Microsoft Teams Gets Personal Features to Let Friends, Families Stay Connected Virtually

Microsoft Teams has brought the general availability of its personal features to people on desktop, mobile, and the Web. The new experience, which was mode available for preview on the mobile version of Microsoft Teams on Android and iOS devices in June last year, allows users to make video calls with their friends and families in a way identical to how they connect with their business clients and office colleagues. The personal features on Microsoft Teams are available for free to all users.

As announced last year, the personal features on Microsoft Teams include video calling as well as group chats. You can also access the ‘Together Mode' in your video calls with friends and family to get a more personalised experience — and recreate a virtual environment of a coffee shop or a living room.

Microsoft Teams comes with 'Together mode' to bring new virtual environments for friends and families
Photo Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft also lets you use live emoji reactions and GIFs to express emotions during your video calls with friends and family. Additionally, Microsoft Teams lets you share links to your video calls with the ones who don't even have the Teams app installed on their phones or desktops. They can join the call through a Web browser.

You can invite up to 300 people at once to your Teams video calls. This means that even a virtual ceremony can be hosted — no matter how far your relatives and friends are from your place.

Particularly in group chats, you can share to-do lists and assign tasks. Group chats will also include polls in the coming future. Furthermore, people who don't have an account to use Microsoft Teams can interact in group chats via SMS messages.

Microsoft Teams with personal features is available across all platforms, including iOS, Android, and desktop. If you already have Microsoft Teams for your professional meetings, you can add a personal account to start communicating with your friends and family virtually.

In addition to bringing personal features, Microsoft has announced that the new experience is available for free. This means that you can speak with up to 300 people on the Teams app for 24 hours at a stretch, without paying any subscription. The free offering was introduced in November in the light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Microsoft is essentially aiming to take on Zoom with its personal features and free video calling. Zoom has so far dominated the group video calling space as a large number of people took to the video-calling service during the first phase of COVID-19 last year.