Microsoft Excel will support @ mention to mark team members and assign tasks

CTOnews.com, August 18, Microsoft has confirmed that it will launch the "@ mentions" mention function for its spreadsheet software Excel. Microsoft Excel users will soon be able to tag colleagues or team members.

In the official Microsoft roadmap entry, Microsoft points out that @ mentions can be used to "create, assign, and track tasks in workbooks." This entry indicates that the universal availability (GA) date for this feature is October 2022. However, this feature has been added to the rollout cycle. This means that some users who have updated the Office suite may already be able to use this feature to mark people.

It is important to note that this feature is currently available only in the Excel desktop version. However, the feature will be available to users around the world.

CTOnews.com learned that as early as January 2021, Microsoft decided to develop the ability to mark people in Excel. It is not clear why it took the company a year and a half to build and deploy the feature. Google Workspace, a competitor to Microsoft Office, has long had the @ mentions feature, which allows users to tag their colleagues or members, both inside and outside the organization.

Microsoft is developing several updates to help improve online collaboration between teams. Microsoft seems to be offering simpler and more efficient software suites to support hybrid work.