Dive Brief:
- Microsoft is reportedly planning to make a beta version of its Skype Teams service available in November with a full release planned for January, according to a Petri report.
- Skype Teams is Microsoft’s intended Slack competitor and will include several features similar to Slack, as well as additional features like threaded conversations.
- Skype Teams will likely be integrated with Office 365 services, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
The interoffice messaging space is growing more competitive, with services such as Slack and HipChat contending to become the next tool workers rely on to communicate and improve workplace collaboration and productivity. But more tools are on the horizon, including Facebook at Work, which is expected to become publicly available later this year.
Skype Teams will reportedly combine features of Skype, like direct messaging, individual or group video calls, with some new features all in one service that users are already familiar with.
Slack is one of only a few companies that has made any headway in the interoffice messaging space. The company touts 3 million users active daily, with 2 million connected simultaneously. But Microsoft has enormous enterprise penetration, so creating their own productivity tool could potentially change things for Slack, especially since Microsoft intends to enable Office 365 integration with its messaging service.
