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Microsoft Teams Playing Catch Up to Zoom

June 16, 2020

Zoom quickly became the 800-pound gorilla of video conferencing. As a result, Zoom's competitors are trying to gain back market share and copying features of the popular video conferencing service. The Verge reported Microsoft Teams will display a 7×7 gird for speakers with a release coming in Fall. That means Teams will be able to display 49 participants on a single screen just like Zoom. The Education version of Teams will also get a breakout rooms function, which has existed in a Zoom meetings for a long time. Zoom also has a waiting room feature, which Microsoft will be copying as well. The Education version of Teams will get a "lobby" function, which should work like the waiting room. It is unclear if the regular version of Teams will also get the lobby feature. Microsoft will also copy the "raise hand" feature of Zoom for the Education edition of Teams.

It's pretty clear that Microsoft is concentrating on providing Zoom-like features beginning with the Education version of Teams. There is no announcement if normal business users of Teams will get the same features. It is no wonder that Zoom is still the "king" of video conferencing while the competition lags in features.

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