Microsoft has recently launched Lists, a smart tracking application, targeting Microsoft 365 users. While this new app might initially sound like a to-do list app similar to Microsoft's existing To-Do app, Lists actually goes far beyond basic task management capabilities. In fact, Lists seems to be a direct competitor of Airtable, offering added benefits from its integration with Microsoft's suite of products.
According to Microsoft, Lists is designed to help users track various aspects such as issues, assets, routines, contacts, inventory, and more. The powerful tool provides customizable views, smart rules, and alerts to keep all users in sync, supporting a wide variety of use cases. The app also features deep integration with popular Microsoft products like Teams, SharePoint, and others. Lists is set to be launched this summer on the web, with mobile apps planned for release later this year.
Microsoft has revealed that Lists will come with numerous pre-made templates for different purposes such as team contacts, event itineraries, business travel approvals, and onboarding checklists. These templates demonstrate Microsoft's aim to keep Lists highly flexible, accommodating a wide range of use cases. In this sense, Lists reminds users of similar services like Trello and its mobile app.
In order to cater to all these different use cases, Lists incorporates multiple ways of visualizing lists. Three viewing options, namely grid, calendar, and gallery, are currently available. The default view, grid, resembles Airtable's interface, while the calendar view is self-explanatory, and gallery view is perfect for visually-oriented content. Reflecting Lists' focus on flexibility, custom views can also be created to suit user needs.
However, unlike Airtable, Lists does not seem to feature a Kanban view or the capability to input data through custom forms. The creation of rules is another significant aspect of Lists. Users can choose people, status, and value changes to send notifications or programmatically update values in other parts of the list. Rules can also be used to set reminders for more effective team communication and coordination.
Being part of the Microsoft family, Lists is naturally integrated with Teams, alongside other apps within the company's communication platform. This seamless integration further extends its value and usability for Microsoft 365 users. With the growing popularity of no-code and low-code platforms like AppMaster.io, Lists provides a welcome addition for those in need of advanced tracking and organization solutions.
