Microsoft Teams is giving a tough competition to ZOOM, Google Meet and other similar platforms, with its latest free all-day video and voice calling option. The free offer will help users connect with up to 300 participants for as long as 24 hours, wherein it now brings Teams’ friends and family features to the desktop and web allowing you to create a Microsoft Teams meeting.
As Thanksgiving Day is around the corner, ZOOM announced that it would temporarily lift its 40-minute meeting limit on the Day, following which, Microsoft made this announcement.
Microsoft Teams have taken a big step to change the consumer choice from any other video conferencing app. While earlier this year the Microsoft launch Teams on mobile phones the company is now bringing its friends and family feature to desktop and even web.
You now don’t need Microsoft account or Microsoft teams app to join calls as you can do it free even through web browser. You can now see 49 members in gallery view or through Together Mode feature of Microsoft Teams which will create a virtually meet environment for people.
However, to start a meeting as a host, you need to visit Microsoft new Teams web link and sign in with Microsoft Account. Once the meeting is created, you can share the meeting id with your friends and relatives, and they would be able to join the meeting free of charge without needing the Microsoft Account.
Besides, Microsoft also support to upload and share photos and videos directly from a computer in any personal or group chat. Moreover, the Teams desktop and Web apps are receiving the option to let professionals add their personal account and chat with or call their friends and family.
Furthermore, to the changes planned for desktop users, Microsoft is updating the Teams mobile app with a feature to let users communicate with contacts who don’t have it installed on their phones. The recipients will get messages via SMS, to which they will be able to respond just as a regular text message. Also, SMS participants will get a link to download the Teams app on their phones.
Microsoft is initially bringing SMS support to the Teams app in preview for its users in the US and Canada. The app is also getting the option to add group events from chats to the device’s calendar, receive task and location updates in the activity feed, and add photos to personal Safe.
The Teams app for Android and iOS is also getting the option to let your loved ones receive automatic location alerts when you leave or arrive at a designated location. The app also added a location-sharing feature earlier this year.
ZOOM earlier this year gained many consumers because of its various features; however, Microsoft Teams might be late but the features it is providing is capable of giving a tough fight to ZOOM.
Apart from this, ZOOM many drawbacks like its 40-minutes limit which the company is trying to lift for Thanksgiving and also limitation of only 100 members in a meeting without membership is setting it back from Microsoft Teams. Zoom really needs to look after its drawbacks to be in the race.
Earlier several organizations used to prefer Skype for business meetings, but now it is long forgotten, as Teams, Google Meet and ZOOM have taken over the race.
Since COVID-19 pandemic, most of us are working online; which lead to the thriving the two most popular video-conferencing apps, that have been catering to the needs of people to connect. It is surprising that the Redmond company platform, which was initially designed as a communication solution for businesses, now have transformed Microsoft Teams with latest features as the best solution, to communicate with friends, family and a compelling option for enterprise customers.
