administrative functions are now centrally bundled and quicker to access.



⚠️ Be careful when deleting tasks or plans!

The option “Delete this plan” can be accessed very quickly in the new Planner.

👉 Important:
The action looks harmless – but has permanent effects.
❌ There is no recycle bin in Planner
❌ Deleted plans and tasks cannot be restored
❌ Not even via other ways in Planner


3. The biggest change: Chat instead of comments

This fundamentally changes collaboration in Planner.
❌ The classic comment function no longer exists
✅ Each task now has its own chat
👉 This is called: Task Chat

What can the task chat do?
The new chat works similarly to Microsoft Teams:
✅ @mentions (address people directly)
✅ Formatting (bold, lists, links)
✅ Emojis & reactions
✅ Edit or delete your own messages
👉 Important:
  1. Discussions now take place directly within the task – exactly where the work happens.
  2. Old comments are not transferred into the chat.
  3. They still exist, but are no longer directly visible within the task.





4. Goals

New in Planner (with Planner Premium or Copilot license):
✅ Tasks can be assigned to goals
✅ better alignment with shared objectives

👉 Teams can see faster:

  1. what they are working on
  2. what has priority

👉 Important:
The goals feature is only fully available with a Planner Premium or Copilot license.



5. More focus on Copilot & automation

Microsoft is continuing to develop Planner toward AI support:
✅ Integration of AI (Copilot / Planner Agent)
✅ Support for planning and structuring tasks

👉 Goal:

  1. less manual planning
  2. faster creation of tasks and plans
  3. more support through AI


6. What has been removed?

❌ old comment function
❌ iCalendar feed (no more automatic calendar synchronization)
❌ Whiteboard tab (in Premium)



7. Current limitations (transition phase)

👉 Important for practice:

The chat is not yet available everywhere
Mobile apps in particular may still have limitations

👉 Tip:
If you don’t see new features yet, it is usually due to the gradual rollout – just check again later.



🧭 Practical tip:

Check the Planner app in Teams on the left side – for some users, this triggered the new UI to load.

This is not an officially confirmed Microsoft step, but worth a try.

You can add the Planner app in Teams on the left as an app.