Microsoft wants to compete with Facebook and Discord, adding new community functions to teams

Microsoft is adding new features to Teams. The aim is to offer features that competitors such as Discord or Facebook have long been offering.

In our digital world, the ability to coordinate with one another is becoming increasingly important. Large services such as Facebook and Discord offer chat rooms where users can meet. Discord now also works on PS4 and PS5, but you still have to live with a few restrictions at the moment.

Now Microsoft has presented a major update for its in-house service “Teams”. Because you are now expanding your own client with new community features and thus defending yourself against the competition.

Microsoft introduces communities in its own app

What is changing now? Microsoft is adding new features to its Teams client. The previous features, such as sending messages, calling people or sharing files, are retained. What is new now is that you can create rooms for community where you can exchange ideas and plan things:

What can you do in the communities?

• Easily send messages to all members of the community group.
• You can organize events or add appointments to a calendar that all participants have access to.
• Sharing and storing documents intended for specific group activities.
• You can also filter content within communities for quick access to photos, videos, events, and links.

Where can this be used? Communities are limited to the free consumer version of Teams at the start of the update. The Microsoft Teams apps for iOS and Android already support communities, and the desktop app will follow in the coming weeks.

Microsoft invests money in its own service after takeover by other companies failed

What’s behind it? Microsoft has been trying to gain a foothold in communities for some time. But in recent years, every takeover has failed:

• A possible takeover of Tiktok failed in 2020. After political conflicts they withdrew.
• In 2021, Microsoft wanted to take over Pinterest for $51 billion. But here there had been resistance on Pinterest.
• The takeover of Discord also failed in mid-2021. Microsoft wanted to put around 10 billion US dollars on the table here.

After the failed takeovers, the tech giant is now putting its money into building its own community.

When gaming, I foot Discord and my team thanks me for it