It’s not going to replace Twitch or Discord anytime soon, though.
Microsoft has integrated Microsoft Teams with the Xbox Game Bar, allowing users to stream their gameplay in real-time to friends over Teams video calls. Up to 20 people can join a call to watch and chat together while gaming. The viewer can see both the game and overlaid video of friends. However, streaming performance is currently limited to 30fps or less, which is not ideal for viewing high-fidelity PC games. Viewers also cannot yet see overlaid video during gameplay. While this new feature aims to compete with Discord for social gaming, the integration still needs improvements to provide a comparable experience. Overall, Microsoft is trying to grow Teams communities and social features to rival other platforms like Discord.
To be fair, teams has been ahead of slack on video call functionality for a few years. Noise suppression, screen sharing and additional functionality all seems to be a bit ahead.
I use both for work. Slack is far superior when it comes to written messages, and I use slack for quick video calls with collegues, just because I don't feel like booting up Teams, but for scheduled meetings or longer conversations with screen sharing we always use Teams.
Teams is included in most Microsoft/Office 365 licenses. And since a lot of businesses use those licenses already for office apps, email, Azure AD, SharePoint and more, it's an easy decision to make.
Teams is also neat because it's integrated with SharePoint which makes access control easy for document sharing within a team.
The Microsoft ecosystem is quite good for administration.
The only one I know is close is Google Workspace but then you have the problem with having to use Google office apps which are lacking in functionality. I don't believe Google Workspace have any AD equivalent features (except on chromebooks maybe).
Microsoft Teams is for consumers and is the one preinstalled in Windows 11
Then there's Microsoft Teams. It's for business. Is completely incompatible with the other Microsoft Teams and is a separate app.
The icon is also "different". One has the Microsoft teams logo in white on a purple background, the other has the Microsoft teams logo in purple on a white background (forgot which and which)
I really don't understand why they don't use the Skype branding for the consumer version. They forgot how many billions they paid for that?
You also have Teams for Linux which is compatible with Microsoft Teams (Work)but no longer supported. It however isn't compatible with Microsoft Teams (Personal) but if you try to use Microsoft Teams on Linux for personal use, it tells you to install the now non-existant Teams for Linux that only works with Microsoft Teams (Work).
There's also two different versions of logging out in Teams for Linux, Logout and Log Out. Both of which log you out but only one lets you log in as a different user.
Don't get me started with the Microsoft Teams PWA that is now the "way to use Teams on Linux" but isn't the Teams PWA that installs if you try the normal way...
All hail Microsoft Teams! At least I can stream the games I'm playing to my work meetings so people know I'm skiving.
The icon is also “different”. One has the Microsoft teams logo in white on a purple background, the other has the Microsoft teams logo in purple on a white background (forgot which and which)
They do the same thing with PowerBI. THe cloud version is one icon, the PowerBI for Reports Server (aka locally hosted) is for the on-prem version. Pretty annoying.
I work with Teams (Business version) daily. Have never even seen the other one.
Teams for work or more specifically Teams from Microsoft 365 Business and other corporate plans like E3, E5, etc is different from the Teams installed by default on Windows 11. I don't think you can even message across them.
Microsoft has a real branding problem with messaging services. First they had Skype and Skype for Business and now they have Teams and... Teams. They're completely different products and don't interoperate. This is almost certainly for the home version of Teams.
It's not even a good name. Who thinks of their friends and family as teams?
I wish Microsoft would have actually been taught a lesson about anti-trust bullshit rather than having a pro oligarch new administration let them off scot free
@trashhalo This really feels like Microsoft's Google Assistant moment - taking a duplicative effort of something they already had, gassing it to high heaven and shoving it *everywhere* despite not being asked for or welcome.
Only time will tell if they will also follow Google's approach of it slowly languishing until it crumbles apart and they do the process all over again.
hey that's the tool that everyone uses and definitely isn't only seen when you open it accidentally! I bet that will be a very worrying competitor to the well established platform from 2015!
Oh gee, great. I'm glad development effort was invested in this feature instead of something like having the web app be capable of showing 6 people in a conference call at the same time. /s
Microsoft is shoving Teams down everyone's throats harder than, I don't know what.
Teams is just awful, it's slow, clunky, and a piece of shit that nobody asked for.
Sure but at least Discord actually works. Teams has always been a buggy mess any time I have had to use it. Furthermore, Discord doesn’t shove itself into every opportunity in an effort to remind me of its existence.
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The new “Microsoft Teams Play Together” widget is available for the Xbox Game Bar and supports streaming your entire desktop over Teams and also the ability to join video calls to see friends overlaid on top of games.
Microsoft describes the new Game Bar integration for Teams as “a place to hang out while watching and playing games,” which sounds a lot like what people use Discord for.
You’ll see friends overlaid on top of a game, and up to 20 people can join a call at any one time.
I wasn’t able to see video participants overlaid on top of the game during my testing either, so that feature might not be working fully just yet.
The free version of Microsoft Teams for Windows 11 got Discord-like communities in June.
These are Microsoft’s answer to what you might find on Facebook or how people use apps like Discord, WhatsApp, and Reddit to organize groups.