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Microsoft has revealed a preview of its upcoming collaborative tool Microsoft Teams, the latest addition to its Office 365 software suite.
Announced at an event in New York, Teams is intended to allow colleagues to communicate and share tasks in a central hub. The cloud-based service integrates with Microsoft's existing Office software such as Word or Excel, and allows in-line replies and attachments to "keep workflows together."
Other features include Skype integration for voice and video conferences, customisable appearances, and the ability to link in notifications and updates from external sources such as Twitter.
Team members will also be able to have private or public conversations, with chats supporting stickers and emoji for expression. A Teams app for smartphones will also be available, allowing continued communication on the go.
"At Microsoft we aim to empower every person and organisation with the technology to be more productive as individuals and in groups," said Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft. "Office 365 is the broadest toolkit and platform for creation, communication and collaboration. Microsoft Teams adds a new experience to Office 365 as the chat-based workspace designed to empower the art of teams."
While general availability isn't expected until the first quarter of 2017, Microsoft Teams is available in preview form to commercial customers with Office 365 Enterprise or Business plans. The early bird version is available in 181 countries and 18 languages already.
If this is all sounding very familiar, it's because Teams is Microsoft's answer to Slack, which launched in 2013.
If you don't work in an office, the existence of Slack may have passed you by. Although it has uses at an individual level, it's mainly a group communications app, equal parts chatroom, resource hub, and collaboration tool. It's also been a huge success.
The similarities haven't been missed, either. Slack took out a full-page ad in the New York Timestoday, as tweeted by company co-founder Stewart Butterfield, softly calling out Microsoft's entry to the field of collaborative communication.
In the full text, Slack points out the challenges Microsoft faces - and by extension, implies Slack itself has already overcome them - and says transparency and an open software platform are essential, and that "you've got to do this with love".
"We're glad you're going to be helping us define this new product category. We admire many of your achievements and know you'll be a worthy competitor," Slack's ad reads. "We're sure you’re going to come up with a couple of new ideas on your own too. And we'll be right there, ready."
Microsoft may well be a worthy competitor though. While Slack has rocketed to 4 million daily users only three years after its launch, Microsoft can claim "85 million active monthly users" for Office 365.
It's hard to draw an exact comparison between the figures and the daily/monthly overlap. However, Microsoft is in a position to immediately push Teams to a huge number of businesses already working with its software, potentially giving it a significant instant userbase.
Microsoft Teams is also reminiscent of Facebook Workplace, the social network's long in-development platform for businesses.
Unlike Slack or Teams, Workplace offers a replica of the public Facebook, but adapts familiar features such as the newsfeed, messenger, groups, events, and live-streaming video for private business users. Its big difference is in pricing though - Facebook Workplace charges on a per-employee basis, with fees scaling based on number of users, while Teams will be included in Office 365 subscriptions and Slack has free options.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
