Skype to Teams

[LandonX]

With Microsoft's announcement to eventually remove Skype for Business in place of Teams, I had a question that I found out others have too apparently.  If you're a company that has absolutely NO desire to use Microsoft Teams and you heavily utilize Skype for Business for internal and external messaging;  How do you configure Microsoft Teams to ONLY be a messaging tool?  The Teams desktop app is a large Window compared to Skype for Business, so does anyone know if it is possible to use a "slim" version of Teams on the desktop?  Anyone know if there are plans to create a slim version or Messaging Only Teams desktop application?  I find it odd that Microsoft would just assume this is the way to go and that all company's want all the functionality/features of Teams instead of Skype for Business, but maybe my company and those I've spoken to are just a minority.  Just really dread trying to explain to leadership why Microsoft is going to remove their messaging application with a larger app when all they want is a chat client.  :)

[#2]

Hi @LandonX  - your org is definitely not a minority. Teams is huge and many orgs aren't wanting to adopt the entire platform - but you can tell your leadership that if they just open the app and stay on their chat screen all day, they can happily ignore the other features. They do not need to create Teams and Channels to use just the chat, meeting and call features. I'm curious with the pending Kaizala integration - which is more of a chat platform. Otherwise, I don't see anything on the roadmap nor have I heard any chatter about a slimmer Teams app. You may want to consider bringing it up on user voice: https://office365.uservoice.com

[#3]

I would expect they come out with a more slim lined version or chatting or something before they retire Skype. Teams is barely over two years old and has had insane amount of changes. Since most basic back end functionality is almost complete, I expect to start seeing more movement on UI, so hopefully we will see some improvements and or options in the product over the next two years before they cut it off.