Teams has introduced its Communities feature to Windows 11 devices.
In what Microsoft described as “the most significant set of updates to the free version of Microsoft Teams since December 2022”, its Community update allows users to create groups for organising events and keeping colleagues up to date with information. New features added to the Communities section include new camera features and the ability 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.
Amit Fulay, Vice President of Microsoft Teams Product, described the new solution in a blog post:
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.”
Support for Communities in Teams for Windows 10 and macOS devices is coming soon.
The ‘Significant’ Raft of Features
The Communities update also introduced a new camera functionality. Community members can use their mobile devices to record videos via Microsoft’s capture experience, including updated filters and markup tools.
A new feature, only available on iOS for now, involves community owners using their mobile camera to scan and subsequently invite multiple emails or phone numbers from an online document, paper directory, or any list.
Windows 11, iOS and Android Teams users can also search for and join specific communities in a similar manner to Discord’s communities functionalities. “You can join focused on topics like parenting, gaming, gardening, technology, remote work, and more,” Fulay added.
Community owners can set their Community to be “visible”, currently only available on iOS and Android, to be discovered via Teams. Community owners can now either approve or reject requests to join their Community and assign owner controls to others. Owners can decide to share posts as emails so they can reach members who might not use Teams every day.
Another interesting new feature is that Community owners can canvas opinions from Community members with Polls, powered by MSForms.
Microsoft also announced support for Microsoft Designer in Teams for Windows 11, currently available in Preview. A generative AI-powered feature, Designer intends to streamline the creation of unique and personalised designs. “By describing your idea’s vision in words or utilising an uploaded image, you can create captivating one-of-a-kind visuals.” Fulay wrote. Users can create an announcement post in communities to design their own banner with Designer.
Its GroupMe solution is also being updated with support for Teams calling, so users can create and join group video Teams calls within GroupMe chats.
The Past Month in Teams
This update may have been Teams’ most significant since 2022, but that doesn’t mean it was a quiet month for the platform before its release.
Teams introduced active speaker view to improve the meeting flow for users. Active speaker view allows users to track the current active speaker. Additionally, the active speaker’s video will be rendered at a higher resolution to boost visual clarity.
A fortnight ago, during Microsoft’s Build update, Teams introduced immersive spaces to allow users to make meetings more engaging by adding “a sense of natural co-presence”.
Powered by Mesh, Microsoft’s holographic virtual collaboration platform, users can interact with the immersive spaces feature through either a PC or VR headset. Users can connect with other participants whether they join a Teams meeting using video, as a virtual avatar or in the immersive space directly.
The Build update also announced that Avatars for Teams is now generally available for 365 Business and Enterprise licenses via the Teams desktop app on Windows and Mac. These virtual avatars provide an alternative to the current “binary” option of video or no video for Teams meetings. The feature also adds customisable avatars and reactions.
Last month, the official 365 Roadmap suggested that a new Teams feature would enable users to share links to specific messages in group chats so colleagues can more easily find information. The plan is to make finding essential information more efficient by eliminating the problem of scanning through blocks of text in the group chat for the exact message that users need to see.
Earlier in May, Teams introduced a capability for users to create “offline” meetings. This meant users could now create a calendar invite within Teams for events such as personal appointments, in-person meetings and lunch break slots. These events will register users as offline without having to be in a scheduled video meeting. This is similar to an “offline” feature already present in Outlook.
Teams also recently added an array of features for users to express themselves more during meetings. Microsoft announced it was refreshing Teams’ virtual backgrounds library with animated versions so users could present their individuality. An original group of still images have already been added to the Teams collection and will be followed by animated versions this month.
from UC Today https://ift.tt/JSjZv7c
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