Microsoft launches new phone features for Teams in most advanced challenge to Zoom

On Monday, Microsoft declared it is adding features for its cloud-based calling service to present it more antagonistic against Zoom.

Microsoft is upgrading its Teams Phone service, a part of the Teams communication app, to incorporate the ability to shift calls among multiple devices, take calls in vehicles through Apple’s CarPlay and transcribe calls. It will also distinguish spam calls, desegregate contact center software, and call five additional countries through calling plans.

Zoom Phone has all these features already, as per Zoom’s website, though the spam service is still in beta. But Microsoft is also intensifying Teams Phone with a feature that Zoom is booting. Teams Phone will combine a virtual walkie-talkie in October, providing users to push a button to talk.

Microsoft has been investing heavily in Teams, especially since the early days of the pandemic, when users crowded to Zoom because it was easy to download and use from any device. In March 2020, Microsoft declared it would allow users to upload custom virtual backgrounds for video calls, a feature handy in Zoom for months.

IN JULY, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated to analysts that Teams Phone had almost 80 million monthly active users. Last week, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield announced that Microsoft had presented its purposes pretty certainly at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

“Over the last year, maybe even 18 months, I think Microsoft’s preoccupation with killing us has shifted somewhat to a preoccupation with killing Zoom,” Butterfield said. Salesforce concluded its acquisition of Slack earlier this year.

Microsoft is also releasing Operator Connect, a product is advertised in March to let customers draw on their current services from transmitters such as NTT and Verizon to make calls. Zoom holds fast connections to existing landline carriers.

Telecommunications companies operate directly with Microsoft, so Microsoft corporate vice president Jared Spataro told customers not to launch integration projects individually.

“I’m starting to see this really take off for us in terms of interest,” Spataro said.

Zoom isn’t resting still, in any case. The company utilizes its stock market profits from the pandemic to bulk up beyond cloud-based video and phone calls. In July, Zoom declared its intention to obtain call center technology provider Five9 for $14.7 billion.