Microsoft Teams 
is a team collaboration platform developed by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft 365 suite. It offers features such as workspace chat, video conferencing, file storage, and integration with both Microsoft and third-party applications and services. Teams gradually replaced earlier Microsoft messaging and collaboration platforms, including Skype for Business, Skype, and Microsoft Classroom.
The platform saw significant growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside competitors such as Zoom, Slack, and Google Meet, as organizations shifted to remote work and virtual meetings.[1]
As of January 2023, Microsoft reported approximately 280 million monthly active users.[2]
History[]
Microsoft announced Teams at an event in New York and launched the service worldwide on March 14, 2017. It was created during an internal hackathon at the company headquarters, and is currently led by Brian MacDonald, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft.
On March 4, 2016, news broke that Microsoft had considered bidding $8 billion for Slack, but that Bill Gates was against the purchase, stating that the firm should instead focus on improving Skype for Business. Qi Lu, EVP of Applications and Services, was leading the push to purchase Slack. After the departure of Lu later that year, Microsoft announced Teams to the public as a direct competitor to Slack on November 2, 2016.
Slack ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times acknowledging the competing service. Though Slack is used by 28 companies in the Fortune 100, The Verge wrote executives will question paying for the service if Teams provides a similar function in their company's existing Office 365 subscription at no added cost. ZDNet reported that the companies were not competing for the same audience, as Teams, at the time, did not let members outside the subscription join the platform, and small businesses and freelancers would have been unlikely to switch. Microsoft has since added this functionality. In response to Teams' announcement, Slack deepened in-product integration with Google services.
On May 3, 2017, Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams would replace Microsoft Classroom in Office 365 Education (formerly known as Office 365 for Education). On September 7, 2017, users began noticing a message that stated "Skype for Business is now Microsoft Teams". This was confirmed on September 25, 2017, at Microsoft's annual Ignite conference.
On July 12, 2018, Microsoft announced a free version of Microsoft Teams, offering most of the platform's communication options for no charge but limiting the number of users and team file storage capacity.
In January 2019, Microsoft released an update targeting "First-line Workers" in order to improve interoperability of Microsoft Teams between different computers for retail workers.[3]
In September 2019, Microsoft announced that Skype for Business would be phased out in favor of Teams; hosted Skype for Business Online was discontinued for new Office 365 customers that month, and will be discontinued entirely on July 31, 2021.[4][5]
On November 19, 2019, Microsoft announced that Microsoft Teams reached 20 million active users.[6] This is an increase from 13 million in July.[7] It announced a "Walkie Talkie" feature in early 2020 that uses push-to-talk on smartphones and tablets over Wi-Fi or cellular data. The feature was designed for employees who speak with customers or run day-to-day operations.[8] On March 19, 2020, Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams had hit 44 million daily users,[9] in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[10] Microsoft reported that by April 2020, Microsoft Teams had hit 75 million daily users. On a single day in April, it logged 4.1 billion meeting minutes.[11]
On June 22, 2020, Microsoft announced that its acquired video game live streaming service Mixer would shut down in July, and that its staff would be transferred to the Microsoft Teams division.[12]
On May 17, 2021, Microsoft launched the personal version of Teams. Apart from the primary features like chatting, file sharing, and video calls, users can also have group video calls with 300 users for up to 24 hours.[13]
Features[]
Chats[]
Teams allows users to communicate in two-way persistent chats with one or multiple participants. Participants can message using text, emojis, stickers, and GIFs, as well as share links and files. In August 2022, the chat feature was updated for "chat with yourself", allowing for the organization of files, notes, comments, images, and videos within a private chat tab.
Teams[]
Teams allows communities, groups, or teams to contribute in a shared workspace where messages and digital content on a specific topic are shared. Teams members can join through a specific URL or an invitation sent by a team administrator or owner. Teams for Education allows admins and teachers to set up specific teams for classes, professional learning communities (PLCs), staff members, and everyone.
Channels[]
Channels allow team members to communicate without relying on email or group SMS (text messaging). Users can reply to posts with text, images, GIFs, and image macros. Direct messages send private messages to designated users rather than the entire channel. Connectors can be used within a channel to submit information through a third-party service. Connectors include Mailchimp, Facebook Pages, Twitter, Power BI, and Bing News.
Group conversations[]
Ad-hoc cgroups can be created to share instant messaging, audio calls (VoIP), and video calls inside the client software.
Telephone replacement[]
A feature on one of the higher cost licensing tiers allows connectivity to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) telephone system. This allows users to use Teams as if it were a telephone, making and receiving calls over the PSTN, including the ability to host "conference calls" with multiple participants.
Meeting[]
Meetings can be scheduled with multiple participants able to share audio, video, chat, and presented content with all participants. Multiple users can connect via a meeting link. Automated minutes are possible using the recording and transcript features. Teams has a plugin for Microsoft Outlook to schedule a Teams Meeting in Outlook for a specific date and time and invite others to attend. If a meeting is scheduled within a channel, users visiting the channel can see if a meeting is in progress.
Education[]
Microsoft Teams enables teachers to distribute, provide feedback, and grade student assignments submitted via Teams using the Assignments tab, which is available to Office 365 for Education subscribers. Quizzes can also be assigned to students through an integration with Office Forms.
Protocols[]
Microsoft Teams is based on a number of Microsoft-specific protocols. Video conferences are realized over the protocol MNP24, known from the Skype consumer version. VoIP and video conference clients based on SIP and H.323 need special gateways to connect to Microsoft Teams servers. With the help of Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE), clients behind Network Address Translation routers and restrictive firewalls are also able to connect, if peer-to-peer is not possible.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ "COVID impact on meeting apps: Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams never had it better". cnbctv18.com. May 31, 2021. Archived from the original on September 1, 2022.
- ↑ Novet, Jordan (March 27, 2023). "Microsoft says its new version of Teams is twice as fast". CNBC. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023.
- ↑ Speed, Richard Speed (January 9, 2019). "Microsoft wins today's buzzword bingo with empowering set of updates to Teams".
- ↑ Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft will drop Skype for Business Online on July 31, 2021" (in en). Retrieved 2020-02-09.
- ↑ "Microsoft Teams is replacing Skype for Business to put more pressure on Slack". The Verge. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
- ↑ Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft says it has 20 million daily active Teams users" (in en). Retrieved 2020-04-15.
- ↑ "Microsoft Teams surpasses 20 million daily active users; rival Slack shares slip" (in en). Reuters. November 20, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ↑ "Microsoft Teams is getting a Walkie Talkie feature so you can reach colleagues all day long". The Verge. January 9, 2020.
- ↑ "Microsoft Office 365 Usage Statistics" (in en). Retrieved September 19, 2020.
- ↑ "Microsoft Teams at 3: Everything you need to connect with your teammates and be more productive" (in en). Microsoft. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ↑ Tilley, Aaron (2 June 2020). "Microsoft Takes On Zoom and Slack in a Battle for Your Work Computer". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ↑ Warren, Tom (2020-06-22). "Microsoft is shutting down Mixer and partnering with Facebook Gaming" (in en). Retrieved 2020-06-22.
- ↑ Gogia, Kanika (2021-05-18). "Microsoft Teams launches for friends and family" (in en). Retrieved 2021-05-18.
External links[]
- Microsoft Teams official website
- Microsoft Teams at Wikipedia
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Wikipedia (article: Microsoft Teams)
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