The new Microsoft Planner is currently rolling out to customers. If your experience looks different than the steps listed in this article, or you're working from a Government Cloud Communities (GCC), GCC High, or Department of Defense (DoD) environment, refer to the instructions toward the bottom of this page. ​​​​​​​Learn more about the new Planner in Frequently asked questions about Planner.

Planner sends email and push notifications for a variety of reasons. Some notifications can be controlled by plan members. Note: If you use Planner in Teams, additional notifications are provided by Teams. These notifications are independent of Planner and managed separately

Types of Notifications

  • Group Email Notifications: Sent to all group members, appear in the group Outlook mailbox.

  • Planner Email Notifications: Sent to individual inboxes.

  • Planner Mobile App Notifications: Push notifications on the Planner mobile app.

Planner mobile app notifications are currently not available for Office 365 Government Community Cloud (GCC) subscriptions. 

  • Teams Notifications: Appear in the Teams Activity Feed.

  • Even if the task assignment action occurs outside of Teams (for example, in Planner for the web or the Planner mobile apps), a Teams notification will be sent to the assignee.

  • If you can't see Planner notifications in the Teams activity feeds, please make sure the Planner app is installed in Teams.

Notifications 

The following table lists activities that trigger notifications, who receives notifications, notification formats, and what you can do to configure them. Teams notifications require the use of Planner in Teams. 

Activity

Who's Notified

Notification format

Configurability

A task is assigned to someone

All task assignees

Email  

Teams (if used) 

See Turn your task notifications on or off.

A task is marked as Completed

All task assignees (Teams only)

Teams (if used)

You are added to a plan (for premium plans and portfolios only)

You

Email

See Turn your task notifications on or off

For plans associated to groups with more than 50 members, this email is not sent.  

Any plan member comments after your comment

You

Email

You can't turn off this comment

Someone assigns a task to you

You

Email 

Planner app push notification 

Teams (if used) 

See Turn your task notifications on or off.

Someone comments on a plan

All plan members who are following the group in their inbox

Email

As a plan member, configurable only by disabling your receipt of all group messages. See Receive or stop receiving group messages in your inbox. 

You have tasks that are near or past their due dates

You

Email

See Turn your task notifications on or off.

Notification Settings

Turn Notifications On/Off for Tasks

  1. Go to Settings > Notifications.

  2. Select or clear options for task assignments, due dates, and someone added me to a premium plan.

  3. Save changes.

Manage Group Messages in Inbox

Please review this article to manage your group emails: Join, leave, or follow Groups in Outlook 

Admins can disable Planner Teams notifications by disabling the Planner app for Teams. 

Planner sends email and push notifications for a variety of reasons. Some notifications can be controlled by plan members, and others by group owners. If you use Planner in Teams, additional notifications can also be managed in Microsoft Teams. Learn more about managing notifications in Teams.

Manage how you're notified as a Plan Member

If you're using Planner in Teams, first select the Go to website button near the top right of the screen, and then follow these instructions. 

Turn notifications on or off for your tasks    

  1. Select the Settings button near the top right of the screen, and then select Notifications.

  2. In the Notifications dialog box, select (to turn on) or clear (to turn off) the following options:

    • Someone assigns a task to me

    • A task assigned to me is late, due today, or due in the next 7 days

  3. Select Save.

  4. To mute the Planner bot or block the bot to stop all incoming Teams notifications in Planner in Teams, go to the Chat page, open the Planner bot context menu, and then choose either Mute or Block bot conversation.

Receive or stop receiving group messages in your inbox   

When you're added to a plan, you may receive group email messages when task comments are posted in the plan. Use these instructions to either start or stop receiving group messages in your inbox. 

  1. Select the 3 dots (. . .) to the right of the plan name, and then select Plan settings.

  2. In the Plan settings dialog box, select group settings.

  3. Under Manage group email, select or clear Don't receive any group messages, then choose Save.

Admins who want to disable Planner Teams notifications can disable the Planner app for Teams. If you want to disable only the Planner Teams notifications, but leave the Planner app enabled, contact Office support.

Turn group notifications for task activity on or off 

If you've created a plan in Planner, then you're the group owner for the plan. The group owner can change a plan setting that will send group email messages to the group when a task is assigned or completed. By default, the group emails will not be sent to the plan's group mailbox in Outlook. If a member chooses to follow the group, then these activity emails will go to the plan member's inbox.

The following image is an example of a group email that you might receive.

Screen capture: Showing an example of a group email message you may receive.

In the second image, a plan member has replied to the task.

Screen capture: Showing a group email where a coworker is replying to the first comment.

Toggle task activity group emails    

Only group owners can turn off group emails. For more information about how to become a group owner, see Need to make someone else an owner of a plan?

  1. From the plan board, select the 3 dots (. . .) to the right of the plan's name.

  2. Choose Plan settings from the menu.

    Get email about a plan
  3. Select (to enable) or clear (to disable) Send email to the plan's group when a task is assigned or completed, and then Save.

    Screen capture: Showing the setting "Send email to the plan's group..." for the plan settings

Planner notification types

There are four basic types of notifications in Planner:

  • Group email notifications    Email messages sent to all group members. Emails are sent from Microsoft Planner to the group mailbox. For those following a plan's group, these email notifications are not delivered to their inboxes; however, if a user posts a comment on a task, that user will receive email notifications in their inbox for each subsequent comment made on that task (even for comments made by other users).

  • Planner email notifications    Email messages sent only to you, delivered to your inbox.

    Planner email notifications aren't available in Planner for Office 365 GCC, Planner for Office 365 GCC High, or Planner for Office 365 DoD.

  • Planner mobile app notifications    Push notifications on the Planner mobile app. Planner mobile app notifications display just like any other notifications on your phone or device. When you tap on a Planner mobile app notification, the Planner app opens. 

    Planner mobile app notifications are currently not available for Office 365 Government Community Cloud (GCC) subscriptions.

  • Teams notifications    The Teams notification for Planner appears in the Teams Activity Feed. It contains the task title, who assigned you the task, and the plan the task belongs to. Your Planner assignment notification in Teams will not replace your email and mobile push Planner task assignment notifications; you will receive all three.

    • Even if the task assignment action occurs outside of Teams (for example, in Planner for the web or the Planner mobile apps), if the plan has a tab in Teams, a Teams notification will be sent to the assignee.

    • If you can't see activity feeds, please make sure the Tasks app is installed in Teams. 

The following table lists activities that trigger notifications, who receives notifications, notification formats, and what you can do to configure them. Teams notifications require the use of Planner in Teams.

Activity

Who's Notified

Notification format

Configurability

A task is assigned to someone

All plan members who are following the group 

Email

Teams (if used)

See Turn your task notifications on or off.

A task is marked as Completed

All plan members who are following the group

Email

Teams (if used)

See Turn group notifications on or off (Group Owners).

You create a plan

All plan members

Email

Teams (if used)

You can't turn this off.

You're added to a plan

You

Email

Teams (if used)

You can't turn this off.

All plan members receive a welcome email from Microsoft letting them know they've been added to the plan, tips and tricks on using plans, and a link to the plan.

Any plan member comments after your comment

You

Email

You can't turn this off.

Someone assigns a task to you

You

Email

Planner app push notification

Teams (if used)

See Turn your task notifications on or off.

Someone comments on a plan

All plan members who are following the group in their inbox

Email

As a plan member, configurable only by disabling your receipt of all group messages. See Receive or stop receiving group messages in your inbox.

You have tasks that are near or past their due dates

You

Email

See Turn your task notifications on or off.

Enable Planner notifications for on-premises Exchange tenants 

If your organization’s product licenses include Exchange Online, you can receive email reminders. If you're using on-premises Exchange Server, there may be issues. For more information talk to your administrator or see How do I make sure all my people can get emails for Planner?

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