Flipgrid, intended initially as a learning platform for Pre-K to PhD educators, was established in 2012. Flipgrid empowers individual users to create learning videos and share learning experiences with their community. It is equipped with fun and colourful tools that elevate the video UX for users in any setting. Flipgrid was acquired by Microsoft in 2018, hoping to incorporate its social learning capabilities into Teams and the larger Microsoft 365 family of products. Interestingly, Microsoft mentioned that it would continue to work with other Flipgrid partners like Google to make video-based social learning accessible for all. As part of the acquisition deal, Flipgrid was made free for schools.
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Within Microsoft Teams, Flipgrid allows users to participate in video-based learning discussions without leaving the Teams UI. This makes perfect sense, as Teams is already the primary platform for work and collaboration for millions of users. The Teams for Family and Friends experience opens up use cases in the personal space. With Flipgrid, not only can educators design and share video-based learning experiences, but organisations can come together to create a culture of engagement built on video, and independent professionals can form vibrant upskilling communities.
Let us review the features of Flipgrid in more detail.
Inside Flipgrid for Microsoft Teams
To get started with Flipgrid on Teams, you’ll need a Flipgrid account and a Group or Topic linked to it. A Teams administrator also needs to approve Flipgrid before it can be installed from the app store on Teams. Once the integration is in place, you can add a Flipgrid tab to a channel and share discussions directly with Teams conversations.
Essentially, the Flipgrid app enables seamless collaboration between Teams and video-based discussions on Flipgrid. Here are the features that make it possible:
- Sharing Flipgrid content to Microsoft Teams – The first feature you will find after the installation is the ability to share content from Flipgrid to Teams at a single click. Navigate to the relevant topic in your Flipgrid account, and from the Share button, choose Microsoft Teams.
- Persistent discussions in Flipgrid tabs – You can place Flipgrid content as a persistent presence alongside a channel on Microsoft Teams. You can achieve this by adding a Flipgrid tab to your Teams channel, linked to a specific group, topic, or video. This would allow channel members to quickly glance through the ongoing topic discussion, view responses, and record their own.
- Notifying Teams users about updates on Flipgrid – When you add a group, topic, or video as a channel tab, it ensures that channel members are automatically notified whenever there is a new video response on that Flipgrid topic. You can also set up notifications to alert Teams users whenever a new topic is introduced on Flipgrid.
- A library of 35,000+ topics – This is a major USP for Flipgrid as a whole and applies to Teams users as well. Through the integration, you gain access to 35,000+ ready-to-use learning topics for inspiration or discussion. This includes learning material from Adobe, BBC, Code.org, Penguin Random House, and many more.
- Video recording from Teams – The central value proposition of Flipgrid is that users/educators/hosts can initiate topics of discussion, and team members, employees, or students can chime in with a response in the form of a video. With the Flipgrid+Teams integration, you can record your response directly from the Teams interface using its video calling capability.
- A wide range of video effects – Finally, all the tools and effects of the Flipgrid camera are available as an overlay on top of Teams, including stickers, emojis, frames, freehand drawings, texts, images and whiteboards.
Why Flipgrid for Teams makes a Difference
Flipgrid’s steadfast focus on the learning community makes it a really valuable addition to the Microsoft ecosystem. It provides educators and learners with a free video discussion solution, and they can now integrate their feeds with Teams and embed video-based learning into the productivity flow. Moreover, Microsoft is committed to strengthening the integration between Flipgrid and the rest of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Recently, in July 2021, the new Office Insider Preview Build 14228.20044 for Insiders introduced the ability to insert Flipgrid videos and shorts into your PowerPoint presentations.
In other words, Flipgrid is poised to become a staple for Microsoft users, and the Teams integration is an excellent place to get started.
What We Think
Whether you want to participate in asynchronous video discussions actively or want to keep the capability handy for a workshop or brainstorming projects, Flipgrid is a fascinating tool. Download it here.
