Microsoft Working On Skype Teams, Its Slack Competitor (mspoweruser.com)

Earlier this year, we heard rumors that Microsoft was interested in purchasing the popular team-chat app Slack for as much as $8 billion. The deal never happened, so naturally, Microsoft has decided to make a Slack-like app. Microsoft-centric news blog MSPowerUser reports: Meet Skype Teams. Skype Teams is going to be Microsoft's take on messaging apps for teams. Skype Teams will include a lot of similar features which you'll find on Slack. For example, Skype Teams will allow you to chat in different groups within a team, also known as "channels". Additionally, users will be able to talk to each other via Direct Messages on Skype Teams. Skype Teams will also feature Threaded Conversations, which is a major feature that's lacking on Slack. With Threaded Conversations, you can simply reply to a message on a channel by clicking on the reply button and anyone else can join the thread whenever they want -- just like Facebook Comments, or Disqus Comments. Microsoft, of course, isn't leaving out some of the core features of Skype on Skype Teams. Similar to Skype itself, teams will be able to make video calls in a channel or privately. To take this even further, the company is adding the ability to schedule online meetings, which can be quite useful for large teams.

Comments

Re:Laughable

[MightyMartian]

Having used a Windows 10 mobile device (an 8" tablet), all i can say is I now fully understand why Windows smart devices are collecting dust. The interface is, for lack of a better colorful metaphor, just plain fucking awful on small devices. I have a 13.3" Dell ultralight where the touch display is fairly usable as a tablet, but below, say, 10 inches, Windows 10 is by far the worst touch experience I've ever had, and that includes the really low end shitty touch displays. At the moment, my only real plan is to hook it up to my TV and a portable 2tb external drive and a Bluetooth keyboard and use it as a media machine, because, compared to my four year old Nexus 7, it is a supreme steaming pile of shit as a tablet.

Here Comes The Bloat

[alternative_right]

In the time since Microsoft has taken over Skype, the app has grown in size and appears to have slightly better picture/sound quality.

Now that they have free reign to add all the buzzword features, it will soon grow in size to one petabyte. At that point, Microsoft will make Windows a service within Skype, and run it all on Linux, completely confounding us all as their maniacal laughter rings out in the grottoes and caverns where they worship dark evil gods.