Two worlds collide. We’ll have to see for how long, because Microsoft is also working on a consumer version of Teams. But for now, the company is ready to make it interoperable with Skye.
We first got hint of this back in March, and the company had actually been working on this change in July of last year, where it first revealed this. However, we are nearing the end of May, and this feature is yet to make an appearance.
In between, we have had something of a pandemic running circles, which not only meant that many people ended up working from home, but services like Microsoft Teams recorded a huge boom in the number of subscribers.
Chances are that this delay was probably caused by the spike in traffic on the Teams platform.
Anyway, it looks like that Redmond is all set now.
The company has updated the Microsoft 365 roadmap to reflect the delay in rolling out the capability, stating that interoperability between Teams and the consumer version of Skype will be available sometimes in May.
The entry on the roadmap was updated this past Saturday, though there is no further indication as to when exactly this feature will be available, and whether it will be a gradual rollout as originally planned.
And even when it rolls out, this new option will not be available to everyone.
That is to say that calling someone on Microsoft Teams using a Skype account would work for all consumers, but Teams accounts will need the permission of the administrator to get in touch with users on Skype. Plus, the feature will be disabled by default.
Microsoft has been rolling out new features in Teams via regular monthly updates. Last month, the company increased the number of simultaneous videos in Teams meetings from 4 to 9, after sustained demand by large companies.
Seems like this big news this month would be interoperability with Skype.
Sweet.
