Microsoft 'Teams' adds 'Communities' to compete Facebook groups

San Francisco, Dec 8

Microsoft has announced a new 'Communities' feature in its video conferencing software 'Teams' on Android and iOS to compete with Facebook groups.

'Communities' is a new experience that allows users to come together, connect, share and collaborate, the company said in a blogpost on Wednesday.

It allows users to easily post messages to everyone in the group, organise events and add them to the community calendar for everyone to see.

Users can share and store documents dedicated to group activity and can filter content to quickly access photos, videos, events and links.

To ensure that community members feel safe, community owners can manage settings, create community guidelines and monitor content by adding or removing participants and posts as necessary.

Communities in Teams also offer a new events experience for organising virtual, hybrid or in-person events.

For online events, users can easily add dial-in information and a link so that attendees can participate without any trouble.

Whereas, for the in-person events, users can enter a venue and provide participants with specific directions via a visual map.

Microsoft also announced that "in 2023, people can access SignUpGenius within Teams to recruit volunteers, coordinate events and manage a variety of sign ups."