Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams, also referred to as simply Teams, is a unified communication and collaboration platform that combines persistent workplace chat, video meetings, file storage (including collaboration on files), and application integration. The service integrates with the Office 365 subscription office productivity suite and features extensions that can integrate with non-Microsoft products. Microsoft Teams is a competitor to services such as Slack[7] and is the evolution and upgrade path from Microsoft Skype for Business.[8]

Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams's channel tab, as seen on Microsoft Windows application
Developer(s)Microsoft
Stable release
Android1416/1.0.0.2020061103 / June 11, 2020 (2020-06-11)[1]
iOS2.0.8 / April 23, 2020 (2020-04-23)[2]
Windows, macOS1.3.00.15561 / June 9, 2020 (2020-06-09)[3]
Linux1.3.00.5153 / March 20, 2020 (2020-03-20)[4]
Operating systemWindows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android
Size180.2 MB (iOS), 56.99 MB (Android)
Available in26 languages[5][6]
List of languages
English, Akan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese and Turkish
TypeCollaborative software
LicenseProprietary commercial cloud software
Websiteteams.microsoft.com

Microsoft announced Teams at an event in New York, and launched the service worldwide on March 14, 2017.[9][10] It was created during an internal hackathon at the company, and is currently led by Brian MacDonald,[11] Corporate Vice President at Microsoft.

History

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.[12] Qi Lu, EVP of Applications and Services, was leading the push to purchase Slack.[12] After the departure of Lu later that year, Microsoft announced Teams to the public as a direct competitor to Slack on November 2, 2016.[13][14]

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.[15] 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.[16] Microsoft has since added this functionality.[17] In response to Teams' announcement, Slack deepened in-product integration with Google services.[18]

On May 3, 2017 Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams would replace Microsoft Classroom in Office 365 Education (formerly known as Office 365 for Education).[19][20] On September 7, 2017, users began noticing a message that stated "Skype for Business is now Microsoft Teams".[21] This was confirmed on September 25, 2017, at Microsoft's annual Ignite conference.[22]

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.[23]

In January 2019, Microsoft released an update targeting "Firstline Workers" in order to improve interoperability of Microsoft Teams between different computers for retail workers.[24][25]

On November 19, 2019, Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams reached 20 million active users.[26] This is an increase from 13 million in July.[27] 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.[28]

On March 19, 2020, Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams had hit 44 million daily users, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[29] 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.[30]

On June 22, 2020, Microsoft announced that its acquired video game live streaming service Mixer will shut down in July, and that its staff would be transferred to the Microsoft Teams division.[31]

Features

Teams

Teams allows communities, groups, or teams to join through a specific URL or 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.[32]

Channels

Within a team, members can set up channels. Channels are topics of conversation that allow team members to communicate without the use of email or group SMS (texting). Users can reply to posts with text as well as images, GIFs and custom made memes.

Direct messages allow users to send private messages to a specific user rather than a group of people.

Connectors are third party services that can submit information to the channel. Connectors include MailChimp, Facebook Pages, Twitter, and Bing News.

Calling

Teams supports public switched telephone network (PSTN) conferencing allowing users to call phone numbers from the client.

Meeting

Meetings can be scheduled or created ad-hoc and users visiting the channel will be able to see that a meeting is currently in progress. Teams also has a plugin for Microsoft Outlook to invite others into a Teams meeting.[33] This supports thousands of users that can connect via a meeting link[34]

Education

Microsoft Teams allows teachers to distribute, provide feedback, and grade student assignments turned-in via Teams using the Assignments tab, available to Office 365 for Education subscribers.[35] Quizzes can also be assigned to students through an integration with Office Forms.[36]

Protocols

Microsoft Teams is based on a number of Microsoft-specific protocols.[37] Video conferences are realized over the protocol MNP24, known from the Skype consumer version. The protocol MS-SIP from Skype for Business is not used any more to connect Teams clients. VoIP and video conference clients based on SIP and H.323 need special gateways to connect to Microsoft Teams servers.[38] 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.

See also
Similar discontinued Microsoft products
Others

References
  1. "Microsoft Teams APKs". APKMirror. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  2. "Microsoft Teams". App Store. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  3. "What's new in Microsoft Teams". support.office.com. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  4. "Index of /repos/ms-teams/pool/main/t/teams/". packages.microsoft.com. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  5. "Microsoft demos vocal translator that uses your own voice". November 30, 2001. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  6. "Microsoft Teams Review". May 9, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  7. Warren, Tom (November 2, 2016). "Microsoft Teams launches to take on Slack in the workplace".
  8. LanaChin. "Getting started with your Microsoft Teams upgrade - Microsoft Teams". docs.microsoft.com. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  9. "Microsoft Teams: 7 things you need to know".
  10. "Microsoft Teams rolls out to Office 365 customers worldwide - Office Blogs". Office Blogs. March 14, 2017. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  11. Warren, Tom (March 14, 2017). "How Microsoft Built its Slack Competitor".
  12. Russell, Jon. "Source: Microsoft mulled an $8 billion bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  13. "Microsoft Teams launches to take on Slack in the workplace". The Verge. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  14. Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft launches its Slack competitor, Microsoft Teams | ZDNet". ZDNet. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  15. Warren, Tom (November 2, 2016). "Slack shows it's worried about Microsoft Teams with a full-page newspaper ad".
  16. Bott, Ed. "Slack versus Microsoft Teams: It's really no contest - ZDNet".
  17. "Microsoft Teams: The smart person's guide - TechRepublic".
  18. "Google and Slack deepen partnership in the face of Microsoft Teams". December 7, 2016.
  19. "Microsoft Classroom to be replaced by Microsoft Teams in Office 365 for Education – SalamanderSoft – Education Integration". blog.salamandersoft.co.uk. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  20. "Microsoft Classroom Preview has officially been 'dropped'". May 3, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  21. Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft may be repositioning some (or all) of Skype for Business as Teams | ZDNet". ZDNet. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  22. Warren, Tom (September 25, 2017). "Microsoft Teams is replacing Skype for Business to put more pressure on Slack". The Verge.
  23. "Microsoft launches free version of Teams". VentureBeat. July 12, 2018. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  24. at 18:27, Richard Speed 9 Jan 2019. "Microsoft wins today's buzzword bingo with empowering set of updates to Teams". www.theregister.co.uk.
  25. "Microsoft demos vocal translator that uses your own voice". OnMSFT.com. March 12, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  26. Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft says it has 20 million daily active Teams users". ZDNet. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  27. "Microsoft Teams surpasses 20 million daily active users; rival Slack shares slip". Reuters. November 20, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  28. "Microsoft Teams is getting a Walkie Talkie feature so you can reach colleagues all day long". The Verge. January 9, 2020.
  29. "Microsoft Teams at 3: Everything you need to connect with your teammates and be more productive". Microsoft. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  30. Tilley, Aaron (June 2, 2020). "Microsoft Takes On Zoom and Slack in a Battle for Your Work Computer". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  31. Warren, Tom (June 22, 2020). "Microsoft is shutting down Mixer and partnering with Facebook Gaming". The Verge. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  32. {{Cite news|url=https://www.onmsft.com/news/microsoft-teams-for-education-adds-assignments-and-grading-features%7Ctitle=Microsoft Teams for Education adds assignments and grading features|last=|first=|111111
  33. "Now available: Outlook add-in to schedule meetings in Microsoft Teams". TECHCOMMUNITY.MICROSOFT.COM. July 31, 2017. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  34. Privacy not included: Teams Mozilla Fundation report
  35. Anderson, Kareem (May 2018). "Microsoft Teams for Education adds assignments and grading features". OnMSFT. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  36. Thorp-Lancaster, Dan (June 5, 2018). "Microsoft Teams for Education celebrates first year with batch of new features". Windows Central. Mobile Nations. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  37. djeek in Internet, Microsoft, MNP24, Networks, Opus. "Microsoft Teams and the protocols it uses, OPUS, MNP24, VBSS, ICE and WebRTC | Djeek's Blog".CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  38. "RealConnect Service Network Communications Explained : Jeff Schertz's Blog".
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