Last month, Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams will replace Skype for Business and become the core communications client in Office 365, but didn’t provide a timeframe. Today the company released its roadmap for this change, and the first timeframe to look forward to is Q2 2018.
Microsoft Teams launched worldwide in March as part of Office 365. Skype for Business, which replaced Lync in April 2015, already powers communication experiences in Microsoft Teams, so the transition makes plenty of sense.
Microsoft today also announced it is simplifying the naming of its premium communication offerings so both IT and end users can understand them. PSTN Conferencing is becoming Audio Conferencing, Cloud PBX will be simply Phone System, and PSTN Calling will now be known as Calling Plan.
If waiting until Q2 2018 seems like too long, there is one feature coming sooner — Microsoft Teams will get voicemail support later this quarter. The roadmap, for your perusal:
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Here are the Skype for Business features coming to Microsoft Teams in Q2 2018:
- Messaging — Screen sharing during chat and federation between companies
- Meetings — Meeting room support with Skype Room Systems and cloud video interoperability capabilities that allow third party meeting room devices to connect to Teams meetings
- Calling — Use your existing telco voice line to activate calling services in Office 365.
- Other features — Record a meeting and store it in Teams, have transcription added, and be able to search the meeting for key terms
If you want a definitive list of upcoming features, check out the Office 365 Public Roadmap. There’s also a downloadable version of the same roadmap on the Intelligent Communications FastTrack portal.
There’s also a Microsoft Teams “Ask Microsoft Anything” on October 25 and a live Teams on Air broadcast on October 27 if you want to hear the team discuss the roadmap in more detail and have your questions answered. Both events start at 9 a.m. Pacific.
