Microsoft Checks Out Teams Communities Features, Hopes To Overcome Facebook

Community Features in Teams Microsoft (photo: dock. Microsoft)

JAKARTA - Microsoft Thursday 8 December launched a new community feature for Microsoft Teams. The feature is designed so that users can create and manage groups that can be accessed for free.

Features dubbed Teams Communities can also be used to communicate with each other with group members, such as chatting, making calls, sharing files, and photos.

Users can also use a joint calendar to set events, which include Google Calendar integration. By presenting the Teams Community feature, Microsoft targets groups such as sports clubs or even small business groups.

"What we have learned so far we are building this is that there is a group of communities that want to solve something," said Product VP at Microsoft, Amit Fulay.

Even so, Microsoft is aware that many social media platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, Discord, WhatsApp, Twitter, and many other services have provided various ways to manage groups online first, but companies believe they have something different.

"It's very different from the pure fan community or the discussion community, and I think our strength as a company is our ability to provide such a productivity tool," explained Fulay.

Launching The Verge, Thursday, December 8, Microsoft has also created a series of templates for Teams users to quickly create communities, and the group will be limited to the free consumer version of Teams which currently only exists in mobile apps for Android and iOS.

The desktop version will follow in the coming weeks. Microsoft accounts are required to use the Teams Communities feature, users can also easily invite others to join via community links.

If the link is shared or misused accidentally, the admin can change the invitation link to manage who is joining their community. Since the Teams Communities feature is built on Teams, every virtual meeting has features like a waiting room to ensure only community members can join the call.

Teams Communities also presents a new moderation challenge to Microsoft. Companies are indeed experienced in managing Xbox networks, Skype, and other consumer services that require moderation, but they plan to follow Discord models that expect communities to implement their own rules and admins to moderate their private groups.

We actually have a centralized digital security team. We have a lot of experience in Xboxes and services like Flipgrid that have been working on moderation. The way to mark and moderate, we have a central team for that," said Fulay.

To create the Teams Communities feature, Microsoft has spent a lot of money because, outside of Xbox, it doesn't have a large user community like its rivals Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.