This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: New blog articles in Microsoft Community Hub.
As you might have seen, many new features have become available in Communities (beta) in Teams free on Windows 11, bringing it close to parity with mobile. You can now create and join communities on Windows 11, and invite others to your communities, too.
There's also a significant change in Teams free meetings where previously all meeting participants joined meetings through lobby. We have now added a new option for invited participants to get directly to the meeting, in other words bypassing the lobby. This will be the default setting for all new Teams free meetings, making meeting joins more seamless for the invited participants, and keeping your meetings safe by having everybody else still joining through the lobby.
New features in Teams (free) on desktop and web
Create a community (Windows 11)
You can now conveniently create a new community from scratch in Teams free on Windows 11, very similarly as on mobile. You just need to fill in the community details like name, description, and community picture, and adjust community guidelines as needed. After community creation you can then invite new members or change further community details using mobile.
Invite members to your community (Windows 11)
It's easy to invite others to your communities in Teams free on Windows 11 now. You can invite contacts already using Teams free or even those who have not yet got started using their email address or phone number. Learn how to invite and remove community members
Create community events and view community calendars (Windows 11)
Community events are a core feature in communities and now it's possible to create those and view community calendars in Teams free on Windows 11, too. Communities created on Windows 11 are visible on mobile and vice versa making it easy to join the meeting when it's time. Learn more about community calendars and events
Notify community members about new content via email (Windows 11)
When creating a new community post, you can now notify community members about the new post via email. This new option available when posting in a community helps you to reach your community members quickly even when they are not in Teams. These emails link back to the original post making it convenient to read the new content. Learn how to post to a community
Use Microsoft Designer for community announcements (Windows 11)
Community announcements stand out from other community content and when posting a community announcement on Windows 11, you can now use Microsoft Designer to quickly create a gorgeous banner image for the announcement. Learn how to use Designer for announcement banners
New features in Teams (free) on mobile
Notify community members about new content via email
When creating a new community post, you can now notify community members about the new post via email. This new option available when posting in a community helps you to reach your community members quickly even when they are not in Teams. These emails link back to the original post making it convenient to read the new content. Learn how to post to a community
Block users from your community
In the event of a bad actor going rogue in your community, as the community owner you can now block them from the community. The same user will not be able to join the community again. We hope you won't be needing this feature, but it's now available should it be needed. You can remove a community member and block them from joining the community again by selecting them from the member list and selecting 'Remove from community'. This will give you options to 'Remove' and 'Remove & Block'. Learn how to remove and block users from your community
Bulk invite community members using mobile camera (iOS)
It's now very easy to quickly get your community growing with the new bulk invite option on iOS. With this feature you can use your mobile camera on iOS to grab a picture of a list of email addresses and phone numbers which then will be validated and matched against the current member list of the community. You can update the list as needed and when ready, send invites to up to 50 persons in one go. Learn how to bulk invite community members on iOS
How to send feedback and suggestions?
We are always happy to receive feedback and suggestions to make our product even better. To participate in our feedback program and help us in our endeavor, please follow the steps below:
- Report bugs and glitches by sending us relevant feedback using the in-app form. Please include diagnostic logs and screenshots which will help us to investigate your reported issue. Learn more how to send feedback or suggest a feature in Teams (free)
- If you have suggestions for new features or changes to the existing ones, you can vote and submit ideas on Microsoft Teams (free) Feedback Portal.
- You can always create a post here on the Microsoft Tech Community as well.
You can also sign up for a user panel, to get opportunities to connect directly with the product team, and help make Teams (free) better. Learn more