If your company has started working remotely in the last few years, you’ve probably heard the question, what is Microsoft Teams? If you’re still struggling to get to grips with it, this guide will run you through what it is, how to use it, pricing plans, and more.
Microsoft Teams isn’t the only complicated app, so we have guides covering what is Spotify, how to delete apps on iPhone, how to cancel Disney Plus, and how to cancel Apple TV. We can also help you with your Netflix download, YouTube Music download, and Facebook download.
What is Microsoft Teams and what is it used for?
Microsoft Teams is an all-in-one app created by Microsoft that allows you to chat, video call, and share files with anyone. It is aimed primarily at organizations to use as their internal messaging platform. Microsoft Teams is entirely cloud-based and allows for various forms of team collaboration across your organization. It has also started to be used in educational settings as well.
Can I video call on Microsoft Teams?
Yes, you can host video calls on Microsoft Teams, as well as audio-only calls. Microsoft Teams is great for video conferencing and includes a range of features such as whiteboards, breakout rooms, meeting recording, transcription, and automatic captions. You can also share your screen to aid communication.
As well as video calls, you can host webinars on Teams. These webinars can support up to 1,000 attendees and offer interactive features so your audience can engage with your presentation without having to moderate hundreds of users muting and un-muting. Attendees can use reactions and the chat box to engage, but these can be disabled by the host.
If you don’t need your webinar to be interactive, Microsoft Teams also offers view-only webinars for up to 10,000 attendees.
How do I join a Microsoft Teams meeting?
There are a couple of ways that you can join a Teams meeting. If you are a Microsoft Teams user, you can join a meeting by finding it in your calendar and clicking the join button. It’s as simple as that!
If you’ve been invited to a Teams meeting via email, you should see a ‘click here to join the meeting’ button. From here, you can do one of three things:
- Download the Teams app – you can download the desktop or mobile app and join the meeting from there
- Continue on this browser – this will join the meeting via the web
- Open your Teams app – if you already have the Teams app, you can join the meeting from there
Then, you just need to type in your name, adjust your audio and video settings, and then you can join the meeting by clicking ‘join now’.
How much does Microsoft Teams cost?
There are a variety of pricing plans for Microsoft Teams for both business and personal use. Both versions have a free option, with other subscription-based models offering more functionality and cloud storage.
Microsoft Teams for home
There are three price plans for personal use:
- Microsoft Teams – Zero monthly fees for group calling for up to 60 minutes and 100 participants, unlimited chat with friends and family, tasks and polling, five GB of OneDrive cloud storage, and data encryption for meetings, chats, calls, and files.
- Microsoft 365 Personal – £5.99/$6.99 a month for everything in Microsoft Teams, plus group calling for up to 30 hours and 300 participants, premium versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint for PC, Mac, web, and mobile, one TB of cloud storage, ad-free email, calendar, and contacts in one place, creative tools for writing, design, and graphics, advanced grammar, spelling, and editing support, technical support, and live captioning in English for one person.
- Microsoft 365 Family – £7.99/$9.99 a month for the same perks as Microsoft 365 Personal for six people, plus location alerts in the Family Safety app, six TB of cloud storage (one per person), and drive safety reports in the Family Safety mobile app.
Microsoft Team for business
There are four price plans for business use:
- Microsoft Teams – Zero monthly fees for unlimited one-to-one meetings for up to 30 hours long, unlimited group meetings for up to 60 minutes, up to 100 participants per meeting, five GB of cloud storage per user, unlimited chat, file sharing, tasks, and polling, data encryption for meetings, chats, calls, and files, and live captioning in English.
- Microsoft Teams Essentials – £3.00/$4.00 per user per month for everything in Microsoft Teams, plus unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours, up to 300 participants per meeting, ten GB of cloud storage per user, and anytime phone and web support.
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic – £4.50/$6.00 per user per month for everything in Microsoft Teams Essentials, plus Microsoft Whiteboard and other collaborative apps, Collaborative Annotations in Teams meetings allowing participants to contribute to shared content, live captions in over 30 languages, team meetings recordings with transcripts, web and mobile versions of Office apps, expanded cloud storage of 1 TB per user, business-class email, and standard security.
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard – £9.40/$12.50 per user per month for everything in Microsoft 365 Business Basic, plus desktop versions of Office apps with premium features, webinar hosting, attendee registration and reporting tools, and the ability to manage customer appointments.
There you have it, the answer to the question ‘what is Microsoft Teams?’ While you’re here, check out our Genshin Impact tier list.
