It’s time for transition: How Microsoft Teams is better than Skype for Business

The widely popular enterprise communication tool, Skype for Business will soon become a thing of the past. For many, this is a welcome news as in spite of its ease of use and functionalities, Skype for Business was always a product that had users wanting for more.

Frequent call disconnects, unable to function in fluctuating internet bandwidth and competition from players like Slack and Google Hangouts (which offered many features not found in Skype for Business) were eating away Skype for Business's dominance in the enterprise collaboration and communication market.

Frequent call disconnects, unable to function in fluctuating internet bandwidth and competition from players like Slack and Google Hangouts (which offered many features not found in Skype for Business) were eating away Skype for Business's dominance in the enterprise collaboration and communication market.

Fortunately, Microsoft has a better product for its existing and new customers and this product has been in market for some time now.

Enter Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft teams was launched in 2017 and is positioned by Microsoft as the central hub of communications and collaboration within Office 365 suite. It is currently available in the Office 365 ecosystem and starting August 2021, it will be the exclusive communication and collaboration tool available to Microsoft clients.

Let us break the hype and see for ourselves the key benefits of Microsoft Teams over Skype for Business.

Chat

Unlike Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams allow users to have consistent threads of conversations. Now you can view your messages like you view your WhatsApp or iMessage threads. In addition, Teams allows you to delete or edit a conversation at any point of time. Teams will just flag the deleted message as “This message has been deleted” and the conversation can commence unaffected.

Multi-device access (Pick where you left)

Teams also syncs these conversations across devices. For e.g. if you were having a chat on desktop, then can continue the conversation on mobile

File sharing

Skype for Business only lets you transfer files if both the users are online at the same time. On the other hand, Microsoft Teams has a convenient Files tab where you can easily find all previously shared files. These files are stored in individual OneDrive accounts.

Calling and Meeting

Compared to Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams works better even in compromising bandwidth and latency. As long as there is 1.2Mbps available, Teams can easily support high-quality audio/video/screen sharing sessions.

Teams also automatically mutes you when you join a big meeting but it doesn't mute when you join a small meeting or if you are first to join a call. Nevertheless, if you do talk when muted, a pop up will remind you to unmute yourself.

Screen sharing

In addition to desktop, Teams also support sharing of mobile phone screens including pictures and PowerPoints. Screen sharing from Teams is a seamless experience. You get two mouse pointers marked with your pictures to easily differentiate between the two users. It also makes the demos and support more interactive.

Emails

Microsoft Teams allow the user to send an email to the team channel and the contents of the email appear in the specific threaded conversation.

Automatic setup

When you create a Team, a shared selection of Office 365 elements like a SharePoint team site, shared OneNote notebook and a shared planner also gets created.

Third party integrations

Teams supports third party applications like Zendesk, Asana, Zoom.ai, Smartsheet etc. With this integration, you can enhance your IT, marketing and analytics capabilities by adding different applications on the go. This functionality is not supported by Skype for Business.

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