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Not only for the job: Microsoft teams in everyday life

Not only for the job: Microsoft teams bring together professional and private life. The collaboration tool Teams

from Microsoft is already being used by 75 million people in their daily work. Microsoft Teams defines itself as a "central hub for teamwork" and is establishing itself at a rapid pace in companies worldwide. Already more than 75 million daily users use the tool to stay in touch with colleagues and stay productive.

Coronakrise inspires Microsoft to make private use of the Teams app

The Corona crisis has shown how quickly work and private life are coming so close together that it is almost impossible to separate them. This realization gave the team developers the idea of making the tool available for private use as well. Why shouldn't a small family also benefit from the capabilities of a collaborative environment?

From now on, the Teams app for Android and iOS will implement five functions in the respective beta versions that are designed to support your private everyday life. These include a safe for storing important documents, location sharing with friends and family, sharing documents from Microsoft 365, video calls and chats, and a central dashboard to keep track of your activities.

Video calls, chats and location sharing

Just like on the job, Microsoft teams will allow you to create private groups to which you invite family and friends. Then you can video-conference or chat within those groups and share media with each other. You can also chat or make video calls without the whole group being on board.

If you want to make potentially troubled people, such as your parents, feel good, you can use site sharing on Microsoft teams. It shows authorized people where they are at any given time. It can also be useful if you have a vague appointment with others in a confusing location. With these features, Microsoft Teams is mainly competing with Whatsapp.

Share and securely store documents and data from Microsoft 365

Because Teams is part of Microsoft 365, you can securely share files from your Onedrive with friends and family through the Teams app. Two-factor authentication and end-to-end encryption safe within the Teams app allows you to store important information. This can be the WLAN password, but also the PIN for the bank card. You can also share this information with your family and friends again if necessary.

With this feature, Microsoft Teams positions itself quite clearly against the new Dropbox Plus, which also has a data safe.

Dashboard for the collaborative aspect

With the dashboard, you can keep track of your team activities. From here you can create and share other media such as lists or calendars. These can be simple shopping lists, but also checklists for the imminent family celebration. So everybody always knows which tasks he has to do.

You can also view your chats and shared media via the dashboard. This should allow you to pick up the thread where you left it at any time.

How to use your team privately

The private use of the Teams app is expected to become generally available in the course of the year and will then be extended to the desktop and web app. Microsoft wants to take the feedback of the beta testers into account.

Therefore, a beta version for iOS and Android will be released first, which offers the above-mentioned features. Users who already use teams professionally simply create another account with their private Microsoft account and can then switch between professional and private via the menu. Users who only want to use teams privately also create a private account in the app. To do so, they can use their Microsoft account or - as with Whatsapp - the phone number of their smartphone.

Source: t3n.de, Foto: pixabay.com