Microsoft Teams guide - key features explained!

Digitalisation enables completely new business models and at the same time revolutionises the way employees communicate and cooperate with each other. Microsoft Teams offers support as part of Office 365

– and you can also integrate external services. Online meetings, group chats and the joint editing of documents are among the standard functions that offer numerous advantages for employers and employees alike, especially in times of Corona. How to work together efficiently with Teams and what functions the application has to offer are explained below.

Free at Corona time

In the free basic tariff, Microsoft Teams can theoretically be used without further ado, while some of the essential functions are, however, either only partially included or not included at all. In view of the current Corona pandemic, Micosoft is currently offering its otherwise chargeable Teams packages free of charge – until 2021

. Anyone who currently logs into Teams automatically receives a free licence of the otherwise chargeable functions.

The most important functions

Office 365

Since the Office 365 apps are directly included in Microsoft Teams, the familiar Office documents can be edited in real time and simultaneously with colleagues and project partners

. This makes collaboration more transparent. With one of the paid plans, the Office suite is available as a desktop version.

Business app integration

More than 250 business apps can be integrated into Microsoft Teams. These include Trello and Evernote, for example, which can be used to plan projects directly or create shared notes. Software for creating surveys is also included. With the help of apps, you can expand Teams with practical tools for project management or communication, for example.

Conference calls

Thanks to a further development of Skype, Teams now also offers audio and video chats. With the conference function, meetings can take place purely digitally. To do this, select a channel from the list on the left and click on the camera symbol at the bottom of the chat text field. If necessary, a short subject can be added to the call at the top. To start the meeting, click on „Discuss now“. As soon as the call is in progress, the participants from the Teams channel receive a notification and can decide whether they want to join the video conference.

Chat

Microsoft Teams has its own chat function in its repertoire by default. The chats, in which up to 50 people can participate, can be structured into groups and categories for better clarity.

Newsfeed

To easily share information with the working group, there is a news feed. This is structured very similarly to a social media feed and lists the latest news about the working group or the project chronologically.

Personalisation

Text size, spacing or format as well as backgrounds and face filters can be individually adjusted or added in teams according to preference. If required, texts can also be read aloud and videos can be provided with live subtitles. Furthermore, bots and tools can be used to further personalise and customise Teams.

Cloud storage

Teams shares uploaded files via a cloud. In the basic version, the cloud has ten GB of storage, while the paid versions provide more than one TB of storage plus another ten GB of storage per licence purchased.

Create team

At the bottom left, go to „Join or Create Team“ and select „Create Team“ – „Create a Team from scratch“ or create a „Team from an existing Office 365 group or team“.
After specifying the team type, enter the team name and description, then generate the team via „Create“.

Add channels and members

In the „Members“ tab, click on „Add member“, then enter the email address and specify whether the person may act as a member or guest. Then click on “ Add“.
To invite a person to Microsoft Teams, click on „Invite people“ at the bottom left.
Select the method you want to use to reach the person. Switch to the „Channels“ tab and click on „Add channel“.
enter„Channel name“ and „Description“ and determine whether it should be a standard channel or a private channel. Then click on „Add“.

Leave team or delete team

Click on the three-dot symbol next to the team name and click on „Leave team“. Finally, confirm with „Leave team“.
As the sole owner of the team, you can only delete it. To do this, click on the three-dot symbol and then on “ Delete team“. In the subsequent dialogue window, confirm that everything will be deleted and click on „ Delete“.