Walkie-talkies may well be back in fashion. If we see them in certain trades, they could largely land in offices…
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Competition continues between Slack and main rival Microsoft Teams. In order to take the lead, Microsoft has just thought of a new, rather original feature: the walkie talkie function. Satya Nadella’s business will integrate this feature in the center of the navigation bar in Microsoft Teams, which suggests that it will be in high demand and could be used by businesses.
Emma Williams, Microsoft Vice President explains ” This feature is primarily designed for front-line workers, that is, employees who face customers and direct day-to-day operations within businesses. Microsoft sees this new feature as a safer way to communicate than a traditional walkie-talkie. ”
For front line workers
Surprisingly, few other communication applications, such as Messenger, Slack or WhatsApp, offer this type of functionality. That’s why Microsoft thought of it. Apple, however, also launched a similar app on its Apple Watch a few years ago using push-to-talk as part of the FaceTime app. Microsoft also uses push-to-talk to turn Teams into a walkie-talkie.
The walkie-talkie will arrive along with a number of new access management features for businesses that use Microsoft Teams. These include connecting via SMS, disconnecting from shared devices, and much more.
Microsoft Teams said last November that it has 20 million daily users, which competes with Slack for those same users. Finally, Microsoft said it is also bringing Teams to Linux, an unusual move but one that expands Teams’ reach.
Source: The Verge
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