Microsoft Teams is officially more popular than email for most businesses
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Microsoft Teams maintains its position as the most popular online collaboration tool in business even after the height of its popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The claim was made by Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, speaking (opens in new tab) on an earnings call for the first quarter 2023 operating results.
Nadella claimed that users interact with Microsoft Teams on average 1,500 times a month and spend more time in Teams chats than in email clients, meaning the service is not only retaining pandemic-era users but also seeing greater engagement from them.
Collaboration from the pandemic era
While many of Nadella’s comments were to company shareholders, he also revealed some new information about Teams’ admittedly tight grip on the collaboration software space.
The Microsoft chief noted that the number of users using “four or more” features within Teams had increased by more than 20% year over year.
This is vague, but does suggest that users may become more familiar with Teams, and perhaps others video conferencing software and collaborative solutions as the pandemic progresses.
This idea is supported by Nadella’s disclosure on the call that the number of monthly active business users using third-party and custom applications within Teams has grown nearly 60% year over year.
That increased reliance on external applications also suggests that remote collaboration is becoming embedded in the way people approach work, regardless of the platform they choose. Companies are clearly investing in the collaborative space with a long-term plan in mind.
This also worked out well for Microsoft. Nadella claimed that “more than 55%” of his business customers also purchase his Teams Rooms or Teams Phone services. Cisco is the highest profile company to announce that their devices and peripherals will natively use Teams, and in the wake of the news, other major companies may be encouraged to follow suit
However, most small to medium sized businesses will probably settle for the new Teams Premium service, which Nadella claims will “respond to corporate demand for advanced conferencing features.” This will certainly increase business engagement as well as spending, even more when it comes to Teams products.
Unsurprisingly, email loses out to collaboration tools like Google Workspace and flaccidthat can feel instant and in sync and for many, adding files to chats is more intuitive than in an email.
However, emails are still widely used by companies, especially when they collaborate with external organizations. With smart and intuitive business collaboration solutions that are thin on the ground, any innovation in this area from Microsoft, or anyone else, could end up killing email for good.