Microsoft has today started rolling out the consumer-facing version of its video conferencing software Microsoft Teams in preview. The preview is live across Android and iOS platforms via the Microsoft Teams app.
Getting started with Microsoft Teams for staying in touch with your friends and family is quite simple. If you are already a Teams user, you can simply head to Settings and add a new personal Microsoft account. In case you’re a new user, you may download the app and sign up with a personal Microsoft account or your phone number.
Microsoft pitches the following features that might intrigue you to start using Teams:
Group Chats
Microsoft Teams leverages its enterprise features to offer you all the essential features including group chats, group voice calls, and group video calls. You can also perform one-on-one chats and calls. In addition, you get all the basic file sharing features such as the ability to share GIFs, photos, videos, documents, and location.
Group Dashboard
Group Dashboard is what sets Teams apart from the plethora of messaging platforms. You can share lists, documents, and calendars with a person or a group via the group dashboard feature. This way, you can easily stay in the loop in an organized manner.
Microsoft 365 Integration
As you would expect from a Microsoft product, Teams has integrations with other Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Hence, you can easily collaborate on various documents easily right from within the Teams app.
Safe
Safe, as the name hints, is a secure vault that lets you store and share important details including but not limited to passwords, login credentials, and IDs. Microsoft says Safe is secured with two-factor authentication and end-to-end encryption.
Location Sharing
Location sharing helps you stay updated with your loved ones. While the feature won’t be quite useful right now given that most of us are staying at home anyway, it would come in handy in the future as the world adopts the new-normal.
Microsoft will collect feedback over the coming weeks in the preview phase and will expand Teams for consumers to the desktop and web versions later this year.
