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 Microsoft 365 business plan comparison and Microsoft 365 Enterprise plan comparison.
For detailed plan information on subscriptions that enable users for Microsoft Teams and are currently available in European Economic Area (EEA) countries and Switzerland see the Microsoft 365 business plan comparison for EEA and Microsoft 365 Enterprise plan comparison for EEA.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams Apps | 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 (Teams Phone)6 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes2 | Yes2 | Yes |
| Webinars | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes5 |
| Town Hall | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Loop Integrations | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes7 |
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.
5 For Education A1, SMB Plans only support up to 300 person limit for webinars.
6 Requires purchase of additional Teams Phone license.
7 Collaborative meeting notes are not available in Education at this time.
Additional Services
Microsoft Teams Rooms
Teams Rooms turns any meeting space into an easy-to-use and inclusive collaboration space where everyone has a place at the table, regardless of where they sit.
Virtual Appointments
The Virtual Appointments app provides a central hub for all your virtual appointments needs in Microsoft Teams. The app enables a seamless end-to-end experience for business-to-customer engagements, integrating Bookings schedules, analytics, and management options, all in one place.
You can schedule, view, and manage virtual appointments, get real-time status updates in a queue view, send appointment reminders, view analytics and reports to gain insight into virtual appointments activity, and configure calendar, staff, and booking page settings.
With any Microsoft 365 license, you can use basic the Virtual Appointments capabilities to schedule and join business-to-customer meetings. For example, you can schedule appointments in the Bookings calendar and external attendees can join through a browser without having to download Teams. Teams Premium unlocks the advanced Virtual Appointments capabilities that your organization can use to manage and personalize the experience. These include a queue view of scheduled and on-demand appointments, SMS text notifications, custom waiting rooms, and analytics.
Users can find the Virtual Appointments app in the Teams app store, or you can share the installation link to help them find it. You can use an app setup policy to pin the app for your organization, or your users can pin the app themselves.
Available plans
For detailed plan information on subscriptions that enable users for Microsoft Teams Virtual Appointments, see the Microsoft 365 business plan comparison and Microsoft 365 Enterprise plan comparison.
For detailed plan information on subscriptions that enable users for Microsoft Teams Virtual Appointments and are currently available in European Economic Area (EEA) countries and Switzerland see the Microsoft 365 business plan comparison for EEA and Microsoft 365 Enterprise plan comparison for EEA.
Feature availability
The following table lists the major Virtual Appointments App features available across plans. Certain caveats apply. See the footnotes for further information. This table may change without notice. For the most up-to-date, complete list of Virtual Appointments App features across plans, see Virtual Appointments with Microsoft Teams.
| Feature | Small business plans | Enterprise plans | Education plans | Government plans | Developer plans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Appointments App | Yes1 | Yes1 | Yes1 | Yes1 | Yes1 |
| Mobile browser join | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Forms integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SMS notifications | Yes1,2 | Yes1,2 | No | No | Yes1,2 |
| Custom waiting room with branding | Yes1 | Yes1 | No | Yes1 | Yes1 |
| Bookings: scheduling, appointment management and email notifications | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| On-demand queue | Yes1 | Yes1 | No | Yes1 | Yes1 |
| Scheduled queue | Yes1 | Yes1 | No | Yes1 | Yes1 |
| Departmental analytics | Yes1 | Yes1 | No | Yes1 | Yes1 |
| Organizational analytics | Yes1 | Yes1 | No | Yes1 | Yes1 |
1 Basic capabilities are available as part of any Microsoft 365 and Office 365 license; advanced features are included in a Teams Premium subscription. Learn more about Teams Premium licensing to take advantage of the Virtual Appointment advanced features.
2 SMS notifications are currently only available in US, UK, CAD.
Career Coach for Microsoft Teams
Career Coach has been retired as of June 30, 2023.
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
Teams Rooms: Learn more about plans, pricing, capabilities, and certified devices at Microsoft Teams Rooms | Calling & Meeting Room Solutions with additional information on service capabilities on Microsoft Learn.
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, Viva Engage, or Microsoft Teams. To learn more about live event capabilities, see Live events across Microsoft 365 in Viva Engage, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Stream.
- 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 Microsoft Entra ID. 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.
- For more information about Teams limits, see Limits and specifications for Microsoft Teams.
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.
Virtual Appointments: For more information about Virtual Appointments, check out the following resources:
- Manage the Virtual Appointments app for your organization in Microsoft Teams
- What is Virtual Appointments app Support
- Use the Virtual Appointments app in Microsoft Teams
- Introducing Advanced Virtual Appointments in Microsoft Teams Premium [Blog]
- Introducing Microsoft Teams Premium, the better way to meet [Blog]