Oh, the humanity! Microsoft congratulates itself for Teams inflicted on 115m daily users
- Reference: 1603885614
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/28/teams_115m/
- Source link:
The news came amid general whoopery for [2]some impressive revenue figures for Q1 of Microsoft's fiscal 2021 .
That is quite a jump for the Slack-for-suits platform, which [3]claimed 44 million DAUs back in March before cresting the 75 million mark by June.
While impressive, Microsoft did not specify exactly where those 115 million users were coming from. Indeed, one might consider it perhaps on the low side considering just how many Microsoft 365 users are likely are out there and how hard the company has been pushing Teams as part of the platform. The current pandemic forcing remote work has also played a key role in the rise of collaboration services.
Back in April, [4]Microsoft said it had 258 million "paid seats" on Office 365, as it was known back then.
In the same conference call last night, the company told analysts that Azure Active Directory had nearly 400 million monthly active users.
Teams competitor Slack currently reports 12 million daily active users, although has been known to question what "daily active users" actually means in an apples-to-apples comparison. It has also [5]lobbed a sueball Microsoft's way over the company's bundling of Teams with the near-ubiquitous Office suite.
For its part, Microsoft also pointed to videoconferencing support as a factor in Slack's slippage in the collaboration charts.
Pretty much all of the Teams business came from, er, business despite a few tentative steps into the consumer world. On last night's conference call, analysts were told 45.3 million consumers have now signed up to Office 365 (27 per cent up on the previous year).
A more personal version of Teams will doubtless be along shortly to scoop up a share of those users in the not-too-distant future.
The Register asked Microsoft to break down its Teams stats but the company refused. ®
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[1] https://seekingalpha.com/article/4381922-microsoft-corporation-msft-ceo-satya-nadella-on-q1-2021-results-earnings-call-transcript
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/27/microsoft_q1_earnings/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/19/teams_toys/
[4] https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https://c.s-microsoft.com/en-us/CMSFiles/TranscriptFY20Q3.docx?version=0be45331-752a-3999-88e3-68b3896151c8
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/22/slack_versus_teams/
[6] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Turds
We got Turds at work when we ditched Skype. While Turds' numbers went up, Skype's went down. Net gain to the Rejects of Redmond, 0. Net loss to Zoom, 0.
Teams installed itself on my computer without my permission and was hard to remove. That makes is malware in my book.
Your computer?
When you say "your computer" are you sure you don't mean "my employer's computer" and when you say "installed itself" are you quite sure it wasn't your system administrator installing it?
OK, I'll say it
I actually like Teams. It has taken a while, but I now find that it is the application I have open on one screen all the time. It benefits from you going all in, I've worked with clients who have separate video conferencing, document management etc. tools and Teams feels like a clunky addition, but if you use it for all your meetings, document storage instant messaging and even task management, then it really comes into its own.
It isn't without its flaws, why you can only have one document open in Teams at a time is baffling, but you soon learn how to work around these foibles.
Re: OK, I'll say it
Could we agree on "all video conferencing programs are shitty in their own special way"?
I use Teams for teaching, with a document camera to show my "black board", a piece of paper. Why oh why do I (and only me) see it as (1) a thing so tiny it is useless and (2) fucking mirrored? (solution to that: let somebody share it back to you!)
And what an insane hog it is: battery supposed to be good for like ten hours, with Teams it is just *two*.
Re: OK, I'll say it
You're falling for the "not going all in" issue. If you shared your screen and then doodled in whatever application you prefer, it would show large on your screen and not mirrored.
But yes, it is annoying only being able to see your cam as a tiny thumbnail.
Re: OK, I'll say it
This actually causes us a serious issue in a 'blended' (in-class + online) live teaching environment: the teacher cannot project a 'large' version of what they themselves are doing up on the classroom projector using Teams for in-class students to see when *also* in a call with remote students. Only the other people on the call can see the teacher's feed 'large'. There are hacks and workarounds -- e.g. Teams + ManyCam + Camera app, or use a Mac with Teams + QT Player -- but none that I could reliably deploy to teaching staff; they have enough to deal with. Zoom wins here (unfortunately).
A/C because work.
Re: OK, I'll say it
Not sure this works: that camera tile is part of the Teams window and there is nothing I can do about it being ridiculously small. In fact (right click on it) the only action offered is "crtl-C to copy" which is as useful as an extra arm on your nose.
In case I am missing something obvious, I am not used to MS-Windows. Coming from Linux without a desktop (just a window manager) things feel strange and thoroughly confusing to me.
Re: OK, I'll say it
There's a whiteboard tab in the meeting that is preserved after the session ends.
I presume you've tried and disregarded this?
Or it's something that isn't shipped in the education version (which is a baffling decision by MS if so)
Re: OK, I'll say it
Whiteboard tab? Never seen. I assume I do not have it, it is likely the education version I have. Will try to find out.
Thanks everybody! ---------->
Re: OK, I'll say it
Actually this does remind me of the one thing I find genuinely annoying about Teams: inconsistent UI experience.
To get all the extra tabs (including meeting notes as well as whiteboard) as well as the chat tab, I think you have to open the meeting you are in via the calendar in the sidebar (going from memory - day off)
If you open the chat tab within the call, you only see the chat
I've often had meetings where I've referred to the Whiteboard and nobody else can find it because it's not actually in the meeting window. So if it turns out you did have a whiteboard but didn't know it was there, it happens to all of us
Re: OK, I'll say it
> inconsistent UI experience.
LOL, that is putting it mildly. I think it is called "Mystery Meat Navigation". Boy does it suck, elephants through a straw. Sadly this seems to be creeping into more and more programs.
What is wrong with good old menus? Do they not look "cool" enough or what is it?
bombastic bob was right on this ----------->
Re: OK, I'll say it
Previously I used a combination of SFB and WebEx on the company/customer laptops I had. Must admit, I do find Teams better than those two. As you say, it isn't without its flaws, but it's an improvement on what I used to have to use...
Re: OK, I'll say it
I recently was in a Big Blue Button Session and liked that somewhat. Each program has strong and weak points, in Zoom you can neatly control which sub-window you see and how big it is.
Teams works good enough for me. By now nearly everybody has and uses Teams where I work and so I use it exclusively for teaching, just one particular meeting left using Zoom.
Re: OK, I'll say it
Teams has saved me a huge amount of traveling and even without the pandemic would be a game changer to be honest.
Just wish I was allowed to work from home but .. employer won't permit it.
Constant interrupts
Constant interrupts by being added to things that you sometimes need to know about.
Hate the thing. End up muting all sorts of conversations so that I can get some real work done without the constant interruptions, yet they call this progrress.
Re: Constant interrupts
That's a company/you problem rather than a Teams problem.
Re: Constant interrupts
Have to agree with Martin, but then again I have see other user screens that are just full of smileys...and Lols.
Maybe I am lucky but my immediate colleagues are serious and only write the strict minimum in order to get things moving...
Software never resolves human problems when it has the capacity to exaggerate them .....
Re: Constant interrupts
Yep. Did the same. 99% of the conversations are noise.
Re: Constant interrupts
Set yourself to busy, don't answer. Same as telephone calls when you were in the middle or something.
I mean heaven forbid an adult has to adult..
teams have one major drawback
it's the lack of multiple account support.
Teams Vs alternatives
At my workplace (for reasons I still don't understand/know) we bought Slack even though Teams was already in our 365 subscription.
They both have their plus points but what I find annoying about comparison style reviews is they always use Slack as the benchmark and judge Teams by how "Slacky" it is as if you're comparing different kitchen knives.
The reality is you're comparing a good kitchen knife with a kitchen that contains a comparable knife.
Teams does so much more and as another poster said, it's only when you go "all in" that you appreciate this.
The new team = new SharePoint site feature is particularly impressive and similar tricks are available with Stream and Planner/Tasks.
I do like Slack's "draw on the screen share" feature as it makes remote pair programming / mentoring much easier and why Teams can't hide a hyperlink like Slack and pretty much every other MS Office app does is something that regularly infuriates me.
Teams handles conversation threads much better than Slack and it annoys me that none of the support channels where I work use it (i.e. the places where multiple threads are of most use)
I think the next step for Teams should be to put Email in the sidebar and then there's no need to have Teams and Outlook open at the same time
Re: Teams Vs alternatives
The files are stored in Sharepoint within Teams.
Teams works well enough. I hate the name since it sounds stupid to have a Teams meeting with your team.
It seem to rely a lot on other people muting and unmuting themselves.
Teams recording is a GDPR bombscare as it Teams chat since MS seem to think it's a good idea for everyone to have everything forever.
If any of this is fixable it is within the fiendishly complex 365 config. And MS move stuff every day.
But it's better than Webex by a mile and it's got flexible enough to let me tell the work Zoom fanbois to piss off and stick to Teams.
"45.3 million consumers have now signed up to Office 365"
Another 45.3 million who can lose all their data when their credit card provider has a systems glitch (TSB?)
If you value it, store it yourself, so you know it's still there when you need it. Cloud as an execution platform can have huge advantages (access to sophisticated code you only need occasionally, flexible load, etc) but cloud as a retention platform is a recipe for disaster as everything depends on your subscription being made perfectly, on time, every time (and of course on the service remaining available). It's an accident waiting to happen, particularly for consumers, who may not have the backup capability to protect themselves.