Teams (free) is getting several new features again for its March 2023 update

After its February update, Microsoft is here again to introduce a new batch of features to Teams (free), including SMS meeting invitations and auto-playing of shared videos.

Microsoft is continuously improving Teams (free) to lure its customers away from the old Microsoft Teams Free (classic) app version, which is expected to retire on April 12. Part of this is the monthly update in the Teams (free).

In this March update, the app is getting a bunch of new features again, which will be available in its desktop, web, and mobile versions. To start, Teams (free) on desktop and web will receive the new app badging on Windows 11 through a little red dot on the taskbar, indicating new content and features. Moreover, users of desktop and web versions of Teams free will now see the video shared in a community automatically playing, and it is now possible to use a phone number as a recipient when scheduling a new meeting. By doing so, recipients will receive a meeting invite via SMS that contains the meeting link.

As for Teams (free) on mobile, Microsoft said it improved the sharing process of content. Specifically, mobile users of the app will now see their recent communities as native sharing options when they need to share content. Also, it will now be easier to decline or accept community invites on mobile as the notification will now appear in the app. Lastly, Microsoft said it would impose some safeguards in communities towards potentially harmful or malicious content, which will automatically remove and replace them with placeholders indicating the removal.