Users of the free version of Microsoft Teams can now create video meetings.
The change, spotted by OnMSFT, means that users without Teams can create a Teams meeting from their account, instead of being able to join a meeting created by customers who have a paid account.
The move is likely another attempt by Microsoft to compete with Zoom, the year's biggest winner in video calling and conferencing since the global COVID-19 pandemic pushed the world to remote work.
"Meetings in the free version of Microsoft Teams free start on June 2, 2020," Microsoft said.
Zoom last week beat Wall Street expectations and said it saw an “unprecedented number of free participants,” which the company sees as opportunities to convert into customers who will purchase an account in the future. The free version of Zoom allows users to create meetings with others .
Microsoft Teams, launched in 2017, grew its active users from 44 million in March 2020 to 75 million in April 2020.
Microsoft is racing against time to meet the capabilities of video-conferencing.
Zoom supports up to 49 participants in a video call, while Microsoft Teams currently supports only nine. Microsoft admitted that the number nine is not very good. Some users complained that having only nine visible participants is not enough to host online classes during the lockdown, as educators try to fit as many people into video calls as possible.
The meetings feature for the free version of Teams will at least give Microsoft the opportunity to tap into users who aren't paying now, but may do so at some point in the future.
Microsoft earlier this week enabled interoperability between Skype for consumers and Microsoft Teams. It also released pop-up windows for chat conversations.
Microsoft Teams free users now have the option to create a meeting from the Teams browser version or the Teams app. In the app , they need to click on the meetings icon in the left menu , then click on “Meet now.”
After users click “Join now,” they can select “Copy meeting link” or “Invite via email” to invite new participants. Alternatively, users can schedule a meeting.
Screen sharing is available in the Chromium-based Edge and Google Chrome browsers, but Mac users will be prompted to change their privacy settings to use this feature.
