Chapter 1:Microsoft Teams Basics
Microsoft Teams is a new collaboration tool that is transforming the way people work and collaborate around the world. It reached more than 44 million active users in 2020 Q1 and does not show any signs of slowing down.
Workers spend part of their day switching between platforms to chat with their peers, access the project’s documentation, schedule meetings, share files, and more. All of these tasks can be finally centralized in a single workspace, and that workspace is Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft has a lot of experience with communication and collaboration tools and Microsoft Teams is an evolution of their previous solutions. Teams inherits all the experience and know-how acquired from other Microsoft enterprise solutions over the last 20 years and is the natural successor of Microsoft Lync and Skype for Business.
If you are reading this book, you have probably asked yourself – Why Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams connects the dots between other Microsoft services and applications used in business environments, empowers users to achieve more, reduces the associated costs, and boosts employee engagement.
If you want to embrace the modern workplace journey and give your teams a boost using Microsoft Teams, this book is for you.
In this chapter, we are going to cover the following topics:
- Accessing Microsoft Teams
- How to sign in on Microsoft Teams
- What does Microsoft Teams look like?
- What is a team?
- What is a channel?
- What is a tab?
Accessing Microsoft Teams
First things first, before we start digging into Microsoft Teams concepts, you need to know how and where you can access it so that you can begin working with Teams right away.
Microsoft Teams plans
Microsoft Teams has two different plans: a free version that is available for anyone to use and a paid version that is included in the Office 365 Business plans.
If you do not have access to an Office 365 subscription and still want to implement Microsoft Teams, you can start with the free version, but be aware of its limitations. The following table shows a comparison between the free and paid versions that might help you decide which version suits your needs:
As you can see, the free version of Microsoft Teams has some limitations and it might not suit all scenarios. However, if you are building a proof of concept to drive the adoption of the platform, it can be a starting point. A detailed and updated comparison of all the Teams versions can be found online at https://products.office.com/en/microsoft-teams/free.
Microsoft Teams clients
To get started with Microsoft Teams, first, you need to know how to access it.
Teams is available for a variety of platforms. You can use it through any of the following:
- A web browser
- A desktop application
- A mobile application
Each version has its own specifications and features, so be aware that your experience of Teams might be different if you’re using it on multiple devices. To get the best experience while using Microsoft Teams, it’s recommended to use the native clients for mobile and desktop.
Web clients
Microsoft Teams is available as a web app and can be accessed directly from a browser by going to https://teams.microsoft.com. The web version allows you to use the main functionalities of Microsoft Teams, but you might face some limitations, depending on the browser you are using:
*PSTN coordinates are required to attend the meeting.
*1Incoming sharing only.
When accessing the Microsoft Teams web app for the first time, you will have to bypass the download app screen by clicking the Use web app instead link:
Figure 1.1: Selecting the web app
If your browser is not compatible with the web version of Microsoft Teams, access to the app will be blocked and you will see a message asking you to download the app for your operating system.
Desktop clients
The full-feature experience of Microsoft Teams can be only achieved when using the desktop clients available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The Microsoft Teams client for Windows supports 32-bit and 64-bit architectures; unlike other office apps, it is agnostic of the architecture of the version of Microsoft Office you have installed and does not require administrator privileges to be installed. This is because the application is deployed in the user’s profile folder, that is, AppData.
To install Microsoft Teams on Windows, you need to have the minimum requirements listed in the following table:
macOS
The Microsoft Teams client for macOS is available as a PKG installation file and requires administrator privileges to be installed; the application is deployed to the /Application folder.
To install Microsoft Teams on macOS, you need to have the minimum requirements listed in the following table:
Linux
The Microsoft Teams client for Linux is available for Debian distributions and for Red Hat-based distributions. The installation packages are provided in DEB format (for Debian) and RPM format (for Red Hat).
Linux has a lot of different distributions but among the most used ones are Ubuntu, which are based on the Debian distribution package, and CentOS and Fedora, which are based on the Red Hat distribution package.
To install Microsoft Teams on Linux, you need to have the minimum requirements listed...
