Business users can now initiate a 1-to-1 chat with personal users within company security and compliance. Video calling or file sharing is not possible.
Starting this month, business and personal Teams accounts will be able to chat with each other. After you type someone’s email address or phone number (if it’s linked to it) in Microsoft Teams’ search bar, you can start chatting right away. For now, you can only do 1-on-1 chats. Inviting someone within a chat group or team is also possible, but requires a little more work.
That choice was made deliberately, according to Microsoft, to ensure that all the organization’s security and compliance rules are maintained. For the same reason, you can also only chat, not make (video) calls or share files.
Web, desktop and mobile
The functionality works on the web version of Teams as well as the desktop client and mobile app. IT admins can enable and disable the feature across the entire organization or on a per-user basis. By default, Microsoft enables the feature as soon as it is available. The rollout is gradual this month.
Microsoft has long been working on a path to make business and personal compatible. For example, since last year you can log into Teams with two simultaneous accounts, business and private.
With Teams, Microsoft has built out a dominant communications platform. Too dominant according to Slack(owned by Salesforce), in part because it is included for free in all Office packages. The European Commission is looking at whether bundling products gives companies access to data to increase their share of both markets. At the same time, it is also looking at whether this approach makes it harder for rival products, more specifically those with only one product within the portfolio.
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