Microsoft Teams is getting much more useful with these two new apps

Microsoft Teams
(Image credit: Shutterstock / Ink Drop)

Microsoft has brought two new major additions to its Teams platform: Bulletins and Milestones. 

Bulletins gives companies a single space in which to share news, which they can organize into categories depending on the content type or relevant business department. Publishers to Bulletins can also use the app to keep track of certain metrics to see how their posts are performing. Although Bulletins will work with the Teams desktop client, the app has been mobile-optimized, making it a great way of sharing information with non-desk workers.

Milestones, meanwhile, performs a similar role to project management tools in that it provides a central location for businesses to track work projects and receive updates on their progress. An activity log makes it easy for team leaders to monitor work items by owner or status, while notifications can be used to keep relevant colleagues and clients updated.

The two solutions are integrated into Teams but built on top of Power Apps for greater customization.

Customizable collaboration

“Within the Teams app store, you’ll now find two brand new applications published by Microsoft: Milestones and Bulletins,” a Microsoft Teams blog explained. “Both are deeply integrated within Teams, but what makes them unique is that they are built with Power Apps on top of the recently released Dataverse for Teams. By shipping them on top of Dataverse for Teams, we’re making it possible for you to fully customize these apps from top to bottom and to leverage them as inspiration to build your own apps!”

With Power Apps and Dataverse for Teams, organizations can change both apps to better suit their needs. This includes customizing the branding, altering the type of data collected, and enforcing different business rules.

The addition of both Bulletins and Milestones is likely to be welcomed by the thousands of businesses that now rely on Teams to remain productive. For individuals working from home, it also provides further opportunities for collaboration.

Via Windows Central

Barclay Ballard

Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things.