microsoft

Microsoft Teams Microsoft Teams icon 2025 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

On August 29, 2007, Microsoft acquired Parlano of the persistent group chat tool MindAlign. Years later, on March 4, 2016, Microsoft considered acquiring Slack for US$8 billion. However, the proposal was reportedly opposed by Bill Gates, who advocated for focusing on enhancing Skype for Business instead. Qi Lu, then executive vice president of Applications and Services, had led the initiative to pursue the Slack acquisition. Following Lu's departure later that year, Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams on November 2, 2016, at an event in New York City, positioning it as a direct competitor to Slack. Teams launched worldwide on March 14, 2017. The service was initially led by corporate vice president Brian MacDonald.

In response to the launch, Slack published a full-page advertisement in The New York Times welcoming the competition and outlining its product philosophy. Although Slack was used by 28 companies in the Fortune 100, The Verge wrote that executives would question paying for the service if Teams provided a similar function in their company's existing Office 365 subscription. However, ZDNET noted that the platforms initially served different markets, as Teams did not support external users, making it less appealing to small businesses and freelancers, a limitation Microsoft later addressed. In response to Teams' announcement, Slack deepened in-product integration with Google services.

In May 2017, Microsoft announced that Teams would replace Microsoft Classroom in Office 365 Education. A free version of Teams was released on July 12, 2018, offering most core features at no cost, albeit with limits and users and storage. In January 2019, Microsoft introduced updates targeting "Firstline Workers" to improve Teams' performance across shared or limited-access devices.

In September 2019, Microsoft announced the retirement of Skype for Business in favor of Teams, which took effect on July 31, 2021. In early 2020, Microsoft introduced a push-to-talk "Walkie Talkie" feature aimed at first-line workers using smartphones and tablets over Wi-Fi or cellular networks.[3][4]

On November 19, 2019, Microsoft announced that Microsoft Teams reached 20 million active users.[5] This is an increase from 13 million in July.[6] 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.[7] On March 19, 2020, Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams had hit 44 million daily users,[8] in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9] 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.[10]

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.[11]

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.[12]

On February 28, 2025, Microsoft announced that Skype would be fully retired on May 5, 2025, with users given the option to export their data or transition to Microsoft Teams.[13][14]

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 groups 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.

Integrations

Microsoft Teams has integrations through Microsoft AppSource, its integration marketplace. In 2020, Microsoft partnered with KUDO, a cloud-based solution with language interpretation, to allow integrated language meeting controls. In June 2022, an update was released using AI to improve call audio through the elimination of background feedback loops and cancelling non-vocal audio.

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ "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. 
  2. ↑ 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. 
  3. ↑ Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft will drop Skype for Business Online on July 31, 2021" (in en). Retrieved 2020-02-09. 
  4. ↑ "Microsoft Teams is replacing Skype for Business to put more pressure on Slack". The Verge. Retrieved September 26, 2017. 
  5. ↑ Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft says it has 20 million daily active Teams users" (in en). Retrieved 2020-04-15. 
  6. ↑ "Microsoft Teams surpasses 20 million daily active users; rival Slack shares slip" (in en). Reuters. November 20, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019. 
  7. ↑ "Microsoft Teams is getting a Walkie Talkie feature so you can reach colleagues all day long". The Verge. January 9, 2020. 
  8. ↑ "Microsoft Office 365 Usage Statistics" (in en). Retrieved September 19, 2020. 
  9. ↑ "Microsoft Teams at 3: Everything you need to connect with your teammates and be more productive" (in en). Microsoft. Retrieved March 19, 2020. 
  10. ↑ 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. 
  11. ↑ Warren, Tom (2020-06-22). "Microsoft is shutting down Mixer and partnering with Facebook Gaming" (in en). Retrieved 2020-06-22. 
  12. ↑ Gogia, Kanika (2021-05-18). "Microsoft Teams launches for friends and family" (in en). Retrieved 2021-05-18. 
  13. ↑ Jibin, Joseph (2025-02-28). "Microsoft Is Shutting Down Skype, Shifting Users to Teams". PC Mag. 
  14. ↑ "Moving from Skype to Microsoft Teams Free". Microsoft Support. Microsoft. Retrieved 2025-11-16. 

External links

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