I work for an organisation that uses the Microsoft ecosystem. Over the last few years, I have seen quite a bit of hype around Loop. I also write a lot of content around productivity and knowledge management applications. So I was looking forward to trying Microsoft Loop. Was I disappointed?
I have to say I was disappointed from the hype I had seen. I was expecting a Notion-like application, which isn’t what Microsoft delivered. It might look like a Notion clone, but the application doesn’t have the underlying Notion functionality on its own.
However, this doesn’t make Microsoft Loop a bad application for users already in the Microsoft ecosystem. Continue reading to find out why.
Microsoft Loop features
Microsoft Loop is all about collaboration with your colleagues even before the launch of the main Loop application. Microsoft has been rolling out loop components to other key Microsoft applications, such as Teams.
The Loop application is a central area where you can create specific workspaces to store the loop blocks to create and share with colleagues. Most people, including myself, would create a separate workspace for each project or area.
Not all block components are around collaboration and are used to help define the page layout on Loop.
Microsoft Loop isn’t a Notion challenger
Microsoft Loop isn’t a Notion challenger, at least not on its own. I doubt many organisations in the Microsoft ecosystem would use Notion anyway, as combining with Teams and SharePoint would allow you to do much of the collaboration work that an organisation would look to use Notion for.
Many Notion users, including myself, use Notion database tables, and Loop doesn’t support this functionality. Still, SharePoint has lists essentially the same as Notion database tables. Yet alone the relational database applications Microsoft provide.
You can find out more about what an ecosystem is here.
Conclusion
I was initially very disappointed with Microsoft Loop. Still, now that I have reflected on my short play with Loop, I’m no longer feeling that disappointment. Microsoft Loop isn’t supposed to be a challenger to Notion, at least on its own.
You can start by reading our Notion review to learn more about Notion.