While Microsoft has offered a free (and basic) Teams client in addition to its more commonplace Microsoft 365 version, the Redmond company has announced a new iteration of its collaboration software designed for small businesses.
Teams Essentials, priced at $4 USD per month, will offer users the core Teams experience without Office apps bundled in. The end experience is closer to what one might expect from rivals such as Zoom or Microsoft’s own Skype, where users can interact via a chat interface and host meetings and video calls from the app’s built-in calendar.
Essentials launches with 10GB of OneDrive Storage, and without the ability to create teams (within Teams) and host channels. While Teams Essentials won’t necessarily offer all of the same expansion options that the regular Teams does, Microsoft clarified that the product would launch with a Google Calendar integration.
Teams Essentials is available to download today. The app is set to compete against the likes of Google Workspace, Slack, and Zoom into the far future.
