Microsoft W News: Tech Brand Will Come After Slack With Its launch Of Microsoft Teams

Microsoft just announced a new workplace tool, Microsoft Teams, a competitor of chat software startup Slack. The new service will be part of Office 365, which the company is aiming to attract its 85 million commercial monthly users. The software giant wants a conducive team interaction through the chat-based service.

"Microsoft teams will bring together chat, meeting, notes, Office, Planner, PowerBI, and a host of extensions and applications to help teams get work done," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Aside from the usual chat rooms, Teams will allow threaded conversations; sending of emojis, GIFs, and memes, as well as video chat. The Verge detailed, the interface of the new Microsoft service has a distinct resemblance with Slack, starting with the threaded chats, private conversations up to the sidebar features.

The availability of the service will be associated with certain subscription plans like Business or Business Essentials. The site added, Microsoft Teams will be fully functional next year, which will run on Mac, Android, iOs and web platforms. However, it's currently in preview mode in 181 countries and 18 languages. "We haven't seen as much of a demand on the consumer side," meaning, the service will be corporate-focused in the meantime.

Slack, the Silicon Valley startup, expressed its excitement on Microsoft's newest venture by buying a full page ad in The New York Times minutes before the announcement of Teams. "Dear Microsoft... We're genuinely excited to have some competition," according to the ad. "We realized a few years ago that the value of switching to Slack was so obvious and the advantages so overwhelming that every business would be using Slack, or "something just like it," within the decade. It's validating to see you've come around to the same way of thinking," CNN published.

The startup chat software has 4 million daily active users, and is being used by 28 out of Fortune 100 companies. It is reported to have an annual recurring revenue of $100 million. Based on Seattle Times, Microsoft reportedly considered buying Slack and ended up developing the software for 18 months.