Microsoft says 13 million people are using Teams every day

Microsoft Teams now has more than 13 million daily users.

Microsoft today released new usage metrics for its Slack rival, with the software company announcing that the service also has 19 million weekly active users.

Slack in January this year announced its service had surpassed 10 daily active users. (The company’s Q1 results revealed that as of 30 April it had more than 95,000 paid customers worldwide.)

Microsoft Teams is available in 52 languages and 181 markets.

The company used its Inspire 2019 partner conference to announce a range of enhancements to the product, including a feature that will allow time-sensitive notifications to be sent.

Microsoft said that workplaces such as a hospital or newsroom could benefit from the new feature, which will send a reminder every two minutes (for up to 20 minutes) until a response is received. The company is adding a read receipt icon to messages.

A new Time Clock feature will allow employees to clock in and out of work shifts and break from their mobile app. Support for geo-fencing means that an employee may be required to be at a designated location before clocking in.

Teams now also supports messages sent to all people with a particular role.

Microsoft Teams launched in 2017. In March Microsoft made the product available to Office 365 subscribers on Business Essentials, Business Premium and Enterprise plans, and then in July 2018 launched a launched a free version that didn’t require a subscription.

Earlier this year Slack announced it was boosting support for Microsoft's Office 365, including features to integrate Outlook Calendar, import and search files stored on OneDrive, launch Skype calls, and send emails to Slack from Outlook.

Slack made its public trading debut last month. In the quarter ended 30 April it enjoyed revenue of US$134.8 million, up 67 per cent year-on-year. Paid customers with greater than $100,000 in recurring revenue was up 84 per cent year-on-year to 645, the company revealed.

New support for Azure migration

The suite of Inspire announcements also included the impending launch of Microsoft’s Azure’s Migration Program (AMP). AMP, which will debut next week, will offer “prescriptive guidance and tools customers need for a path to the cloud from start to finish,” Microsoft Azure corporate vice president Julia White wrote in a blog entry.

AMP bundles “curated, step-by-step guidance” for migrating to Microsoft’s cloud services, free migration tools, and technical skill building through a range of courses.

Microsoft expands AI for Good

‘AI for Cultural Heritage’ has been announced as the newest component of Microsoft’s US$125 million ‘AI for Good’ program. AI for Cultural Heritage will support the use of artificial intelligence to “help preserve and celebrate people, languages, places and historical artifacts around the world.”

The company in mid-2017 launched AI for Earth and in May 2018 AI for Accessibility. In September 2018, Microsoft announced ‘AI for Humanitarian Action’.

AI for Good involves a combination of grants and partnerships for organisations working in the relevant area.