Microsoft Teams reaches 250 million monthly active users

The audience of the Microsoft Teams communications platform, designed for employee interaction in the corporate environment, has approached 250 million monthly active users. This is stated in the quarterly report of the software giant.

The last time the company provided Teams user information in April, it only reported a daily audience of 145 million. While switching to the new “monthly” billing system significantly increases the user base, we do not know how they establish how this figure.

In addition to nearly a quarter of a billion users, VP of Corporate Communications Frank Shaw said Teams now has around 80 million active smartphone users and more than a billion calls per month. According to Shaw, 124 companies have over 100,000 users in Teams, and about 3,000 companies have over 10,000 users.

Teams’ integration with commercial Microsoft 365 subscriptions is known to make a huge contribution to the development of the communications platform, and compatibility with services like Dynamics and SharePoint helps to promote it as a universal tool for interaction in the enterprise environment.

Windows 11 introduces Chat app powered by Microsoft Teams

Microsoft has announced an update to the Windows 11 software platform; that will bring with it a new tool for communicating with friends and family called Chat. The application is based on the Microsoft Teams service, and members of the Microsoft Insider Program on the Dev Channel (Early Access) will be able to experience the new chats in the near future. The novelty will receive wider distribution later this year.

After installing the mentioned update, a corresponding icon will appear on the taskbar; clicking on which you can open a chat window. In addition, you can bring up a chat window anywhere by pressing the Win + C keys; which in the past were in use to launch the Cortana voice assistant. Once the chat window has launched, you can move on to the full Teams app; which has got a redesign for Windows 11.

According to available data, individual and group text chats will be available to users during the testing phase. Support for voice and video calls, as well as some additional functions will appear later. A limited number of US participants in the Microsoft Insider Program will be eligible for the current testing.

New chats can be in use to send messages outside of Teams. For example, if a user sends a message to a person who does not have Teams, the message will be delivered via email or SMS. At the same time, Microsoft will provide the recipient of the message with the option to immediately join Teams. Deeper integration of Teams with the Windows 11 software platform will help Microsoft advance its collaboration service.