The landscape of work is evolving, and organizations are continuing to look for ways to keep their employees connected and informed, wherever they are and however they work. In April, Microsoft Teams added a new app called “Communities” which brings a fully interactive new Yammer experience directly into the hub for teamwork. Today, at Microsoft Inspire, we announced that the new Communities app is now available for Teams for iOS and Teams for Android.
Yammer & Teams, better together
Engage your Firstline Workers and deskless employees with company-wide announcements and live events that employees can access anywhere. Stay connected to what’s happening in your communities, tap into knowledge across teams and departments, and crowdsource solutions and best practices at the edges of the organization. The new Communities app helps employees share and engage with their coworkers across locations and worksites – right alongside their shifts, chats, and calendar.
Drive culture and employee experience
Resilient organizations require engaged employees at the edges of the organization and need tools to help remote employees and address employee well-being. The Communities integration unlocks new ways to stay connected while using the Teams mobile apps, including
- Sending company-wide announcements and safety alerts that scale to the size of modern enterprises and reach employees across devices. Yammer announcements and featured conversations highlight important news and provide a direct line of communication and discussion with Firstline Workers.
- Hosting virtual events and townhalls that align the workforce towards a common goal. Leaders can use live events to address questions and concerns and invite two-way dialogue and feedback from across the company – ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard.
- Sharing knowledge and ideas across communities using community features like polls, question and best answer, and hashtags. Easily contribute ideas, locate expertise, and crowdsource solutions that create breakthrough innovations and move the business forward, no matter where they are in the world or the org chart.
As Cai, Kjaer, CEO of Swoop Analytics states, “Together, Teams and Yammer are a formidable ally for business performance, and since most of our daily work is happening within a team, it makes a lot of sense to make Yammer available in the Teams app.”
How to get it
Starting today, users with the Communities app installed in the Teams web or desktop clients will also see the Communities app in their mobile app. Admins pinning the app for their users will now also see the app appear in mobile.
What’s next
Soon, Communities in Teams will add integrated notifications to the activity bell within Teams and unify the search experience while in the app to make it easy to find the conversations you care about. Stay tuned! Follow the Microsoft Teams and Yammer blogs for the latest news and best practices related to teamwork and communities in Microsoft 365.
- Ethan Li,
Ethan is a PM for Yammer and the Communities app at Microsoft