Microsoft Teams has been used more than ever, and the immense growth of the platform has proven it.
The Verge recently reported a 50 percent rise in Microsoft Teams usage, with a total of over 115 million active daily users worldwide. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that the number is more than 75 million, which Microsoft reported six months back in April.
New Features
As a Microsoft product, Microsoft Teams has what its competitors do not: a feature to swiftly intertwine it with other Microsoft products like Word and Excel.
In August, Microsoft rolled out a new Teams feature, namely 'Together Mode,' which lets users sit virtually together. This feature has been implemented in sports games since then, including NBA matches.
Like Zoom, Microsoft Teams also has a 'breakout room' feature, which lets users split the meeting into several separate sessions. Starting this November, Microsoft will introduce a new noise reduction filter to Teams.
Third-party apps, like Polly, Open Agora, iCIMS, Miro, and HireVue, are now integrated within Microsoft Teams to make your meetings more manageable.
The platform also offers options to store files, meeting notes, a whiteboard, chat history, and transcribe meetings in selected languages.
However, what Microsoft Teams may have to address is that it's prone to malicious phishing attacks. This month, Threat Post reported that a small segment of Teams users between 15,000 to 50,000 had been targeted by the phishing landing page attack.
The attacker would send the victims a phishing email claiming from Microsoft Teams chat history. As the victim clicks on 'Reply in Teams,' their login credentials will be automatically stored.
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Other Alternative Platforms
However, Microsoft Teams' numbers are still behind its biggest competitors: Google's Meet and Zoom.
Google revealed that the platform has over 100 million daily users by the beginning of this year, something Teams could only achieve by the second half of 2020. On the other hand, Zoom, the leading teleconferencing platform, has 300 million daily participants.
Apparently, LinkedIn will also join the conversation. The platform, which Microsoft now owned, revealed its newest video call feature back in September.
Unfortunately, Skype has fallen short of the competition. Microsoft has been on its way to tackle other working space platforms like Slack by Teams, leaving Skype's future in limbo.
The number could grow on and on. As the pandemic's risk worsens worldwide, it's safe to expect that streaming and conferencing platforms will grow steadily. Even though the new normal has already been applied in some countries, coronavirus has definitely changed our way of studying and working.
The teleconferencing battle is getting fiery, and with these new features and crazy numbers, both sides show no sign of slowing down.
