Microsoft announced a handful of new updates to its task management and tracking tool, Microsoft Lists, at its Ignite 2021 conference. The Lists on Teams app is getting some improvements, and the company has detailed some new features for the iOS app and others collaboration features. Improvements are also being made to administrative controls and settings.
First, Microsoft lists are adding support for custom list templates. This means that users will now be able to design and use their templates to track and manage information in the Lists app in Teams or the Lists app in Microsoft 365. This feature should also allow users to configure settings, including line formatting, predefined views, layout column and more.
Other updates to the new task management tool include the introduction of a new rich text editor (RTE) for text fields and calendar display on the Lists for SharePoint web part in Microsoft 365. The company is also improving the selector experience of people in Lists. Now, when typing in the people selector column, the application will automatically provide the autofill suggestions for Microsoft Graph. This should make it easier for users to tag their colleagues.
As for the Team Lists experience, the service is acquiring some new features, such as adding comments or @ mentions and creating rules. The Lists on the web app already supports commenting features, and the company is now planning to expand this functionality to Lists on teams. Thanks to this update, users will have the option to add or delete comments on the list items and to mention people to collaborate on the tasks.
Next, the software gaint is showcasing the ability to create native rules to improve engagement on Microsoft lists. The feature provides a quick and easy way to notify individuals or groups of recent changes to their lists. In addition, the company announced the general availability of the Lists calendar view on Teams and soon on SharePoint sites. The feature will allow users to display list data or items as a calendar in the team list experience.
Finally, Microsoft has promised to deliver some iPad-specific features and comment support for the iOS app, and is also working on an Android app, although it is coming to the end of this year. There are some new administrator controls and information retrieval settings, such as support for versioning and an option to enable / disable comments in Lists.