December 19, 2022
In the digitized world of work, efficient communication is the alpha and omega of productive everyday life. Especially in times of home office, remote work, and a new digital generation that is pushing the job market, it is important that you ensure efficient communication channels.
But that’s no problem, as currently the business messenger market is dominated by two pioneers: Microsoft Teams Vs. Slack. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at the two solutions and help you find the right tool for your team communication.
That’s the question for Microsoft teams or Slack, at least when you’re facing the introduction of a new means of communication at your workplace because both solutions have some advantages but also disadvantages.
We want to highlight some crucial facts for you so that you can quickly find out how the service from tech giant Microsoft Corporation suits you and your company better.
Let’s start with the emergence of the two solutions. Slack clearly has the advantage “first come, first paint.” That was in 2013. It was four more years before Microsoft’s teams hit the market. However, Microsoft was not inactive during this time.
On the contrary: For a long time, Microsoft has tried to buy the solution Slack, but this is not succeeded. So Microsoft went into attack mode and copied the best features from Slack. Maybe it will ring now for one or the other because Microsoft has done in the end, nothing other than what has happened between Instagram and Snapchat.
With the release of Microsoft Teams as a free version (2018), Microsoft has made a punch against Slack and can score points. Because teams have the advantage that it is integrated into the entire Microsoft Office 365 ecosystem and thus achieves good synergy effects. So, as you grow into Office 365, you automatically have teams in the pack.
Slack, on the other hand, is a complete freeware. However, you can upgrade to a paid premium version here, but this is not included in any office suite or has cloud storage. Teams also have the advantage of having Mobile Device Management (centralized management), which is not the case with Slack.
In 2018, teams called the battle of business messengers with a free desktop and smartphone app. Teams offer you all the features that made Slack so popular back then. With both tools, you can manage both group and individual chats, set up channels, share documents, and make video calls. However, these features have some differences between the two tools.
In the free team version, up to 300 of your colleagues can participate. Also, you get 10 GB team memory and another 2GB per user on top. Slack offers only 5GB memory here.
If you’ve ever worked with Slack yourself, you’ll probably find that after a while, the chat history disappears and you can no longer access older news. In the solution from Microsoft, however, the chat histories remain forever. You can also search for news that has been around for a while. With Slack, you have to scroll here – until today – always to the end.
As the comparative pictures above show, you can see that both solutions are visually very similar to the basic structure.
Because teams can be integrated with the rest of Microsoft Office, you benefit from Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage. You can also access all Office programs directly through teams and interact faster with your work files, whether documents or presentations.
This is a significant advantage over the competitor because with Slack documents have to be downloaded first so that you can edit them. In teams, this is no longer a problem, and several colleagues can work in parallel in a document (similar to Google Docs).
When it comes to video calling teams even makes Skype for Business Competition: With up to 80 people, a variety of people and colleagues can participate in virtual meetings. In addition, you can record the calls and access all important information of the conversation later again. You can also start videoconferencing on Slack – but then you have to switch to the paid version before you start a virtual meeting.[Text Wrapping Break]
On other points, teams from Microsoft are slightly ahead of the game. In teams, you can format your messages and equip them with beautiful GIF’s. You also have the ability to send up to 15 GB files via the messenger. No problem, just share your screen with your colleagues for better visualization of content.
Slack, on the other hand, lets you share your screen, but you’ll have to pay for it as well. In addition, you can only use Emoji’s here and only send 1 GB files. Here Slack definitely has the potential to catch up.
Overall, it can be said that Microsoft teams are ahead in many ways. Especially if you already work with the Office package or generally have a lot to do with Microsoft, it is worthwhile to fall back on teams.
In summary, however, it can be said that both business messengers optimally complement their daily work and communication thanks to their exciting features. What about with you? Do you already use one of the two solutions? If so, what are your experiences? We appreciate your opinion.
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