Skype has been the favorite communication tool of many especially when it comes to families and smaller organizations over distant communication.
Launched in 2003, Skype had definitely attracted around 100 million people to use it monthly and 40 million people for daily use as of March 2020, due to its simple and user-friendly features of communication such as video conferencing, VoIP, and instant messaging.
When Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011, Skype had to compete with the other star-rated video conferencing tools and Microsoft intended to integrate the Skype features to the other communication tools available in their office suite.
Later in 2019, Microsoft announced that Skype for Business will be getting retired officially on July 31, 2021 and they invited businesses to use their own advanced product instead, Microsoft Teams.
That simply means that Skype is now retired and to continue with a better experience, you can migrate to Microsoft teams. There may be people or organizations facing a bit of challenge in migrating and they still have access to Skype with its assisted upgrades.
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Initiated on August 1, assisted upgrades are the final steps of migration to Teams, helping the admins to reduce the technical tasks needed to do and prepare for moving and delivering a user-training experience.
Once upgrading gets completed, you will be converted to “Teams only” mode and you are all set to enter Microsoft Teams.
Switching to Microsoft Teams
Teams get officially introduced back in 2017 and Microsoft invested largely in it and wanted Teams to be the masterpiece of the Office 365 suite.
When Covid-19 pandemic force the world to work remotely from their premises, most of the organizations gradually shifted to Teams, discovering more ways of collaboration and video meetings that enabled Microsoft to add new and improved features to the app.
We all know Skype had many features for communication, but Teams which definitely inherited the DNA from Skype for Business, is different and has many additional things to explore in its vault that was absent in Skype.
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What’s Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams serves as a big communication & collaboration platform designed for large enterprises and businesses that perfectly combines chat experiences, video conferencing, file storage, and the successful and excellent integration with the other office 365 apps.
Teams was developed as a core part of the “modern workplace” concept of Microsoft, aiming at leveraging cloud-based tools and services to build a new scalable system that offers an enhanced experience to those who work remotely and helps them to remain productive and connected.
Simply, it’s Microsoft’s version of Slack, because, at its core, Teams is a group chat or instant messaging with most of the features overlapped with that of Slack such as using video or audio calls, sharing documents and other info, without switching the platform.
Major Features of Teams
Like already said, Teams possess all the functionalities of Skype and also surpass it with many features.
- Teams
focus mainly as a powerful collaborative platform. - Teams
function like a conference room where the flow of conversation is maintained
between the small groups of people of a specific topic of interest within an
organization. - It
helps small teams in a single organization to work faster with ease. It has
unique communication features like voice and video calls with recording and
scheduling meetings features. - Teams
is meant for both one to many and one to one communication. - In
Teams, communication is divided in channels. So you need to be a member of the
group and must possess permission to that channel to view and engage with the
messages. You can’t peep into groups without permission.
- Teams
provide unlimited integration with a number of apps. You can also integrate and
open any office 365 app-even Yammer in Teams! Any files like word, excel,
PowerPoint opened in other apps can be used and edited in Teams without
switching between the apps. - Teams
can also share a file with anyone in the team and even share your screen on
calls with the entire team.
In a nutshell, Teams offer:
- Sharing
ideas and proficiency via private and chat-based discussions - Creating
Office documents online within the browser - Integrating
internal & external content and tools with different tabs - Leveraging
bots to upkeep your daily events and tasks
Teams vs. Skype; A major comparison
| Teams | Skype | |
| Pricing Structure | Free version available. Office 365 Business Essentials Plan: $ 5 Business Premium Plan: $12.50 E3 Plan: $ 20 (charged monthly per annum) | Free version available. Business Essentials: $ 2.50 Business:$ 8.25 Business Premium:$ 10 (charged monthly per annum) |
| Security & Compliance | Tier-C Compliant Includes the Standards: ISO 27001, ISO 27018, SSAE 16 SOC 1 & SOC 2, HIPAA and EU Model Clauses | Created in compliance with Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Security Development & Lifecycle and follows the whole same security best practices |
| Audio & Video Calls | High-quality audio & video callsRequires greater than 1.2 Mbps bandwidth for the best experience | Can schedule a meeting via outlookVideoconferencing calls for 250 members |
| Messaging & Chats | Users can sign in & access chats and view full history | Multiple Contacts can be added in a single group chat. Chats disappear once you close the window. |
| File Transfer | File transfer via MS SharepointAvailable for offline usersMS Teams store provides Gifs, stickers, & memes | File transfer from client’s computer using copy & paste or drag & drop functionAccessible by online users only |
| Guest Access | Can create channel Can share a channel file, post, edit & delete messagesParticipation in a private channel as well as private chat | Guests can be invited via email, link, or calendar |
| Integrations | Inbuilt integration with Office 365 appsOffers more than 150 third-party applications | Zapier integrations with IFTTT function |
Microsoft Teams to provide innovative features than Skype
Microsoft Teams focuses on converting organizations to more collaborative, productive, and efficient with some additional comprehensive features along with almost all the functionalities provided by Skype for Business.
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Enhanced Communication
Apart from the basic chat, audio, and video capabilities Teams also offers more enriched group conversations and social networking elements generating engagement. Notifications, comments, mentions, adding rich media content, emoji in chats, GIFs, etc., make Teams a progressive platform. It permits contextual conversations in real-time with multiple members.
Office 365 and Other Third-Party Apps Integration
Microsoft Teams has integrated numerous Office 365 apps like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneDrive, OneNote, SharePoint, and Yammer. Users get quick access to the apps and files they daily use for work. Integration with third-party platforms magnifies the functionality of Teams by driving workflows much more effective.
Quick and Easy Information Access
While using Skype, users often find it difficult to come up with precise documents or information as it lacks strong search and archive functions.
On the other hand, Teams do possess a powerful search capability, bookmarks, and stable chats, making it easy and quick to access the required information. Furthermore, tabs can be added to particular channels and searches can be effectively performed using the keyboard shortcuts for navigation.
Improved Security and Compliance
Being a cloud-based service, MS Teams ensures exceptional security and compliance by routinely checking the updates and avoiding downtime. Besides integral security and compliance actions, Teams offers the versatility to update customized data control and compliance policies.
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