Another Zoom rival just passed this big milestone

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Microsoft Teams has passed a major milestone, with video conferencing tools continuing to benefit from the coronavirus pandemic.

During Microsoft’s Q1 2021 earnings call, CEO Satya Nadella was able to report on a number of positives despite the disruption caused by the pandemic. All three of the company’s operating groups recorded year-on-year growth, and it certainly appears as though Teams has received a boost in terms of its user figures.

“Teams now has more than 115 million daily active users,” Nadella said. “We are seeing increased usage and intensity as people communicate, collaborate, and co-author content across work, life, and learning. Microsoft 365 users generated more than 30 billion collaboration minutes in a single day this quarter.”

The competition heats up

There has been much discussion regarding the mass transition to remote working and the benefits and drawbacks of such an approach. Nevertheless, it is likely that many firms will continue to enable their employees to work remotely in future, even once the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been consigned to history.

Microsoft certainly believes that the recent uptick in Teams users is something that is likely to continue, the Redmond-based firm doing its best to innovate and update the platform. Earlier this year, Teams received a number of new features for mobile users and a Lists app to help remote workers stay organized.

The pace at which Microsoft is adding new features to Teams suggests that the company views remote working tools as a long-term growth area. The platform will face competition, however, from a growing cast of players, all keen to benefit from the recent shift in workplace behaviors.

Zoom, Google Meet and similar solutions have all seen their user figures surge as more individuals are forced to work remotely. Earlier this week, Cisco’s Webex announced that it was set to record over 600 million users in October.

Via Venture Beat

Barclay Ballard

Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things.