Microsoft Teams gets personal, all about friends and fun activities now

Microsoft Teams is a bit…eh, right? Like, who actually cares about Teams when there are so many competing apps that do exactly the same thing in a far less cumbersome way. Microsoft clearly knows this as it’s announced an official change in direction for Teams, one that moves away from the corporate, business organisation aspect and something along the lines of an app dedicated to personal group chats, because who doesn’t need more of the most annoying thing about modern communication?

Okay, maybe that’s being too harsh on Teams. If the unofficial-official rebranding of Teams as a program dedicated to helping people plan and organise personal events, a strategy that should hopefully set the app apart from instant messaging services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. “I think if all you want to do is just have a chat with someone, there are plenty of great standalone chat apps,” admits Liat Ben-Zur, a Microsoft executive working on the company’s “Modern Life” initiative, in an interview with The Verge.

Launching as a preview for Android and iOS, personal Teams will feature everything you can expect from an app built around group chats: Video chat, instant messaging, shared documents and calendars and even folders for sharing documents and files with groups of participants. If anything, this “new” version of Teams seems like a daily planner rolled into an instant messaging app, an idea that’s not actually that ridiculous. If anything, I can see it working out pretty decently with a target audience that have chaotically busy lives focused around other folks.

The mobile app of Teams is rolling out at the moment and will feature a wider launch to desktop and web versions once Microsoft has gained enough feedback from users.

(Source: The Verge)