Skype Teams: Microsoft aims at Slack with its latest service

Microsoft is currently working on a new service called “Skype Teams” under the existing Skype brand. The company according to MSPowerUser, was interested in buying Slack for $8 billion, but that seems like a thing of past. Slack has gained quite a traction in collaborative teams with robust features including channels, bots, and shared events about a host of features. Skype Teams by Microsoft is currently being tested internally and seems like the company’s take on the messaging platform for teams. According to the exclusive coverage by MSPowerUser, Skype Teams will be familiar to slack users as users can chat in different groups called ‘channels’ within a team including the ability to chat privately using direct messages or initiate Skype video calls for collaboration. The company has baked the ability to schedule online meetings and hold video conference calls using the existing Skype back-end. This feature is sorted under the “Meetings” tab. [caption id=“attachment_333753” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image Credit: MSPowerUser[/caption] In addition to the usual Slack features sorted in Chat and Teams tabs, Skype also allows threaded conversations and the ability to reply messages by clicking the reply button. The thread is open, and anyone can join the threads whenever they wish. The platform also allows the users to share local files or files stored on OneDrive in addition to the Office 365 integration and all the bots from its Bot Framework. Lastly, the company has included “The Fun Picker” in the service where users can add emojis, GIFs, and Memes. There is no word on the public release of Skype Teams but according to reports, Microsoft is working on a Windows and Web app for desktop usage. The company will launch Android, iOS, and Windows Phone clients, for mobile devices.