Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration platform developed byMicrosoft as part of theMicrosoft 365 suite. It offers features such as workspace chat, video conferencing, file storage, and integration with both Microsoft and third-party applications and services.[10] Teams gradually replaced earlier Microsoft messaging and collaboration platforms, includingSkype for Business,Skype, andMicrosoft Classroom.
The platform saw significant growth during theCOVID-19 pandemic, alongside competitors such asZoom,Slack, andGoogle Meet, as organizations shifted to remote work and virtual meetings.[11]
As of January 2023[update], Microsoft reported approximately 280million monthly active users.[12]
On August 29, 2007, Microsoft acquired Parlano, the developer of the persistent group chat toolMindAlign.[13] Years later, on March 4, 2016, Microsoft considered acquiringSlack for $8 billion. However, the proposal was reportedly opposed byBill Gates, who advocated for focusing on enhancingSkype for Business instead.[14]Lu Qi, then executive vice president of Applications and Services, had led the initiative to pursue the Slack acquisition.[14] 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.[10][15] Teams launched worldwide on March 14, 2017.[16][17] The service was initially led by corporate vice president Brian MacDonald.[18]
In response to the launch, Slack published a full-page advertisement inThe New York Times welcoming the competition and outlining its product philosophy.[19] Although Slack was used by 28 companies in theFortune 100,The Verge wrote that executives would question paying for the service if Teams provides a similar function in their company's existingOffice 365 subscription.[19] 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.[20][21] In response to Teams' announcement, Slack deepened in-product integration withGoogle services.[22]
In May 2017, Microsoft announced that Teams would replaceMicrosoft Classroom in Office 365 Education.[23][24] A free version of Teams was released on July 12, 2018, offering most core features at no cost, albeit with limits on users and storage.[25][26] In January 2019, Microsoft introduced updates targeting "Firstline Workers" to improve Teams’ performance across shared or limited-access devices.[27][28]
In September 2019, Microsoft announced the retirement of Skype for Business in favor of Teams, which took effect on July 31, 2021.[29][30] In early 2020, Microsoft introduced apush-to-talk "Walkie Talkie" feature aimed at firstline workers using smartphones and tablets over Wi-Fi or cellular networks.[31]
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly boosted usage of Teams. On March 19, 2020, Microsoft reported 44 million daily active users.[32][33] In April, the platform logged 4.1 billion meeting minutes in a single day.[34]
A public preview of Microsoft Teams for Linux was released in December 2019,[35] but the Linux client was discontinued in 2022.[7] In July 2020, Microsoft shut down itsvideo game livestreaming platformMixer, and announced that some of its technologies would be repurposed for use in Teams.[36]
On February 28, 2025, Microsoft announced thatSkype would be fully retired on May 5, 2025, with users given options to export their data or transition to Microsoft Teams.[37][38]
In October 2025, together with other Microsoft 365 suite apps, Teams had its logo updated.[39]
Microsoft Teams, as part of the Microsoft 365 suite, utilizesSharePoint andExchange Online.[49] Each Team, Shared Channel, and Private Channel has its own Microsoft 365 Group and SharePoint Site used for file storage.[49]
Messages are stored inCosmos DB and are journaled toExchange Online mailboxes.[50] Private messages, including messages in Private Channels, are journaled to the sender and recipients' mailboxes.[51] Public Channel messages are journaled to their corresponding Team's group mailbox, whereas, messages from Shared Channels are journaled to their own mailboxes.[52]
Microsoft Teams client is a web-based desktop app, originally developed on top of theElectron framework which combines theChromium rendering engine and theNode.js JavaScript platform.[53] Version 2.0 client was rebuilt using the Evergreen version ofMicrosoft Edge WebView2 in place of Electron.[9]
Teams allows users to communicate in two-way persistent chats with one or multiple participants. Participants can message using text,emojis, stickers andgifs, 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.[54]
Teams 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.[55] Teams for Education allows admins and teachers to set up groups for classes, professional learning communities (PLCs), staff members, and everyone.[56]
Channels allow team members to communicate without the use of email or group SMS (texting). Users can reply to posts with text, images,GIFs, andimage 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.[21] Connectors includeMailchimp,Facebook Pages,Twitter,Power BI andBing News.
A feature on one of the higher cost licencing tiers allows connectivity to thepublic 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.[57]
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.[58] Automated minutes are possible using the recording and transcript features. Teams has a plugin forMicrosoft Outlook to schedule a Teams Meeting in Outlook for a specific date and time and invite others to attend.[59] If a meeting is scheduled within a channel, users visiting the channel are able to see if a meeting is in progress.
Breakout rooms split a meeting into small groups.[61] 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.[62]
Front 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.[63]
Microsoft 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.[56] Quizzes can also be assigned to students through an integration withOffice Forms.[64]
Microsoft Teams is based on a number of Microsoft-specific protocols.[65] Video conferences are realized over the protocolMNP24, 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.[66] With the help ofInteractive Connectivity Establishment (ICE), clients behindNetwork address translation routers and restrictive firewalls are also able to connect, ifpeer-to-peer is not possible.
Microsoft Teams has integrations through Microsoft AppSource, its integration marketplace.[63] In 2020, Microsoft partnered with KUDO, a cloud-based solution with language interpretation, to allow integrated language meeting controls.[67] 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.[68]
In July 2023, theEuropean Commission opened ananti-trust investigation into the possibility that Microsoft unfairly used itsoffice 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 theMicrosoft 365 bundle, and provide more information to software developers to allow Teams users to transition to competing software with their Teams data.[69] In early 2023, Microsoft updated Teams to open links from chats inMicrosoft Edge instead of the defaultbrowser set by the user.[70] In June 2024, the EU Commission charged Microsoft with antitrust violations for bundling Microsoft Teams into the Office suite.[71]
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