In the last few weeks, Microsoft Teams has emerged as a clear leader in a dynamic UC marketplace. With security concerns around Zoom and scalability issues with smaller, more niche solutions, it seemed like Microsoft Teams was poised for a meteoric rise. We’ve been watching this race closely, commenting on the new features and updates from Zoom, Teams, and others as they compete for a massive audience.
For instance, Microsoft Teams will soon support 49 onscreen participants in the Gallery view, something that’s already available on Zoom.
So, what are some of the other areas where Teams and Zoom are yet to stand shoulder-to-shoulder?
One of the much-debated questions has been the availability of breakout rooms on Microsoft Teams.
A breakout room lets you split a group audio or video call into divergent sessions. Let’s say your conferencing with 12 colleagues, across product, marketing, sales, and customer success. The breakout room feature would allow the sales and marketing teams to break out into a separate discussion, while the primary meeting continues as planned. Terminating one session doesn’t have any impact on concurrent meeting tracks.
Breakout rooms are among the biggest USPs for Zoom right now.
Zoom lets you create up to 50 breakout sessions from a meeting, which can be incredibly useful for all-hands sessions. There is no need to schedule a separate meeting to followup on an idea. And, participants aren’t left waiting while others discuss a topic that might not be relevant to them.
Recognising the importance of breakout meetings as most of us work from home during the pandemic, Zoom has made the feature free for all registered users. But what about breakout rooms on Microsoft Teams? If you head to Microsoft Teams UserVoice (the platform’s customer feedback and idea crowdsourcing portal), breakout rooms is among the most up-voted ideas discussed.
