Microsoft rolls out advanced calling features to Teams

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

Microsoft has announced a major update to Microsoft Teams, heralding the arrival of new calling features meant to accommodate previous Skype for Business users.

During its Ignite 2017 conference in September, Microsoft announced plans to have Microsoft Teams replace Skype for Business as a singular communications client for Office 365 users. As part of the transition, Microsoft has a roadmap for bringing unique Skype for Business features to Teams, and the first bits are starting to arrive.

In a new Tech Community post (opens in new tab), Microsoft announced some new advanced calling features are currently being rolled out to Teams, bringing along "full featured" dialing capabilities. From Microsoft:

Today we are releasing new calling capabilities in Teams, providing full featured dialing capabilities, complete with call history, hold/resume, speed dial, transfer, forwarding, caller ID masking, extension dialing, multi-call handling, simultaneous ringing, voicemail, and text telephone (TTY) support. You can expect this to roll out over the next few hours and should come soon to your tenant.

According to Microsoft, to take advantage of these features, organizations will need Phone System (formerly Cloud PBX), which is available to Office 365 users either as an add-on or with Office 365 E5. Additionally, teams will have have to subscribe to a Calling Plan (formerly PSTN Calling).

Looking down the road, Microsoft previously described in its roadmap that it intends to enable screen sharing during chats and federation between companies by the end of Q2 2018. Specific enhancements for meetings, including meeting room support with Skype Room Systems, is also due in Q2 2018. Finally, Microsoft pegged intelligent communications features, like the ability to record a meeting to store in Teams, add transcriptions, and search for key terms for Q2 2018.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the Editor in Chief for Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. Got a hot tip? Send it to daniel.thorp-lancaster@futurenet.com.

11 Comments
  • The good thing about skype for business is you can answer your office phone calls from your smart phone
  • Yes.  I hope that's something they are keeping.  I actually use a skype number for a second line on my phone.
  • They just need to make sure they bake all these features into the dialer app for Surface Scribe.
  • The move makes no sense to me. Teams and Skype seem like two totally different things.
  • It used to be but Skype is all about communication (chat, video and voice) as a complement to Outlook which main focus is mail and calendar. Teams is focused on collaboration and aims to connect collaboration features available in Office 365 in a single client (SharePoint/OneDrive, Skype, Planner etc). In the end, Skype will be an onprem solution only but until then a lot of features will be available in both clients.
  • nice
  • Why is Teams not available from the Store? 
  • Microsoft isn't dedicated to the store.
  • guys we're talking about skype for business, teams is going to replace it, not normal skype for common user. skype for business/teams work only with work/school accounts
  • Oh.
  • Yup, people shouldn't be confusing SfB with SfC (Skype for Consumer).