It now seems as though Microsoft has started its release of Outlook Spaces. Currently the tool is only available to select Office Insiders. Microsoft watcher Florian B took to Twitter to show that he has access to the new service. As this is happening in stages, not all Insiders will have access to Spaces. It is also unclear how long Microsoft plans to keep the new Outlook tool in preview. However, I am not expecting a wide release any time soon. Microsoft is positioning Outlook Spaces as a direct competitor to Trello. It will tap directly into Office 365 and eventually be available to all users on subscribed to the service. Emails are integrated through Outlook. Because of this deep connection with Office, Microsoft will hope Spaces can stand out in the enterprise task management realm.
— Florian B (@flobo09) May 27, 2020
Competing with Trello
Outlook Spaces allows users to create projects under “spaces”. Interestingly, these spaces are very much like Trello cards for managing content. Users can enter these cards and edit content, leave links, tick off tasks, respond to messages, and more. Microsoft’s service will tap directly into Office through widgets for apps such as Excel and Word. Last month, we reported on Microsoft potentially working on a consumer version of Spaces that will work outside Office 365. Microsoft is working on Outlook Spaces across two domains. The first will be under the “Office” domain for enterprise and the second under the “Live” domain for consumers. Build 2020 has been and gone and no mention of a personal version of Spaces was announced. However, that does not mean Microsoft does not have plans.
