Forum Discussion
Skype vs Microsoft Teams which One is Better for Communication?
Comparing Teams and Skype is an interesting discussion as there is certainly a fair amount of confusion amongst some users as to how they differ etc and the lines are becoming increasingly blurred.
Skype for business for example is going to get phased out (ending July 31st 2021) and be replaced by Teams. So in a business environment Teams is the way to go for sure. You can of course (if enabled in O365 settings) include skype accounts in meetings, add them as contacts etc (they dont get all the same features like document collaboration of course).
Also, and this is just my feeling & not officially confirmed, I think Skype consumer edition will get phased out also and MS will push people to user Teams 'consumer' version. A strong indication of that was when they released the free Teams version in late 2018. Whilst targeted at small businesses etc and as a direct challenge to slack, I can see this version of teams being pushed as the new skype for end users.
So whilst I agree that Skype currently is the tool for 'home' and Teams for 'work' a large part of that is due to people being familiar with Skype as Teams already can fulfill any function Skype can. It will take time to bring Teams into the consciousness of the general public. Its a big call to replace something so well known it has become a verb. For example 'skype me later' is instantly understood were as 'Teams me tonight' would elicit confused looks in response.
Im sure Microsoft will want to make any transition very carefully in order to limit any damage such a high profile product and user base such as Skype. The whole COVID-19 situation though will actually have helped them in a way by bringing Teams into public view for considerably more people than before in a very short space of time. That , along with the considerable uptake in the business world that is placing Teams amongst other essential office tools like Word, Excel, Outlook etc will likely only accelerate Teams consumer along the path of replacing Skype.
philrice, I would like to thank you for taking time and reading my post and thank you for your valuable insights on this discussion.
One limitation of Microsoft Teams is being on public cloud and some users would be looking for on-premise solution (private cloud). However, Microsoft Communication services were all in two separate lines, one for business and one for consumer. So let way when it was Microsoft Lync, it was also Skype. And business model of Skype and Microsoft Teams are different. For example, from my experience lecturer and teachers prefer Microsoft Teams for its administrative features and presentations function and moderation and they report like they want such feature on Skype (some students will remove others from meeting in Skype) . While in causal meeting like family and friends people don't like such administrative feature and it is troublesome for them. So depending on scenario, they will decide which one is better.
I guess we might see more integrity between Skype and Microsoft Teams but they would have separate lines. I am saying this based on experience with Skype and Skype for Business where we could search contacts and gives ability to communicate with Skype users in Skype for Business. Microsoft will drive by customer's feedback and we have to observe users' experience and encourage them to share their feedback in both products.