Microsoft officially makes Teams available to consumers

Microsoft is officially making its Teams communication tool available to consumers. The service is free to use by consumers. The company previously released a preview version of Teams for private use.

The consumer version of Teams is very similar to Teams for business, and will be available for desktops and smartphones. Microsoft is also releasing a web version of the service. The service offers, among other things, text chats and video calls, and allows consumers to share calendars and files with each other.

Consumers can also have video calls of up to 24 hours with up to 300 people. In the future, this will be reduced to one-hour video chats with up to 100 participants, but due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Microsoft is dropping these restrictions until further notice. Even after the pandemic, one-on-one conversations can last up to 24 hours.

Users of the consumer feature also get access to various video chat options, such as a together mode, which puts users’ video streams into one virtual space. Furthermore, users can respond with emojis or gifs during video calls. Users can also create shared to-do lists for group chats, and assign tasks to individual users. Polls are also supported in group conversations.

Microsoft reports that the business version and the consumer version of Teams will remain completely separate. Business users can add a personal account to the app, and then switch between the two versions of Teams.

The together mode in Microsoft Teams. Image via Microsoft