Trello is among the world’s most popular tools for project planning and task management, so it makes sense that Microsoft would provide users with integration from within the Teams interface. For a while, it appeared that Microsoft was positioning its Planner app as an alternative to Trello within Teams. Still, this integration suggests that the two companies have decided to play nice. Trello for Microsoft Teams has been available since 2017, and in 2018 Microsoft announced a further enhancement with the availability of the Trello Personal app.
Trello was founded in 2011 and officially launched at a TechCrunch event. By 2019, it had amassed 50 million users worldwide, making it a standard tool for agile project management. The Trello app for Microsoft Teams links your Trello Workspaces to those in Teams, which means you can track ongoing tasks, project milestones, and more without leaving the Teams UI. Trello Personal adds another element to this, allowing individual team members contributing to a project to see their assigned tasks and schedule meetings and ongoing milestones.
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Trello is embedded in one-on-one chats or group chats in Teams as well.
Inside the Trello App
Before we review the features of the Trello app, let us quickly go through how you can set up the Trello app for Microsoft Teams. There are two ways to do this: you could add a Trello tab to a channel, enabling all members of that channel to view project progress on Trello. Or, you can add Connectors that notify channel members whenever a change occurs to a Trello board, list, or card. You can configure and reconfigure these connectors to display the notifications you need and collaborate with the relevant team members.
The key features of Trello in Microsoft Teams are as follows:
- Trello Butler – Trello acquired Butler, an automation company, in 2018, and its no-code workflow automation capability is now available in Teams. You can automate actions based on a schedule, specific event triggers, or at the click of a button through simple, natural language commands. This capability is available in Teams through a conversational bot interface, where you can directly ask the bot to interact with your action items on Trello.
- View tasks and lists on Trello – This is one of the major USPs of the Trello app. Given Trello’s popularity, many users had to toggle between Microsoft Teams and Trello boards as part of their daily productivity flow. Now, with the Trello app for Teams, you can view your Trello boards, lists, and cards either through the bot or by adding the Trello tab to a channel.
- Edit existing tasks – You can not only view tasks on Trello, but you can also interact with them as needed. The app allows you to add new cards, add comments to an existing card, add labels, move cards around, or change the date on a card, without leaving the Microsoft Teams UI. Using keywords, you can also search for specific cards and perform similar operations with boards. For example, the Trello app lets you link boards, set columns, unlink an active board, etc.
- Send a Trello card as a message – This is an extremely handy feature for teams that rely on Microsoft Teams chat for communication and Trello for project management. The app enables interoperability through a Messaging Extension so that you can quickly look up a card using keywords and embed the card information into an ongoing chat conversation.
- Get notifications – As mentioned, Trello Connectors in Teams allow you to send alerts whenever Trello boards and cards are changed automatically. Microsoft Connectors fetch the information directly from your Trello account, and you can choose which notifications you want.
Why the Trello App Makes a Difference
Co-existing Trello and Teams installations are a prevalent scenario, and this app is invaluable for that use case. Instead of positioning Planner as the sole alternative to Trello in the Microsoft universe (effectively giving its users a request), Microsoft took the smart way out. The Trello app enables seamless interoperability between the two solutions so that both can co-exist and add more value than the sum of their parts.
What We Think
The Trello app is a must-have for agile teams and could even convert Teams’ loyalists to try out the Trello experience. It also helps that the app is available for free, provided you or your organisation has an existing Trello account.
You can download it here.
