Microsoft has introduced several new Communities management and editing features to Teams Free to boost productivity.
Users can now find new options to “Edit community” and “Manage community”, simplifying the process of refining communities without inefficient admin.
Miikka Oksanen, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post:
You have just created a new community in Teams free and you realize you made a small typo in the community’s name. With our recent updates it’s now easy to edit your community details in Teams free on Windows 11, too. Additionally, you can accept community member join requests on Windows 10 as well now.”
“Manage community” allows users to oversee the current owners and members in their community. When a community requires approval to join, the community owner can monitor member requests on the “Member Requests” tab and then accept or decline those requests.
“Edit community” presents users with a template for editing their community details. They can alter the community picture, name, description or community guidelines. They can also choose if new community members require approval from community owners before joining. Toggling this setting on affords users complete control over who joins their community.
Users can discover the new buttons “Edit community” and “Manage community” by selecting their community in the “Communities” list or selecting the options menu — “(…)” — next to its name.
Other Communities updates this week include the capability to share Community events on Android and iOS via the native share options of the mobile platform. This allows users to share their community events with their contacts more straightforwardly. Users can also utilise Microsoft Designer for all posts and replies, both in communities and chat in Teams, free on Windows 11.
Communities in Teams (Beta) for Windows 10, macOS, and Web has also started rolling out.
The “Significant” Addition of Communities to Teams
Communities was introduced to Windows 11 on Teams devices earlier this summer, in what Microsoft described as “the most significant set of updates to the free version of Microsoft Teams since December 2022″.
The Communities update enables users to create groups for organising events and informing colleagues with up-to-date information. New capabilities introduced to the Communities section include new camera features and the function to search for and join public Communities.
The Communities for Teams feature was initially announced last December but was previously only available on Teams for iOS and Android.
“On Windows 11, community owners can create communities from scratch, share and invite members, create and host events, moderate content with critical trust and safety features, and get notified about all important activities,” wrote Amit Fulay, Vice President of Microsoft Teams Product.
A Momentous July for Teams
Every month is a busy month for Teams updates, but this July has been particularly seismic, particularly with several key announcements at this year’s Microsoft Inspire.
Microsoft revealed a series of new Copilot capabilities for Teams Phone and Chat. Microsoft’s AI-powered productivity tool Copilot will introduce generative AI to Teams Phone. With this new function, users can make and receive calls from their Teams app on any device and get real-time summarization and insights.
For Teams chat, users can rapidly synthesise important information from their chat threads, allowing them to ask specific questions to catch up on the conversation so far, manage key discussion points, and summarise data critical to their workflows.
Other new Teams features announced at Inspire included the Teams chat window being able to transfer to the Edge browser when opening a webpage link from Teams chat, a keyboard shortcut to search chats and channels, collaborative notes in Teams meetings, and improved external collaboration requests.
Last week, Microsoft launched Collaboration Security for Microsoft Teams, an offering whose remit encompassed an enhancement of full end-to-end encryption.
The solution was among several Defender for Office 365 tools and applications being introduced to Teams by Microsoft. Its other features include enhanced visibility into attacks through end-user reporting and the new capability for IT admins and SecOps to auto-purge malicious messages and attachments following their delivery.
Initially announced in March 2023, Collaboration Security for Microsoft Teams is rolling out now, with full, email-style end-to-end encryption arguably its highlight addition.
