Here are all the new features Microsoft added to the free version of Teams in March 2023

Over the past few weeks, Microsoft has revealed a bunch of new and upcoming features for the various WeUs of Teams. However, updates for the free version of Teams had not been shared, until today. Just like last month, Microsoft has now published release notes for the free variant of Teams, which we will refer to as “Teams Free”for the remainder of this article for brevity.

Starting with Teams Chat that is integrated in Windows 11 directly, we have better app badging for notifications in the Taskbar. If there is a red dot on the Teams icon in the Taskbar, Microsoft says that you will always “find something new in the app”, which could also be information about new features. Moreover, Microsoft hasn’t detailed what the change is, but it has mentioned that users might see something “fun”when they use the high-five emoji in the app.

Additionally, desktop and web users can also view videos shared in communities in an inline UX. Meeting invites can be shared with other members through their phone numbers only via SMS too.

Meanwhile, coming over to Teams Free on mobile, we have some improvements for communities. Users have the ability to easily share content to recent communities. Communities themselves are also secured from malicious content through autonomous safeguards. Lastly, if a community owner invites you to their community, you’ll see a notification inside the app which you can choose to decline or accept.