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

Posted by msmash on from the chat-app dept.

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.

16 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Unsubscribe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Unsubscribe, please.

  2. Where is Slack video? by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Informative

    Slack is already pretty established and so I would think Microsoft would have a hard time here...

    Except that Slack still doesn't support group (or any) video.

    Not that Skype video was all that great, and I fear for the quality of group video there... but something is better than nothing (or at least probably better than Hangouts which some teams I've been on used).

    Slack needs a kick in the balls to improve so I'm glad someone has come along to do the kicking.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Where is Slack video? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Everything new UX designers touch gets so bloated... The Slack client feels as if it itself is Google Chrome, and it is the only non-browser I've seen which takes process delegation to the extremes only reserved by that or all the other bloated browsers.

      It takes SEVERAL 70-100 MB processes for a single session and in workplaces such as mine there were more than 2 official instances. I had a 4GB (3GB available thanks to 32-bit OS) last year and when loading Skype (100MB), Outlook (120MB), Firefox (1.2GB when using flash), helpdesk telephony (100MB), IRC (30MB), Antivirus, and Slack (300-400 MB) there was little room to open Word docs or PDFs, let alone a secondary browser for troubleshooting. We threw money at the problem and 3 years down the road we'll probably be seeing the hard limits being grazed again when the RAM max gets reached.

  3. Hell no by ilsaloving · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No thank you. Between their wanktastic Lync/Skype For Business product, butchering Skype, their barely functional netmeeting, and their original Access product that was so terrible that they gave up and re-used the name for their equally bad database product, Microsoft has a long and cherished history of putting out collaboration software that makes fingerpainting in a bucket filled with phlegm, vomit, and diarrhea, a viable alternative.

    I'll stick with Slack, TYVM.

  4. Core Features by MrNickname · · Score: 2

    Microsoft, of course, isn't leaving out some of the core features of Skype on Skype Teams.

    Like NSA back doors. For your safety, of course.

  5. Laughable by srgolwskepg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    IRC had this 30 years ago.

    "Those who do not understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it. Poorly." comes to mind, i.e. "Reinventing the square wheel", a well known sign how Microsoft performs business decisions. Does not invent, just makes poor implementations of other existing inventions, then pushed out with windows as a critical non-stoppable update (as Skype was).

    Look at the MS smart phone for another example. Does it has 0.1% market share still? Late to market, and poorly implemented.

    There's already "Skype for Work", why is a third parallel implementation of a sucky app needed? Fix the first two instead! _Do one thing an do it well_

    1. Re:Laughable by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Funny

      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.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Laughable by ProzacPatient · · Score: 2

      I too find it humorous how everyone is going crazy over re-inventing IRC. I guess IRC just isn't "Web 2.0" enough to catch the attention of people who get all hyped up by buzz word marketing. Maybe IRCv3 will catch some attention eventually if they ever get around to getting an official RFC document published.

    3. Re:Laughable by Dog-Cow · · Score: 2

      Code Snippets. I work at a development start-up. Code snippets are my favorite feature of Slack.

  6. So much for Yammer...... by Danathar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I guess people were right that when MS buys up a company chances are it might be where that company goes to DIE. If any product they acquired should be integrated with Skype to compete with Slack it should be Yammer...but I didn't hear a peep about that..

  7. Here Comes The Bloat by alternative_right · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

    --
    Alternative Right.
  8. My friends moved to Discord for VoIP by Kjella · · Score: 2

    We still use Skype for DM, but all voice chat now goes over Discord as Skype had a habit of throwing us out of full screen when people joined/left the conversation. We are fairly casual gamers and form groups based on whoever is online, so it's not unusual for someone to join late or leave early. Also you can easily adjust volume per participant, which lets you decide your own mix if someone is being loud or quiet or talking too close/far from the mic. Otherwise the sound quality has been pretty equal and we pretty much never close connection, so it's not like Skype is bad... but it's not the best.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  9. Discord by Milosch1 · · Score: 2

    Looks like... Discord.

  10. Yammer by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wasn't Yammer supposed to be a competitor for Slack? Didn't MS buy them just for that?

  11. A new Linux version of skype would be nice by zwarte+piet · · Score: 2

    The current one is years and years old

  12. I like by Lauriy · · Score: 2

    https://fleep.io/chat