Microsoft Teams App Review

The mobile/web app that I will be talking about today is Microsoft Teams. You can chat, join teams and channels, schedule and join meetings, manage your calendar, share, and collaborate in real-time, and much more.

Disclaimer: I wish I could have shown you Microsoft Teams using my current work profile, but I cannot do that as it includes sensitive data and personal information. I have added a temporary personal profile to Teams on my phone but I have not utilized it yet for personal use so it is empty. Because of that, in addition to attaching screenshots from my phone, I have attached quick overview videos made by Microsoft on Youtube to do the app justice and to show you how awesome it is. Thank you!

Usability, design, functionality:

Microsoft Teams is designed to be used in education and businesses. However, It is also now offered for free for personal use on mobile phones between friends and families. I was using Microsoft Teams at work before the pandemic but not extensively. Now that we are working from home, 80% of my work is done through it. I still connect with my co-workers via chat, group chats, teams and channels, and work meetings. The best part? All that is done within one-single-app.

The app consists of 6 main tabs (there are others, and you can add 3rd party apps to it too): Activity, Chat, Teams, Calendar, Calls, and Files.

Before I dive into more details, I highly encourage you to view this short video offered by Microsoft that goes over each of these briefly so that you can have a better idea of the content I will be sharing below:

Activity:

Through the activity tab, similar to other social media such as Facebook and Instagram, you will see if someone reacted to a message you posted (such as a thumbs up, heart, smile, etc.). You can also see if someone mentioned you by name or if someone posted something in a team or channel that you are a part of, chat, and group chat. Think of it as the place where you will find all your missed notifications. For me, that is the first thing I go to when I first start my workday.

Here is a screenshot from my personal account on my phone showing Activity Feed (empty):

Here is a quick video on how to filter your activities:

 

Chat:

Chat is where, you guessed it, start 1 on 1 conversation or form a group chat. What is cool about chat is that you can do a lot more than just that. I will give you a couple of examples:

1. You can share a file, say a Word document, and have the other person (or group of people in a group chat) all open that same document and edit it in real-time while everyone can see the changes happening live and who is making them!

2. You can add more people to a 1 on 1 chat. If you have created a group chat, any additional people you add can either include previous chat history from the previous and existing group members or choose not to include chat history.

3. You can add GIFs and Stickers.

4. You can translate messages right then and there by right-clicking on "more options" when hovering over a letter. 

5. Start quick calls and meetings right from within the chat window.

Here is a screenshot from my personal account on my phone showing Chat (empty):

Here is a video going over how to start a chat & a call:

Teams:

Well, this is where all the magic happens. You can create different teams for different projects, for example, and invite-only those involved in them. That way, you can keep your projects separated. You can, of course, create teams for different things as needed—for example, a team for each department in a retail store.

Now, within a Team that you created, there will always be a default channel created within it called "General." You can add more channels as needed, and even within those channels, you can make one of them, private and only those with access to it can enter it. For example, A retail store with a team of techs can have a channel within that team called "Managers" that only managers have access to it.

Teams and channels within teams are a bit different than chat. You can still post discussions, announcements, and share files with others. It uses a threaded conversation design rather than a casual chat messaging system. That way, discussions, and conversations there are more organized, and you can easily reply and reference an older conversation in a channel.

Here is a quick video that goes over teams and channels in Microsoft Teams:

Calendar:

This is where you go to view your meetings schedule and to create/schedule a new one. It is also worth mentioning that the calendar here is shared between Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams.

Here is a screenshot from my personal account on my phone showing Calendar (empty):

 

Calls:

This is where you can access your contacts and check your voice mail. While you can always make free calls via Teams with others using Teams, you can also add your own voice lin to have the ability to dial and contact others using their phone number (mostly used in businesses).

Files:

This is where you can access all the files shared in a Team/Channel that you are a part of and have access to or in chat.

 Three recommendations that I believe would improve the app?

1. Better optimization & battery management. It drains my battery life by a lot (LG V60 running Android 10) when it is on, and notifications are on along with it.

2. better employee tracking capabilities such as shift management and time worked track.

3. Since it is rolling out for free for personal use, I would recommend the UI to be more user-friendly and fun.

 

References:

Microsoft. (August 20, 2019). Welcome to Microsoft Teams. Retrieved from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jugBQqE_2sM&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=Microsoft365 (Links to an external site.)

Microsoft. (Oct 23, 2018). How to filter your activity feed in Microsoft Teams. Retrieved from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUA28Dm7bjI&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=Microsoft365 (Links to an external site.)

Microsoft. (August 20, 2019). How to start chat and make calls with Microsoft Teams. Retrieved from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7HXc3yWAIk&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=Microsoft365 (Links to an external site.)

Microsoft. (August 20, 2019). Overview of teams and channels in Microsoft Teams. Retrieved from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1VQpIahGBc&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=Microsoft365 (Links to an external site.)