Microsoft Teams FAQs
Is Microsoft Teams the same as Office 365?
Microsoft Teams is recognized by Gartner as a Leader for both Meeting Solutions and Unified Communications as a Service. The cloud-based unified communication and collaboration platform included in nearly all Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) plans and bundles.
Can you join Microsoft Teams without Office 365?
Yes, external users ("guests") can join a Microsoft Teams meeting and/or be added as a guest to a team without a license. Guest access is included in all Office 365/Microsoft 365 plans that include Teams. This means if you host a Teams meeting for your client who does not have Office 365, she may still attend the meeting as a guest.
Is Microsoft Teams for personal use?
Microsoft Teams is primarily a business productivity tool, but it can be used anywhere there's a need to collaborate with a group of people!
How does Microsoft Teams pricing work?
Microsoft Teams pricing varies, but Teams is included in almost every Office 365 and Microsoft 365 plan or bundle. You can get started with Teams for as little as $4/user/month.
What functionality does Teams include?
Teams is a digital workspace that brings teams and groups together to collaborate in real time through:
- Rich text chat
- Social media features such as reactions and @mentions
- File sharing and co-authoring
- Virtual meetings
- Channel tabs to surface all kinds of important documents, websites, and web apps
Teams now has the ability to run small custom applications that are tailored to your organization's needs and business processes and can include approval workflows that your users can respond to directly within Teams. Teams can also replace your entire phone system with an easy to use and easy to manage Voice-over-IP (VoIP) solution that is fully cloud-based.
How does Teams work with Power Platform?
Teams and Power Platform work together to integrate and deliver information and actionable insights to users through Power BI report integrations, the ability to embed apps (Power Apps), approval workflows (Power Automate), and even bots or virtual agents (Power Virtual Agents) that you and other members of your organization can interact with.
How does Teams compare to Zoom and Slack?
Teams is the most widely used collaboration platform in the business world. Teams meetings are a direct replacement for Zoom which lacks additional collaboration features that Teams includes. Teams is also a direct replacement for Slack. While Slack has many similar collaboration features to Teams, it lacks a robust virtual meeting capability. Teams also excels through tight-knit functionality with all other Microsoft 365 services such as email, OneDrive, SharePoint, Planner, OneNote, and more.
