Microsoft Teams sees significant growth — but Slack isn't going anywhere

Microsoft Teams iOS and Surface Source: Windows Key

Microsoft Teams saw major growth throughout 2022. The service, which initially launched at the tail end of 2022, reached 20 meg daily active users (DAU) in November, according to Microsoft, standing above the 12 million daily active users its principal rival in the team communication space, Slack, claimed in October. That fact has stirred upwards lots of discussion well-nigh Teams' future trajectory and what it ways for Slack.

The narrative that has developed around Slack and Teams isn't equally unproblematic as it appears at first glance, yet. Microsoft is certainly poised to see some explosive growth in the coming months. Ultimately, though, in that location'due south room for both apps to co-exist.

xx meg DAU is a drop in the saucepan

Microsoft Teams on iPhone Source: Windows Cardinal

While Teams' 20 million daily active user metric is impressive, information technology's just a small sampling of its potential for growth. Teams is linked to Office 365, which gives the service a base of more than 200 1000000 potential users to draw upon, says Hunter Willis, product marketing manager for AvePoint, a visitor that helps others make the transition to Function 365. The barrier correct now, Willis says, is the deliberately slow stride at which Information technology departments are rolling out access to Teams as they brand sure proper direction and governance plans are in place.

"Adoption rates are all the same relatively slow for the platform right now, all the same, I think that equally larger Microsoft companies become more than confident about their deployments and commencement rolling out the solution, we'll start to run across adoption rates skyrocket," Willis says. "I doubtable this volition exist visible in the next six to 18 months, and with Slack and Microsoft going back and forth – every bit they have been – I imagine that this process will be very visible."

Teams could abound as large as Role 365 will permit it.

Larry Cannell, a research director roofing enterprise collaboration for Gartner, agrees. "Teams has the potential to grow as large as Part 365 will let information technology," says. Teams' biggest barrier to growth, according to Cannell, will be user adoption. Specifically, the challenge lies in whether Microsoft can get people to apply it for more than just the occasional message or conference.

Where nosotros're likely to encounter a spike in growth is with the transition of Skype for Business users over to Teams. Microsoft is already encouraging the transition for current Skype for Business users, and Skype for Business Online will retire in 2022 in favor of Teams.

"By replacing Skype for Business organisation Online with Teams, Microsoft can justify everyone having the app loaded on their desktop and phone," Cannell says. "This is too an case of how Teams and Slack are not quite the same product."

Battle for the workplace

Slack on iPhone Source: Windows Central

Microsoft Teams' momentum hasn't gone unnoticed by Slack, and the company has been very vocal nigh how information technology views Teams every bit a competitor. Earlier in 2022, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield was very clear that he doesn't see Microsoft Teams as a threat. Nonetheless, that hasn't kept the perception of a duel for the workplace from entering the narrative among the tech press.

In Slack's nearly contempo earnings call, Butterfield admitted that he expects Microsoft Teams'due south DAU count to hit "50 million in the adjacent 6 months so 100 million inside the adjacent year," unless Microsoft hits a roadblock of some sort. Butterfield chalked that up to Skype for Concern users being "strength-migrated to Teams," though he too tempered concerns by drawing a distinction between Teams and Slack.

"Although Microsoft markets Teams as a Slack competitor — and in that location's no doubt this causes confusion in the market place — in practice, these are different tools used for different purposes and our customers reach markedly unlike results," Butterfield said during the earnings call.

Slack's CEO says Teams and Slack are dissimilar tools, used for dissimilar purposes.

"Slack tin can bring together apps, people, and information all in one place and so that people tin can practise their best work by having that single source of truth," a Slack spokesperson told us when asked to expand on how it sees Slack and Teams as serving different purposes. "The vast majority of Teams DAUs are just using it as a replacement for Skype for Business (i.east. conference calls and instant messaging) because they were forced to transition from Skype to Teams."

Though both are more often than not seen as workplace communication tools, there may be some merit to Slack's claims. Its ease of setup, in detail, could brand information technology more than attractive to organizations that are just getting started with these sorts of communication tools. "Slack is still a slap-up app that is easy to use and is easier to get started with," Willis told us. "[Its] look and feel accept been expertly tailored, and I take heard feedback that users prefer the way it feels to Teams."

Microsoft Teams Android Source: Windows Central

Some other major gene that will go along to drive Teams growth, Willis says, is the work Microsoft has done on ensuring integrations and data direction tools are in identify for larger organizations. "Teams takes the lead due to its improved organization of chat information and the ease and number of integrations with other services, many of which users are already familiar with (Exchange, I Drive, SharePoint, Office)," Willis says. "Large organizations prefer Teams because of the level of controls and data management that comes with it."

Willis admits that Slack has fabricated great strides in improving its security and bot integration capabilities. Notwithstanding, he however sees Teams equally the clear winner in this department, at least for now.

"In guild to use Slack as an integrated tool, y'all have to maintain any connected apps that bring the capabilities desired by the advisable users," Willis says. "This attribute of using the platform for collaboration tin can quickly become a huge brunt on organizations that take security and compliance requirements."

This is something Microsoft conspicuously sees equally an advantage as well. "Customers have chosen Teams because it provides a single hub for everything teams need — chat, video conferencing and calling, their Office files, the apps they use every day, and industry-leading security and compliance capabilities which today's modernistic enterprises require," a Microsoft spokesperson told u.s.a., without addressing Slack's claims directly.

To be continued

Slack call Source: Windows Central

If 1 thing is articulate, it's that we'll see Teams hitting other major milestones in the coming months and years. Along with xx million DAUs, Microsoft says information technology counts xxx meg weekly active users, and 500,000 organizations across 181 markets and 53 languages already using Teams in some capacity. The cloud that will remain over that growth, however, is something Slack has been quick to latch onto: engagement.

It'due south articulate Teams will hit other major milestones in the coming years.

Slack says its date metrics are much higher than Teams. Following its most recent earnings, Slack as well noted that more seventy percent of its customers are too Office 365 users. That's on pinnacle of a quarter that saw Slack beat analyst expectations, reporting revenue growth of 60 per centum to $168.7 million.

As Teams and Slack continue to grow, it will be interesting to meet how the two compete for enterprise adoption. However, in the terminate, it's unlikely nosotros're going to see any sort of winner-accept-all situation here.

"Slack has a strong, passionate user customs likewise as a big ecosystem of Slack apps to draw on," Cannell told us. And he says ultimately the stop-users will take a pregnant say in which product is used most often.

An internet connection will soon be required when setting up Windows 11 Pro

UH OH

An internet connectedness will shortly be required when setting up Windows 11 Pro

Microsoft has announced that after this year, users will be required to connect to the internet and sign-in with a Microsoft Business relationship during the out of box setup experience on Windows 11 Pro. Microsoft has already been enforcing this requirement on Windows 11 Dwelling since launch last October, and Windows 11 Pro is now expected to follow suit before long.