Earlier this year, it was rumored that Microsoft had contemplated acquiring Slack, but apparently Microsoft’s higher ups weren’t entirely convinced of the idea which is why it did not happen. Now it seems that instead of acquiring Slack, Microsoft could be considering building their own competitor called Skype Teams.
This is according to a report from MSPowerUser who claims to have heard from a source that Skype Teams is basically Microsoft’s answer to Slack. In case you’re unfamiliar with Slack, it’s a messaging platform used by teams to communicate with each other and it has also been gaining some steam. In fact in March Slack announced their plans to introduce features that would make it a potential Skype rival.
According to the report, Skype Teams will come with features similar to Slack, such as allowing users to chat in different groups within a team called “Channels”. The platform is also said to feature threaded conversations, a feature that is missing on Slack. Given that this is also essentially a Skype product, Microsoft has plans to include some of Skype’s core features as well such as video calls.
There is no word on when the alleged Skype Teams app will be launched, but MSPowerUser claims that Microsoft is testing the app internally and that if and when it launches, it might be offered to Office 365 subscribers initially before making it available to everyone else.