Why is Microsoft Teams so much better than Zoom and Slack for collaborating?

In recent months I have been a bit unfaithful to Microsoft Teams.

During the locks on COVID-19, I denied the complexity of this collaborative app and avoided it like a wet gym sock. I thought:

Microsoft does not understand how we work. The application has too many features. It does not fit with the lifestyle of modern remote workers. I hate the color purple.

It was like this big set of inflated software, sitting in a dusty app tray. I didn’t want to click on it or want to learn how it worked. Sometimes, reluctantly, I posted some papers and tested some features, wishing I was back at Slack.

I’ve consistently told people that Microsoft Teams is a joke.

He was wrong.

In the past, I’ve advocated Slack and Zoom because, at least in most of my daily work, they’re functional, sleek, and intuitive. It’s easy to chat with people from Slack and the functions are so easy and simple that you can teach them to a newly invented fellow (according to the fellow). Zoom became the de facto tool for most workers because video chats are fluid and reliable.

Using equipment with a real product (you know)equipment these last few weeks has completely altered my perception. I think it’s a bit inflated, with too many features that people will never use. There is a task management system called Planner that is just a click away, but it has no serious automation and is located across an entire galaxy away from the power and simplicity of Trello. It’s incredibly annoying that you can’t jump into threaded conversations like you can in Slack. And don’t even start me off with some features missing for video chats. (If you turn off the camera in Teams, you want to become an icon, a small photo at the bottom of the screen. I still think someone isn’t calling and I’m wondering when they’ll join; in Zoom, you’ll see a blank screen .)

And yet, here we are. I like teams.

Microsoft made its name in technology because of one word. It may oversimplify a billion-dollar company, but the word is integration. Outlook integrates with Word which integrates with Teams. Over the years, people have used another word for this (monopoly), but when you’re trying to finish a report and you’re alone in an office, the integration is great. I was able to start a video meeting with people with a single click. Great! I can do it at Slack. But then I was also able to add 17 more people with a few more clicks, and also schedule meetings with them in Teams and work together on a Word document.

I will take several steps further. Now I’m starting to think that Teams is so much better at collaborating during the last (hopefully) months of the pandemic. We need integration now more than ever. If I can click once to start a meeting with 10 people instead of sending them the link, I’ll take it. Listen correctly: Individual tools in the Microsoft ecosystem are not always better. I prefer Slack and Zoom. What I’ve been discovering is that the tired version of COVID of me prefers an ecosystem that does it all. The pandemic has changed my mind.

Which brings us to Google. There are only two companies competing for total mastery of the productivity of knowledge workers. (Unfortunately, it looks like Apple doesn’t know what they’re doing about it. There’s no Slack, Zoom, or Teams alternative to the real productivity of the business.) Google and Microsoft are the two left.

Google is the closest thing to Microsoft in terms of everything running smoothly and intuitively, but Google Meet is a long way from computers. They are not even in the same league. If not! I prefer Google Docs over the online version of Microsoft Word and Gmail (as part of Google Workspace, formerly called G-Suite) is much better than Microsoft Outlook, especially for those of us who never delete an email electronic and we rely on a search in the inbox every five seconds.

For now, easily starting a video chat (and adding a computer) to Microsoft Teams and integrating with Outlook to schedule group chats has won me over.

When things finally return to normal, I may be ready for the rational, simple, and intuitive approach with Slack and Zoom. We will see.