Microsoft launches project management app Planner for all Office 365 users

In September last year, Microsoft launched Planner, a project management/team collaboration app, as a part of its Office 365 suite of applications. Originally available only to select customers, Planner is now available to all Office 365 users for free. 

If you're familiar with Trello, you'll immediately know what Planner is about, as it lets you organize projects into "buckets," collections of individual tasks you can easily drag and drop from one bucket to another. 

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Planner is a bit more focused on teams and users; for example, you can get a visual overview of all the tasks assigned to members of your team and see who's ahead and who's having problems keeping up with their deadlines. Check out Microsoft's video overview, below. 

If you're an Office 365 user, there's nothing you need to do to get the app; its tile will appear in your Office 365 launcher as soon as it becomes available to you. The rollout will planned "over the next several weeks," Microsoft claims. 

With Planner, Microsoft joins a crowded space of collaboration and project management software, competing with the likes of Asana and Trello. It does have one immediate advantage over them, however — it's integrated with the rest of the Office 365 suite.