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Microsoft Teams adds new Discord-like communities feature
Communities are rolling out on iOS and Android now, with a computer update coming soon.
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Microsoft is rolling out its new Microsoft Teams feature, communities.
Communities is a free feature that allows people to join groups centered around specific topics.
The company revealed the new feature on its website earlier this week.
Communities allow groups to use the calendar, meeting, and chat features that have become popular within Microsoft Teams.
Think of communities like Discord or Facebook Groups.
People can establish their Teams community around certain topics, such as recreational sports leagues, small businesses, pet lovers, or any other topic.
You can then use Teams’ tools like group chat, file sharing, and more to communicate and organize with your community. And it’s all free.
“What we’ve learned so far as we’ve been building this is that there is a set of communities who are looking to get things done. These are very distinct from pure fan communities or discussion communities, and where I think our strengths are as a company… is our ability to provide those productivity tools.” says VP of product at Microsoft Amit Fulay in an interview with The Verge.
Communities are coming now to users on iOS and Android, with included templates to help organize new groups.
Additionally, the feature will come to the desktop version of Teams in the coming weeks.
You’ll need a Microsoft Account to join a Teams community.
Just like Discord, the owner or admin of the Teams community will be able to create an invite link, which you’ll use to join the community.
Also, like Discord, if that link gets overshared or abused, the admin can scrap it and create a new invite link for new members.
Microsoft’s new community feature for Teams is the logical next step for the collaboration-focused app.
Group features like this have become common amongst social apps. And they provide a great medium for collaboration and socialization around specific topics.
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