Microsoft Goes Up Against ‘Slack’, Releases Its ‘Teams’ Messaging Tool For Free

Slack—one of the most popular team messaging tools in the US—is preparing for fierce competition from one of the world’s biggest tech companies: Microsoft.

On 12 July, Microsoft announced the release of its ‘Teams’ communication tool for free, thereby propelling it into head-to-head rivalry with ‘Slack’.

‘Teams’ was created last year in response to the popular messaging contender, which now boasts approximately eight million users daily, of which three million are paid subscribers.

The free tier of ‘Teams’ is catered for small- to medium-sized companies and is available for any organization’s first 300 users. Each user will receive 2GB of storage, along with 10GB for sharing amongst the group.

Unlike ‘Slack’, this free tier in ‘Teams’ includes unlimited chat messages. Additional features comprise free group video and voice calls, plus integration with Microsoft Office apps such as ‘Word’, ‘Excel’, and ‘Powerpoint’.

It’s also available in 40 languages, and connects to 140 other relevant apps such as Evernote and task management software Trello. ‘Teams’ does not limit communication to users within your organization, which means you can collaborate with external parties from other companies.

If the user or group hits the storage limit, they will be invited to upgrade to the next ‘Essentials’ tier, priced at US$5 per user each month—lower than the ‘Standard’ tier in ‘Slack’ that is priced at US$6.67 per user each month.

[via TechCrunch and Quartz, image via Microsoft]