As its annual customer event Ignite kicks off in Orlando. Microsoft announced that Microsoft Teams will replace Skype for Business eventually. As the company’s primary tool for interactions for customers using Office 365 in the cloud. Teams is less than a year old but is set to replace Skype for Business. Which itself replaced Lync in 2015 – as Microsoft’s preferred corporate chat tool.
Microsoft did not provide a timetable for the move. However, analysts expect it to be completed by 2020. Like the consumer Skype app. The software offers voice and video calling, group calls and a host of other ways to connect. Equipped with team-oriented functionality and management capabilities catered to the needs of businesses. Now those features are trickling into Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft TEAMS
Teams already share features like instant messaging and file sharing with Skype. But it will now integrate other capabilities also. Like connectivity to phone networks. Teams brings features like voicemail, conference calls, and call transfers. Microsoft added more than 100 new features to Teams since its release.
Microsoft is also promising better meetings with Teams in the future, thanks to AI. It is building in machine learning, cognitive services, and speech recognition. It will help improve the meetings experience. The app will also make it easier to set them up and receive follow-ups after the meeting has concluded.
Microsoft Teams is available free in business editions of Office 365 subscription service. It boasts an availability in over 181 countries around the world.
Microsoft Teams is free for business Office 360 owners. Source
Microsoft TEAMS in the future
According to the Spiceworks survey use of Teams to rise in coming years. The competition, Google Hangouts, and Slack will rise slightly in that same period.
A study predicts that Teams will be the second most popular chat app in the workplace by the end of 2018. It will be trailing only another Microsoft program, Skype for Business.
Upgraded Skype
A new Skype for a Business server will be available in the second half of 2018. It’ll be for customers not ready to move to Teams. But Microsoft is pushing Office 365 users to move over to Teams as the key communications client. Microsoft wants them not to rely on Skype for Business.
Microsoft’s move to push Teams over Skype as its main communications tool. Puts even further pressure on Slack. The successful rival to Microsoft Teams.