Microsoft Teams service description
Microsoft Teams is the hub for teamwork in Microsoft 365. The Teams service enables instant messaging, audio and video calling, rich online meetings, mobile experiences, and extensive web conferencing capabilities. In addition, Teams provides file and data collaboration and extensibility features, and integrates with Microsoft 365 and other Microsoft and partner apps.
Available plans
For detailed plan information on subscriptions that enable users for Microsoft Teams, see the full subscription comparison table.
Feature availability
The following table lists the major Microsoft Teams features available across plans. Certain caveats apply. See the footnotes for further information. This table may change without notice. Refer to Microsoft 365 Message Center notifications for core service change messaging and to the Microsoft licensing terms reference documentation.
| Feature | Small business | Enterprise plans | GCC | GCC - High | DOD | Education |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps, Bots, & Connectors | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes1 | Yes1 | Yes |
| Audio conferencing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes2 | Yes2 | Yes |
| Channels - Standard | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Channels - Private | Yes | Yes3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Channels - Shared | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes4 |
| Chat | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live Events | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Meetings | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Screen sharing PowerPoint Audio/Video Desktop | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Voice | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes2 | Yes2 | Yes |
| Webinars | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
1 Third-party applications and application publishing are not available in these clouds at this time.
2 Direct routing must be configured for Microsoft Teams voice and audio conferencing to work in GCCH and DoD.
3 Microsoft Planner is not currently available to access in private channels.
4 Shared channels are not supported with Class teams.
Additional Services
Career Coach for Microsoft Teams
Career Coach is a Microsoft Teams for Education app powered by LinkedIn that provides personalized guidance for higher education students to navigate their career journey. Career Coach offers educational institutions a unified career solution for students to discover their career path, grow real-world skills, and build their network all in one place. To learn more about Career Coach, see Purchase, configure, and enable Career Coach for Microsoft Teams and Career Coach - Microsoft Education.
Microsoft eCDN
Microsoft eCDN (enterprise Content Delivery Network) is a webRTC-based solution that reduces bandwidth usage and the load on the corporate network for delivering seamless live video streaming in Microsoft Teams Live Events. Its mesh networks are self-balancing and automatically scale as the number of viewers increases. The technology does not require additional installation on user endpoints or changes to the physical network infrastructure. For more information, go to Microsoft eCDN or Introducing Microsoft eCDN for a New Era of Communications - Microsoft Tech Community.
Learn more
Microsoft Teams Essentials: Microsoft Teams Essentials is a standalone Teams subscription that provides an all-in-one solution with meetings, chat, and collaboration for small businesses. Learn more about Teams Essentials and how to get started here.
Microsoft Teams subscriptions: All supported subscription plans are eligible for access to the Microsoft Teams web client, desktop clients, and mobile apps. Microsoft Teams is not available as a standalone service.
- Live Events: This offering in Office 365 replaces the retired Skype Meeting Broadcast. Live events capabilities are available for licensing plans as detailed within the Stream service. Review the Microsoft Stream licensing details here. The Live Events service can be accessed through Stream, Yammer, or Microsoft Teams. To learn more about live event capabilities, see Live events across Microsoft 365 in Yammer, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Stream.
- For detailed plan information on subscriptions that enable users for Microsoft Teams, see the full subscription comparison table. For additional Office 365 in Government plans, see Office 365 Government plans. Office 365 G1 through G5 include access to Teams features.
- Cloud voice features: For audio conferencing, your organization must buy and assign an audio-conferencing license to each user who will be setting up dial-in meetings. For Teams features that require calling plans, each user needs a phone system and a domestic or domestic and international calling plan. To learn more, see Microsoft Teams add-on licenses.
- For detailed product feature implementation guidance, see the Microsoft Teams admin documentation. This service description details the key differences between services provided across the various cloud installations.
- Microsoft Teams core functionalities do not differ among the subscriptions. The availability of compliance capabilities depends on your subscription level. To learn more, see Security and compliance in Microsoft Teams. For a detailed list of features available in each subscription, see Microsoft 365 and Office 365 platform service description.
Microsoft Teams technical information: For technical information about Microsoft Teams, refer the following resources:
- Microsoft Teams is an entirely new service, built for the cloud from the ground up by leveraging Azure and other service innovations from Microsoft.
- Microsoft Teams is built on Microsoft 365 groups, Microsoft Graph, and with the same enterprise-level security, compliance, and manageability as the rest of Office 365. Teams leverages identities stored in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). These services are delivered from Microsoft data centers and are accessible to users on a wide range of devices from inside a corporate network or over the Internet. For more information, see the Microsoft Teams IT architecture and telephony solutions posters.
- Begin planning your Microsoft Teams deployment by visiting the Microsoft Teams technical documentation.
- To understand more about Teams features by operating system platform, review the Teams features by platform support article.
- Stay up to date on Teams features and capabilities by joining our community and visiting our Microsoft Teams blog.
Skype for Business Online has retired: Microsoft-assisted upgrades to Teams begin July 31, 2021. Organizations that are scheduled for assisted upgrades after July 31, 2021, will be able to use Skype for Business Online until their upgrade is complete. For more information, see The Skype for Business Online service has retired.
Accessibility: Microsoft remains committed to the security of your data and the accessibility of our services. For more information, see the Microsoft Trust Center and the Office Accessibility Center.
Licensing terms: For licensing terms and conditions for products and services purchased through Microsoft Commercial Volume Licensing Programs, see the Product Terms site.
Messaging: To keep track of upcoming changes, including new and changed features, planned maintenance, or other important announcements, visit the Message Center. For more information, see Message center.
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