Back in February, we discussed Outlook Spaces, Microsoft’s task organizer tool that is designed to compete with Trello. It was originally believed Spaces would be an enterprise-focused tool not available to consumers. However, new information shows that’s not the case.
According to information obtained by WalkingCat, Microsoft is make Outlook Spaces available across two domains. The first will be under the “Office” domain for enterprise and the second under the “Live” domain for consumers.
Because Spaces is still being developed, it cannot be viewed at either domain. Microsoft has yet to say when the service will launch, but we expect to hear more about it at virtual Build 2020 later this month.
With Outlook Spaces, users can create their own individual “spaces” for separate projects. Yes, this is very much like Trello cards and Spaces is clearly Microsoft putting a target on the task management tool and aiming for it.
https://twitter.com/h0x0d/status/1256819016946970634
In fact, Outlook Spaces even uses cards for holding individual content with space. Within these cards, users can edit content, type notes, tick off tasks, and schedule responses. Of course, the platform will also tap into Microsoft’s various Office tools, including app widgets for Word and Excel.
Trello Competitor
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. Certainly, we have seen how the company’s wide ecosystem has benefitted Microsoft Teams as it competes with Slack.
Trello faces a similar problem to Slack. Trello is an incredibly useful tool that we use here at WinBuzzer. However, it is also something of a one trick pony… and it’s amazing at it. If Microsoft can make Outlook Spaces equally potent as a task service and add plenty of Office integrations, it may be hard for Trello to compete.
