Microsoft has announced the launch of Microsoft Loop, a real-time collaborative editing and messaging platform that is very reminiscent of Google Wave, a product launched by Google in 2009 and shut down a year later. The reason for its closure, as stated by the company, was that the tool did not achieve the expected success. Now, a decade later, the Redmond company has decided to launch a renewed version of that application.
Google Wave was a collaborative platform for real-time editing and messaging that was born in 2009 and shut down a year later
Microsoft has been forging this resurrection of the format for some time now. In 2019 Microsoft released Fluid Framework, a tool that integrated office documents into a series of blocks that could be updated collaboratively through different channels: in the Outlook calendar, in One Note or in Teams groups.
Throughout this time the concept was has been refined to the point where it has now become Microsoft Loopwhich was presented at Ignite, Microsoft’s annual conference. Loop is a new application that provides users with new tools and possibilities for mixing different components in a document. The document can also be edited collaboratively in real time.
Microsoft has defined this new program as “a powerful and flexible canvas”. In it are different portable components, which can move freely on the screen and synchronize with other Microsoft applications such as Teams or Outlook. In this way, it is intended to create the conditions for a team to think, plan and create their work in a coordinated manner.
Loop is composed of three distinct elements. The first is what Microsoft has called “productivity units” such as lists, tables, notes, and tasks. These, in turn, are grouped into “pages” where they are organized and arranged to generate files. The highest level of organization is the “workspaces” where the whole team participates to jointly edit these documents and files.