Project Moca Preview Comes to the Web

Microsoft announced that a preview version of Project Moca, which may be called Outlook Spaces, is now available in Outlook on the web and in Outlook.com.

“We are introducing the preview of Project Moca in Outlook on the web,” Microsoft’s Lydia Utkin writes. “With Project Moca, you can simplify your workflow so you can focus on what matters. Add tasks, goals, notes, files from OneDrive and other cloud storage providers, links, contacts, and even emails and events, all into one dynamic space. Each space has a flexible canvas so you can customize and view your content your way.”

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Based on the screenshots, Project Moca looks like a cross between Sticky Notes and Pinterest. It features a grid of colorful tiles—with rounded corners, of course—each of which contains its own content and content types. Those tiles can contain buckets, notes, files, links, tasks, goals, or the weather. It integrates with tasks across Outlook, Microsoft To Do, and Teams; Office documents of all kinds; Sticky Notes; Outlook-based emails and events; and more.

“With Project Moca, you can keep things organized, simplify your workflow, and find what you need quickly without worrying about details scattered across multiple apps,” Utkin adds, “so you can stay focused on what matters.”

The Project Moca preview is available now for Microsoft 365 consumer subscribers, commercial customers, and educational customers, but it is disabled by default. You can locate Project Moca in Outlook on the Web (or Outlook.com) by using the module switcher; it’s available alongside email, calendar, people, files, and To Do.

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Conversation 27 comments

  • sherlockholmes

    Premium Member
    13 May, 2021 - 9:50 am

    <p>The thing weve all been waiting for. Not. </p>

    • remc86007

      13 May, 2021 - 10:30 am

      <p>I think for a lot of non-techy people this sort of thing could be very useful. I know several computer illiterate people who can’t seem to grasp the distinction between file types and the programs that can run them. They do things like open Word just to click Open then right click on a PDF to "Open in Adobe." They do not understand that they could be more easily using Windows Explorer to do that and they certainly would never remember to open PDFs directly in Adobe. </p>

    • jchampeau

      Premium Member
      13 May, 2021 - 10:46 am

      <p>I think it looks quite useful.</p>

    • spiderman2

      13 May, 2021 - 11:55 am

      <p>speak for yourself</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      13 May, 2021 - 1:08 pm

      <p>Have you even tried it?</p>

    • behindmyscreen

      13 May, 2021 - 9:26 pm

      <p>I think it’s an exciting new tool to try.</p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    13 May, 2021 - 10:53 am

    <p>Just based on what I’m seeing here I’m reminded of Trello. Maybe a cross between that and OneNote.</p>

    • jchampeau

      Premium Member
      13 May, 2021 - 11:40 am

      <p>I’ve not used Trello but I’ve seen a demo of it, and Trello reminds me of Microsoft Planner. My take on Project Moca/Outlook Spaces is that it’s supposed to be a little more free-form and a little less structured than Trello or Planner, so just like you said, sort of a cross between those and OneNote.</p>

  • bgoodbody

    Premium Member
    13 May, 2021 - 11:57 am

    <p>NOT interested as I am long retired.</p>

    • jchampeau

      Premium Member
      13 May, 2021 - 12:12 pm

      <p>They aren’t positioning it as a tool just for the workplace. Check out the template titles in the bottom screenshot in the article.</p>

  • will

    Premium Member
    13 May, 2021 - 11:59 am

    <p>I would like to see Microsoft work on improving what they have more than creating another "thing". Why could this not be part of Onenote and just work at making Onenote the best place for everything you want to work on? </p><p><br></p><p>Nope. Onenote is what it is, nothing more and maybe a new toolbar but don’t look for anything new here. The same goes for Planner and Todo/Tasks. </p>

    • Cosmocronos

      13 May, 2021 - 2:29 pm

      <p>Agreed; MS could push Moca as a substitute of the vetust Outlook Today that has not changed since Outlook 97. Also it does need a Calendar widget and be available on Outlook desktop.</p>

  • bluvg

    13 May, 2021 - 12:23 pm

    <p>Maybe I’ve just been burned too many times in IT, but I see this and just think of all the things that can go wrong (and how we’ll all wonder how the devs didn’t think of these issues in advance):</p><p><br></p><ul><li>"It ‘did something’ and looks different now, how do I ‘fix it’ to get it back to how it looked yesterday?"</li><li>"I deleted something by accident, can you restore it?"</li><li>"I updated it on my phone, but it doesn’t show up on my computer." (or "it’s not the same" between the two, though all the data is there and just isn’t/can’t be arranged the same)</li><li>"We need to put a retention hold in place and preserve this view over time."</li><li>Etc etc etc</li></ul>

    • behindmyscreen

      13 May, 2021 - 9:31 pm

      <p>As a fellow IT support person, I feel like my job is to make sure staff have the tools they need to be more productive and when the developers of those tools update things to improve the use, I should not hide it from the users just because I am avoiding calls from the idiots who think the "E" is the internet.</p>

      • bluvg

        14 May, 2021 - 2:39 am

        <p>I’m totally there with you, it’s just these things are often partially-realized solutions. For example, take Planner: a great and very useful tool, but there’s no Recycle Bin, no versioning, no restore. Someone can inadvertently (or intentionally) delete a whole bucket full of tasks, and there’s <em>zero </em>option to undo or restore. That’s an acceptable risk for some stuff, sure. For something people rely on? Probably not. </p><p><br></p><p>The real question, though: why the heck doesn’t Planner have <em>at least</em> a simple Recycle Bin? The lack of forethought for a <em>fully</em>-realized solution is painfully apparent for IT folks who have been around long enough to have had to bear the bad news, "Sorry, your data is gone, there’s nothing more I can do." It’s those kinds of things that are also important to productivity, but less obvious than the front-facing tool itself.</p>

  • mikefarinha

    13 May, 2021 - 12:53 pm

    <p>*Sigh*</p><p>They need to think about real world use cases for how people live. This is too focused on a ‘project’ and ‘goal oriented’ paradigms. As a parent of 3 kids what I need help with in my personal life is keeping track of things like extracurricular activities (Scouts, martial arts, school events, etc.) and the day-to-day grind of living.</p><p><br></p><p>Back when i was a Scout Leader i wanted to make use of MS tools to help me keep organized, but, like project Moca, the tools are too focused on business paradigms that don’t fit well in organizing personal or community activities. For these paradigms there aren’t any dedicated staff but rather a fluid in and out of volunteers/parents each with a different familiarity with tech. Email is still the fall back method.</p><p><br></p><p>Make shared calendars easier.</p><p><br></p><p>I think a streamlined version of SharePoint should also come to M365 family/personal. It would be a great way to stand up a sports team or Scout patrol site.</p><p><br></p><p>Project Moca could possibly get there but it needs to be better integrated across all the M365 tools and have a mobile app.</p>

    • bluvg

      13 May, 2021 - 1:10 pm

      <p>Agreed, the real advantage of consumer-to-consumer collab offered through consumer Teams is the very thing Microsoft deliberately hobbles.</p>

      • mikefarinha

        13 May, 2021 - 1:28 pm

        <p>I agree, I use MS Teams for most of my day at work (And it’s awesome!) but i can’t fathom how i would use it in my personal life with how it is currently. It isn’t integrated with the rest of my M365 Family account. Also, if it could somehow not require other members of the team to actually use MS Teams and fall back to email or text, that might be a way to make it useful and practical. GroupMe actually has some good aspects around this but it isn’t full featured enough.</p>

  • cnc123

    13 May, 2021 - 1:25 pm

    <p>This looks really useful as a personal dashboard, but they need an Email widget as well, where you can filter email that’s new/unread/from the boss/assigned X category, etc.</p>

    • cnc123

      13 May, 2021 - 1:34 pm

      <p>This also needs a calendar widget that shows the next event or next X events, events by category, etc. in an agenda view.</p>

  • max daru

    13 May, 2021 - 1:45 pm

    <p>I’ve been using Whiteboard along the same lines. I prefer something more freeform than OneNote and this may be what I end up using.</p>

  • KingPCGeek

    Premium Member
    13 May, 2021 - 2:38 pm

    <p>I am seeing it in my personal Outlook.com account, but not in my business 365 account. I guess the dead giveaway that it will probably be called Spaces is that the URL is https://outlook.live.com/spaces/</p&gt;

  • mrhnet

    Premium Member
    13 May, 2021 - 4:13 pm

    <p>Maybe I am missing something, but the link that Paul has included leads to the preview announcement from last August. Not sure what has changed since then. It’s been available since then but commercial customers still need to enable Project Moca through PowerShell. The only update I have seen is that Microsoft has launched a new "Board" view for Calendar in Outlook for the Web, which includes elements from Project Moca: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/office-365/owa-s-new-calendar-board-view-is-a-version-of-project-moca/m-p/2309073</p&gt;

  • solomonrex

    14 May, 2021 - 9:14 am

    <p>Productivity apps for MS have become like Linux distros: Too many to count, every tinkerer has one, and almost none of them matter, while distracting from the real work. In this case, the real work of choosing either cloud or local and actually committing. I’m tired of all the glitches with both, where they might as well be made by different companies – in some ways they are. Please, let’s have a scheduled to axe the desktop stuff, or commit only to cloud in the background (notice this is Apple’s approach and they’re not exactly insolvent). But do something. Split up the company, for all I care! A person who can’t choose at a fork in the road cannot continue the journey. Because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out, etc.</p>

    • bluvg

      14 May, 2021 - 12:13 pm

      <p>You’re saying kick out the Laodiceans, eh? :P</p>

  • nbplopes

    16 May, 2021 - 7:41 am

    <p>Another time waster.</p>

  • justadude

    16 May, 2021 - 3:14 pm

    <p>This looks and seems interesting. I could see some use for it. </p>

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