Microsoft Teams Giving Away Paid Features for Six Months Due to Coronavirus

With coronavirus continuing to spread worldwide, many companies and businesses around the world are requesting employees to work from home. The concerns over coronavirus have led to an increase in remote work in recent weeks, with analysts expecting demand for tools like Teams, Slack, Zoom, and Dropbox to increase.

And now, in response to the increased demand, Microsoft is now going to offer free six-months trials to the premium version of  Microsoft Teams. The free version of Teams limits users in terms of a lot of the calling and meeting features, and the company is now offering the paid version for much longer for free to support remote work and global health.

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Microsoft will also update the free version of Teams to allow users to schedule meetings for video calling on March 10.

“At Microsoft, our top concern is the wellbeing of our employees and supporting our customers in dealing with business impact during this challenging time. For many individuals and organizations, Microsoft Teams video-conferencing, chat and collaboration are playing an important role in helping people continue to work and collaborate. By making Teams available to all for free for six months, we hope that we can support public health and safety by making remote work even easier,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.

The move comes following rumors of Microsoft employees being concerned over the company’s “insufficient” response to the outbreak. Two anonymous employees even said the company’s response was “disappointing” to Business Insider. With Washington state experiencing the largest surge of coronavirus cases in the US, it’s understandable that Microsoft employees are concerned.

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Conversation 8 comments

  • FullyLoaded

    04 March, 2020 - 7:38 am

    <p>Very cool. Of course they are hoping that people/organizations get used to Teams and want to continue using it after the 6 months is up. But they are under no obligation to do so. My hat's off to Microsoft for doing this. </p>

    • coeus89

      04 March, 2020 - 7:48 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#525744">In reply to FullyLoaded:</a></em></blockquote><p>Agree. Seems like a win for everybody.</p>

  • Daekar

    04 March, 2020 - 8:31 am

    <p>This is a nice gesture, very generous. </p><p>I really hope they eventually roll out Teams for folks with consumer Microsoft accounts. I would love to have my family on it.</p>

    • Chris_Kez

      Premium Member
      04 March, 2020 - 9:16 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#525754">In reply to Daekar:</a></em></blockquote><p>It is available for people with a consumer MSA, and the free tier offers the following (per a July 2018 announcement):</p><p>Whether you’re a freelancer, a small business owner, or part of a team inside a larger organization, you can start using Teams today. The free version includes the following for up to 300 people:</p><ul><li>Unlimited chat messages and search.</li><li>Built-in audio and video calling for individuals, groups, and full team meetups.</li><li>10 GB of team file storage plus additional 2 GB per person for personal storage.</li><li>Integrated, real-time content creation with Office Online apps, including built-in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.</li><li>Unlimited app integrations with 140+ business apps to choose from—including Adobe, Evernote, and Trello.</li><li>Ability to communicate and collaborate with anyone inside or outside your organization, backed by Microsoft’s secure, global infrastructure.</li></ul><p>Here's a link to learn more:</p><p><a href="https://Office.com/TeamsFree&quot; target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">https://Office.com/TeamsFree</a></p&gt;

  • harmjr

    Premium Member
    04 March, 2020 - 9:34 am

    <p>Hello product adoption!!!</p>

  • doon

    Premium Member
    04 March, 2020 - 10:24 pm

    <p> Whoa!!</p>

  • colorado

    05 March, 2020 - 11:56 am

    <p>Too bad the sales reps at Microsoft aren't aware of this! I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with no positive results or access to TEAMs. If you can recommend someone knowledgeable at Microsoft to help me, I welcome the information!</p>

  • teckdan

    05 March, 2020 - 1:06 pm

    <p>The problem is far greater.</p><p><br></p><p>Microsoft announced a better deal, which is a 6-month trial of Office 365 E1 subscriptions, including MS Teams. Now Microsoft does not help us as PARTNERS, as we CANNOT issue 6-month E1 trial licenses through our partner center portal.</p><p><br></p><p>Microsoft does not help us in gaining new customers and follow up with them when the 6-month will end, to upsell our new customers with subscriptions.</p>

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