Microsoft Teams enhances free version with Communities support, Designer integration, and more!

Microsoft Teams has recently expanded its offerings by introducing communities in the free version, revolutionizing the way groups connect, collaborate, and stay connected. This exciting update brings a secure digital space where community members can come together and engage effortlessly, providing users with an alternative platform similar to Facebook groups or Discord. With the communities feature, users can now organize and collaborate seamlessly through meetings, calendars, and chat functionalities. Previously available only on mobile, communities can now be created and managed directly on the Windows 11 platform, expanding its accessibility and convenience.

Users can now discover and join featured communities across iOS, Android, and Windows 11 platforms, enabling a more seamless and unified community experience. Community owners have also an extensive control over their communities, allowing them to create new communities from scratch, share and invite members (they can scan and invite multiple emails or phone numbers using the mobile camera on iOS devices), host events, the ability to approve or reject membership requests, assign owner controls to others, and even share posts as emails. The app is also introducing polls (powered by Microsoft Forms) and further refining the moderation tools, so community owners will have greater control and flexibility in managing their communities, ensuring a safe and inclusive environment for all members. Additionally, mobile users can now record videos with markup tools and filters, allowing for enhanced creativity and expression within the groups. Microsoft plans to extend community support to Windows 10, macOS, and the web in the near future.

A notable addition to the built-in version of Microsoft Teams on Windows 11 is the preview version of Microsoft Designer. This innovative AI-powered tool can be utilized within communities to generate visually appealing designs such as covers, flyers, and various other graphics. By utilizing text prompts, users can leverage the power of Microsoft Designer to create compelling event invitations and captivating social media posts, and share them right away within the communities.

Microsoft has also integrated GroupMe, the mobile group messaging service acquired by the company, with Microsoft Teams. GroupMe users can now make Teams calls and join group video calls directly within the GroupMe app, expanding the communication options available to users.

Our take: These types of changes and new features bring Teams closer to becoming a real and interesting alternative to services like Discord, in a non-business environment. I believe there is still a long way to go to become the preferred choice for this type of users, but the integration of tools like MS Designer could possibly provide a differentiating factor. The question is whether these changes will be enough?