Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration application developed by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft 365 family of products, offering workspace chat and video conferencing, file storage, and integration of proprietary and third-party applications and services.[11]
.svg) | |||||||||||||||
 Microsoft Teams' channel tab, as seen on the Microsoft Windows operating system | |||||||||||||||
| Developer(s) | Microsoft | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial release | March 14, 2017 | ||||||||||||||
| Stable release(s) [±] | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Written in | TypeScript, Angular, React, Electron,[8] Microsoft Edge WebView2[9] | ||||||||||||||
| Operating system | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web | ||||||||||||||
| Available in | 48 languages | ||||||||||||||
List of languages English, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.[10] | |||||||||||||||
| Type | Collaborative software | ||||||||||||||
| License | Proprietary commercial cloud software | ||||||||||||||
| Website | teams | ||||||||||||||
Teams replaced other Microsoft-operated business messaging and collaboration platforms, including Skype for Business and Microsoft Classroom.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Teams, and software such as Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, among others gained much interest as many meetings moved to a virtual environment.[12]
As of January 2023[update], it had around 280 million monthly users.[13]
History
editOn August 29, 2007, Microsoft purchased Parlano and its persistent group chat product, MindAlign.[14] On March 4, 2016, Microsoft had considered bidding $8 billion for Slack, but Bill Gates was against the purchase, stating that the firm should instead focus on improving Skype for Business.[15] Lu Qi, EVP of Applications and Services, was leading the push to purchase Slack.[15] After the departure of Lu later that year, Microsoft announced Teams to the public as a direct competitor to Slack at an event in New York on November 2, 2016,[11][16] and was launched worldwide on March 14, 2017.[17][18] It is currently led by Microsoft corporate vice president Brian MacDonald.[19]
Slack ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times acknowledging the competing service.[20] Though Slack was used by 28 companies in the Fortune 100, The Verge wrote that executives would question paying for the service if Teams provides a similar function in their company's existing Office 365 subscription.[20] 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.[21] Microsoft has since added this functionality.[22] In response to Teams' announcement, Slack deepened in-product integration with Google services.[23]
In May 2017, Microsoft announced Teams would replace Microsoft Classroom in Office 365 Education.[24][25] On July 12, 2018, Microsoft announced a free version of Teams, offering most of the platform's communication options for no charge, but limiting the number of users and team file storage capacity.[26][27] In January 2019, Microsoft released an update targeting "Firstline Workers" in order to improve the interoperability of Teams between different computers for retail workers.[28][29]
In September 2019, Microsoft announced that Skype for Business would be phased out in favor of Teams. Hosted Skype for Business Online was discontinued on July 31, 2021.[30][31]
It announced a "Walkie Talkie" feature in early 2020 that uses push-to-talk on smartphones and tablets over Wi-Fi or cellular data,[32] for employees who speak with customers or run day-to-day operations.[32] On March 19, 2020, Microsoft announced Teams had hit 44 million daily users,[33] mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[34] On a single day in April, it logged 4.1 billion meeting minutes.[35]
In December 2019, Microsoft released a public preview of Microsoft Teams for Linux,[36] which it discontinued in 2022.[7] In July 2020, Microsoft shut down its video game livestreaming service Mixer, and announced that its developers would be working some of its technology into Teams.[37]
Usage
edit| July 11, 2019 | 13 million daily[38][39] |
| November 19, 2019 | 20 million daily[40] |
| March 12, 2020 | 32 million daily[41] |
| March 19, 2020 | 44 million daily[42] |
| April 29, 2020 | 75 million daily[43] |
| April 27, 2021 | 145 million daily[44] |
| July 27, 2021 | 250 million monthly[45] |
| January 25, 2022 | 270 million monthly[46] |
| July 18, 2023 | 300 million monthly[47] |
Underlying software
editMicrosoft Teams is a web-based desktop app, originally developed on top of the Electron framework which combines the Chromium rendering engine and the Node.js JavaScript platform.[48] Version 2.0 was rebuilt using the Evergreen version of Microsoft Edge WebView2 in place of Electron.[9]
Features
editChats
editTeams 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 sharing 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.[49]
Teams
editTeams allows communities, groups, or teams to contribute in a shared workspace where messages and digital content on a specific topic are shared. Team members can join through an invitation sent by a team administrator or owner or sharing of a specific URL.[50] Teams for Education allows admins and teachers to set up groups for classes, professional learning communities (PLCs), staff members, and everyone.[51]
Channels
editChannels allow team members to communicate without the use of email or group SMS (texting). 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 contacted through a third-party service.[52] Connectors include Mailchimp, Facebook Pages, Twitter, Power BI and Bing News.
Group conversations
editAd-hoc groups can be created to share instant messaging, audio calls (VoIP), and video calls inside the client software.
Telephone replacement
editA feature on one of the higher cost licencing 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.[53]
Meeting
editMeetings 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.[54] 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.[55] If a meeting is scheduled within a channel, users visiting the channel are able to see if a meeting is in progress.
Teams Live Events
editTeams Live Events replaces Skype Meeting Broadcast for users to broadcast to 10,000 participants on Teams, Yammer, or Microsoft Stream.[56]
Breakout Rooms
editBreakout rooms split a meeting into small groups.[57] This is often utilized for collaboration during trainings or any environment where having all participants speak at once could be disruptive or unfeasible. Breakout rooms can be set by the hosts to a certain length of time, after which all participants will automatically rejoin the main meeting room.[58]
Front Row
editFront Row adjusts the layout of the viewer's screen, placing the speaker or content in the center of the gallery with other meeting participant's video feeds reduced in size and located below the speaker.[59]
Education
editMicrosoft Teams for Education allows teachers to distribute, provide feedback, and grade student assignments turned in via Teams using the Assignments tab through Office 365 for Education subscribers.[60] Quizzes can also be assigned to students through an integration with Office Forms.[61]
Protocols
editMicrosoft Teams is based on a number of Microsoft-specific protocols.[62] 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.[63] 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
editMicrosoft Teams has integrations through Microsoft AppSource, its integration marketplace.[64] In 2020, Microsoft partnered with KUDO, a cloud-based solution with language interpretation, to allow integrated language meeting controls.[65] In June 2022, an update was released using AI to improve call audio through the elimination of background feedback loops and canceling non-vocal audio.[66]
Controversies
editIn July 2023, the EU Commission opened an anti-trust investigation into the possibility that Microsoft unfairly used its office suite market power to increase sales of Teams and hurt its competitors. The next month, Microsoft announced it would make Teams an optional part of the Microsoft 365 bundle, and provide more information to software developers to allow Teams users to transition to competing software with their Teams data.[67] In early 2023, Microsoft updated Teams to open links from chats in Microsoft Edge instead of the default browser set by the user.[68] In June 2024, the EU Commission charged Microsoft with antitrust violations for bundling Microsoft Teams into the Office suite.[69]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e f "Version update history for the new and classic Microsoft Teams app". Microsoft Learn. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
- ^ "Microsoft Teams". Microsoft Apps. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
- ^ "Microsoft Teams". Google Play. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
- ^ "Microsoft Teams 1416/1.0.0.2024193102". APKMirror. October 17, 2024. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
- ^ "Microsoft Teams". App Store. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
- ^ "Index of /repos/ms-teams/pool/main/t/teams/". packages.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021.
- ^ a b "Microsoft Decides to Drop the Linux App for Teams to Replace it as a Progressive Web App Instead". It's FOSS News. September 2, 2022. Archived from the original on February 13, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
- ^ "Microsoft Teams AMA". Microsoft Tech Community. November 10, 2016. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ a b v-ypalikila (October 11, 2023). "Introducing the new Microsoft Teams client - Teams". learn.microsoft.com. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
- ^ "Teams page on App Store". Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
- ^ a b Warren, Tom (November 2, 2016). "Microsoft Teams launches to take on Slack in the workplace". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 20, 2020.
- ^ "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. Retrieved 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. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
- ^ "Microsoft to Acquire Parlano" (Press release). Microsoft. August 29, 2007. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020.
- ^ a b Russell, Jon; Lunden, Ingrid (March 4, 2016). "Source: Microsoft mulled an $8 billion bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on April 1, 2020.
- ^ Foley, Mary Jo (November 2, 2016). "Microsoft launches its Slack competitor, Microsoft Teams". ZDNet. Archived from the original on March 13, 2020.
- ^ Falcone, John (November 2, 2016). "Microsoft Teams: 7 things you need to know". CNET. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016.
- ^ "Microsoft Teams rolls out to Office 365 customers worldwide – Office Blogs". Office Blogs. March 14, 2017. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
- ^ Warren, Tom (March 14, 2017). "How Microsoft Built its Slack Competitor". Archived from the original on January 23, 2023. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
- ^ a b Warren, Tom (November 2, 2016). "Slack shows it's worried about Microsoft Teams with a full-page newspaper ad". Archived from the original on April 6, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
- ^ Bott, Ed (November 4, 2016). "Slack versus Microsoft Teams: It's really no contest". ZDNet. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020.
- ^ Branscombe, Mary (June 10, 2022). "Microsoft Teams: A cheat sheet". TechRepublic. Archived from the original on June 3, 2021.
- ^ "Google and Slack deepen partnership in the face of Microsoft Teams". December 7, 2016. Archived from the original on May 27, 2018. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
- ^ Willis, Richard (June 23, 2017). "Microsoft Classroom to be replaced by Microsoft Teams in Office 365 for Education". SalamanderSoft. Archived from the original on December 29, 2019.
- ^ "Microsoft Classroom Preview has officially been 'dropped'". May 3, 2017. Archived from the original on September 6, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
- ^ "Microsoft launches free version of Teams". VentureBeat. July 12, 2018. Archived from the original on July 16, 2018. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
- ^ "Microsoft debuts free tier in competitive workplace chat app market". Reuters. July 12, 2018. Archived from the original on November 23, 2022. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
- ^ Speed, Richard (January 9, 2019). "Microsoft wins today's buzzword bingo with empowering set of updates to Teams". The Register. Archived from the original on December 12, 2019.
- ^ "Microsoft demos vocal translator that uses your own voice". OnMSFT.com. March 12, 2012. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- ^ Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft will drop Skype for Business Online on July 31, 2021". ZDNet. Archived from the original on September 6, 2020. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
- ^ "Microsoft Teams is replacing Skype for Business to put more pressure on Slack". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 25, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
- ^ a b "Microsoft Teams is getting a Walkie Talkie feature so you can reach colleagues all day long". The Verge. January 9, 2020. Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
- ^ "Microsoft Office 365 Usage Statistics". Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
- ^ "Microsoft Teams at 3: Everything you need to connect with your teammates and be more productive". Microsoft. Archived from the original on March 19, 2020. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ^ Tilley, Aaron (June 2, 2020). "Microsoft Takes On Zoom and Slack in a Battle for Your Work Computer". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on June 5, 2020. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
- ^ "Microsoft Teams is now available on Linux". techcommunity.microsoft.com. December 10, 2019. Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
- ^ Warren, Tom (June 22, 2020). "Microsoft is shutting down Mixer and partnering with Facebook Gaming". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 23, 2020. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
- ^ Spataro, Jared; Microsoft 365, Corporate Vice President for (July 11, 2019). "Microsoft Teams reaches 13 million daily active users, introduces 4 new ways for teams to work better together". Microsoft 365 Blog. Archived from the original on May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Microsoft Teams surpasses 20 million daily active users; rival Slack shares slip". Reuters. November 20, 2019. Archived from the original on November 20, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ^ Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft says it has 20 million daily active Teams users". ZDNet. Archived from the original on March 5, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
- ^ "Be More Productive With Microsoft Teams". Microsoft 365 Blog. March 19, 2020. Archived from the original on March 19, 2020. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
- ^ Warren, Tom (March 19, 2020). "Microsoft announces new Teams features as usage skyrockets nearly 40 percent in a week". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
- ^ Warren, Tom (April 29, 2020). "Microsoft Teams jumps 70 percent to 75 million daily active users". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
- ^ Warren, Tom (April 27, 2021). "Microsoft Teams usage jumps to 145 million daily active users". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
- ^ Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft Teams hits 250 million monthly active user milestone". ZDNet. Archived from the original on September 17, 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2021.
- ^ Foley, Mary Jo. "Microsoft: Teams now has more than 270 million monthly active users". ZDNet. Archived from the original on February 16, 2022. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- ^ Curry, David (July 18, 2023). "Microsoft Teams Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)". Business of Apps. Archived from the original on October 20, 2022. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
- ^ msdmaguire. "How Microsoft Teams uses memory – Microsoft Teams". docs.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
- ^ claussn1 (August 5, 2022). "Get ready for fall semester with new Microsoft Teams features". OHIO News. Archived from the original on September 1, 2022. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ University, Herkimer (December 2, 2022). "How to Accept and Join a Microsoft Teams Meeting?" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on December 2, 2022. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
- ^ "Microsoft Teams for Education adds assignments and grading features". May 11, 2018. Archived from the original on July 7, 2018. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
- ^ Branscombe, Mary (June 10, 2022). "Microsoft Teams cheat sheet: Complete guide for 2022". TechRepublic. Archived from the original on June 3, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2023.
- ^ Technologies, Ovatio (January 20, 2020). "Can Microsoft Teams Replace Your IP Phone System? Maybe". Ovatio Technologies. Archived from the original on November 10, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
- ^ Privacy not included: Teams Archived May 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Mozilla Foundation report
- ^ "Now available: Outlook add-in to schedule meetings in Microsoft Teams". TECHCOMMUNITY.MICROSOFT.COM. July 31, 2017. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ "What Is Microsoft Teams?". Digital Trends. May 2, 2020. Archived from the original on November 29, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ "Breakout rooms generally available today in Microsoft Teams". Microsoft Tech Community. December 9, 2020. Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
- ^ "Use breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams meetings". Retrieved August 31, 2024.
- ^ "The Future of Hybrid Work in Microsoft Teams". UC Today. March 2, 2022. Archived from the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
- ^ Anderson, Kareem (May 2018). "Microsoft Teams for Education adds assignments and grading features". OnMSFT. Archived from the original on July 7, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
- ^ Thorp-Lancaster, Dan (June 5, 2018). "Microsoft Teams for Education celebrates first year with batch of new features". Windows Central. Mobile Nations. Archived from the original on July 7, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
- ^ Djeek's Blog. "Microsoft Teams and the protocols it uses, OPUS, MNP24, VBSS, ICE and WebRTC". Archived from the original on May 17, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
- ^ "RealConnect Service Network Communications Explained : Jeff Schertz's Blog". blog.schertz.name. March 7, 2019. Archived from the original on May 2, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
- ^ "The Future of Hybrid Work in Microsoft Teams". UC Today. March 2, 2022. Archived from the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
- ^ Rubicomm (March 2, 2022). "Real-time language interpretation add-on now available for Microsoft Teams". ITWeb. Archived from the original on March 4, 2022. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
- ^ Hachman, Mark. "New Microsoft Teams AI feature could kill the need for a headset". PCWorld. Archived from the original on June 16, 2022. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
- ^ "Microsoft to stop packaging Teams and Office software in Europe to head off EU antitrust action". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
- ^ Warren, Tom (May 3, 2023). "Microsoft is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge, and IT admins are angry". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 4, 2023. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
- ^ "EU charges Microsoft with antitrust violations over Teams". www.ft.com. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
External links
edit
