Microsoft Teams expected to pass Google Hangouts, Slack for enterprise chat

Microsoft Teams was first unveiled by Microsoft at an event in New York City back in November of 2016, and the group collaboration service has yet to get to the general public, but it would appear that it is becoming more popular and is catching up to the competition. A new study out by IT network Spiceworks which was noted by GeekWire has found that Microsoft Teams is expected to pass Google Hangouts and Slack for enterprise chat.

According to the study, which surveyed IT pros, Microsoft’s Skype for Business application is the most commonly used apps for collaboration inside businesses, with a total of 36% deployment. Google Hangouts and Slack followed next with deployment rates of 16% and 13 %, respectively. The study, however, also found that 17% of surveyed businesses have plans to deploy Microsoft Teams in the next two years and that only 3% of surveyed businesses currently use Microsoft Teams.  The study reads:

If these plans hold true, Microsoft Teams will be the second most commonly used messaging platform in the workplace by the end of 2018, surpassing Slack and Google Hangouts, and coming in behind only Skype for Business…This bodes well for Microsoft, who owns Skype, and could speak to the fact that Microsoft Teams is free to use for companies that subscribe to Office 365.

Microsoft Teams is currently available in a preview to eligible Office 365 commercial customers in 180 different countries, and is expected to become generally available in the first quarter of the calendar year 2017. It will be interesting to see if these predictions hold up as the service rolls out to a more wider audience of businesses. As always, please do let us know what you think of this latest news by dropping us a comment below!