Atlassian Projects becomes a Platform app

[#1]

Hey Community,

I’m Anika, Principal Product Manager for Atlassian Projects, and I’m excited to share that this week, at our Team 25 event in Barcelona, we announced that Projects is becoming a Platform app.

What is Projects

The Projects app streamlines project communications across all your teams, no matter where the work actually happens. It instantly answers the big questions like: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? How will we know we’re successful? Who owns it? And, most importantly, how’s it going?

Projects gives stakeholders and leaders the visibility they need, without having to dig through the details. With a built-in reporting rhythm, concise weekly updates delivered directly to where your teams already work, like email and Microsoft Teams. And Projects doesn’t just track progress, it surfaces critical learnings, risks, and key decisions along the way, empowering your teams to act fast when things need to pivot.

What’s new

If your teams already use Projects, then you know it currently lives in the Home app. As a Platform app, Projects will become accessible right from the app switcher. This means easier discovery, a more consistent experience with other Atlassian Platform apps, and deeper integrations across your system of work.

Want to see Projects in action and discover how they work seamlessly with Atlassian Goals? Register for our upcoming webinar to learn how your organization can use Projects and Goals together to align your teams around the work that matters most.

Why this evolution matters for your teams

Say goodbye to chasing down project updates

As a Platform app, Projects is a key ingredient in Atlassian’s System of Work philosophy, connecting daily work, Teams, and Goals, deepening collaboration and driving better business outcomes.

If you’ve ever tried to get up to speed on a project, you know how frustrating it can be to dig through endless emails, chat threads, or outdated resources just to find the latest update. And for project owners, the challenge is just as real – sharing updates across multiple channels and tailoring information for different audiences quickly becomes inefficient and time-consuming.

Projects cuts through all of that noise and confusion by providing a source of truth that keeps team members, stakeholders, and leaders aligned and informed at every stage. Here’s how Projects tackles the most common project communication challenges:

• Project visibility: Teams often use different apps, processes, and rituals to track daily work, making it tough for stakeholders to get a consistent view of initiatives and how they’re going. Projects streamlines where project information is shared, providing a single, easy-to-understand overview of every initiative. Now, everyone knows where they can quickly see what’s happening, why it matters, and how things are going, without having to dig into the details.

• No more status chasing: Project owners are frequently bombarded with requests for updates, leading to wasted time and frustration. With Projects, owners simply provide a concise update (in 280 characters or less) each week, making it easy for stakeholders to check in on progress. Updates can be enriched by attaching Smart Links to key Confluence pages, embedding Loom videos, or linking to other important resources. Those updates are automatically delivered directly to where teams already work like email and Microsoft Teams, so stakeholders can self-serve information and project owners can stay focused on moving work forward

• Faster decision-making: Inconsistent updates and a lack of regular reporting can leave stakeholders in the dark, making it hard to stay informed or jump in when needed. With the native weekly reporting rhythm embedded within Projects, progress, risks, and key decisions are shared regularly. This creates accountability and empowers stakeholders to make faster, better-informed decisions.

How Projects and Jira work together

The perfect pair for project success

You may be wondering, “when should my teams use Projects, and when should they use Jira?” The answer is they’re designed to work together – each serving a distinct but complementary purpose.

Jira is your powerhouse for detailed task management, sprint planning, and team workflows. What you once knew as “Jira Projects” are evolving to “Jira Spaces” – flexible containers for all your work items and day-to-day execution.

The Projects app, on the other hand, is built for high-level project communication and visibility. It centralizes status updates, risks, and key decisions, giving stakeholders and leaders a clear, organization-wide view of how initiatives are tracking, without needing to dig into the granular details.

Together, Projects and Jira ensure your teams can execute with precision while keeping everyone aligned.

What to expect for your teams

Projects will be available in the app switcher early next year, making it even easier for your teams to discover and access. Until then, you can continue to find Projects via the Home app.

Getting started with Projects

We’re thrilled to bring you the Projects app and can’t wait to see how your teams use it for deeper collaboration, greater visibility, and faster, more informed decision-making. Ready to get your teams up and running? Start by exploring our support documentation.

Drop a comment below and share how you’re using Projects today and what you love most about it.

[Mike Vitale]

Can we expect better integrations and syncing capabilities between "Projects" and Jira / "Jira Spaces"? Today, while they provide different capabilities, they should be more complementary... you manage your tasks within Jira within a project, and you want a centralized space to sync that work to present high-level updates along with work / project progress metrics (% complete, count at risk, count behind, etc.). Any chance we see a better link between the two in the future?

[Nazia H]

I love Atlassian and have been a Jira Admin for several companies that I worked for. I should have become an Atlassian Partner by now :) .
With Jira Product Discovery, I ended up re-tooling it with a project management view for my Product/Engineering and GoToMarket team. 
But again that is not the tool for project management, it is great for Product Roadmapping.
I used Atlas and loved it but then it went away.

How can I join the beta for Atlassian Projects? 
Is it user based license or Org license based?

It also would be great to track milestones in a project, will we have that one day?

Will it provide portfolio view, program view and project level view?
I would love to work for Atlassian one day bring me on :) 

Director of Product Delivery (PMI-PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, CSPO, ICP-ACC Coach)

[Carolyn McNicoll]

@Nazia H Atlas is now called Home - and in the process of becoming the Projects app.  You can get there from the app switcher in the top left banner.  When you click on that 4 square switcher, you will see Home listed.  Click on that and it takes you to where you will add projects for new work, or update existing projects.  

[Anika Rani]

@Nazia H you can get access to Projects you will need to enable Platform Experiences by enabling Platform Experiences for your org in Administration settings. If you are not an admin, you can request your Atlassian Admin for this. Once this is done, you can choose to give Projects access to specific users (great for testing before a rollout). The app is free to use. 

We are currently looking at ways to improve Projects, both in terms of its capabilities, experience and integration with other Atlassian apps. 

Its great to have such an experienced and enthusiastic customer in our community! 

[Anika Rani]

@Mike Vitale yes, we are working on improving the integration between Jira and Projects to make both project management and project communication more effective, meaningful and easier. You can expect a native and more deeply embedded integration between these two apps. 

Keep an eye on the community for updates in the new year.