Microsoft have been adding lots of new features and applications to Office 365, such as Planner, Shifts and Microsoft Teams. Taking on the likes of Slack, Microsoft describe Teams as a ‘chat-based workspace in Office 365’ allowing teams (internal only at this stage) to work together within one window to enhance teamwork. Get Microsoft Teams as part of Microsoft 365 (for work, school, or government) Typically, an IT administrator can verify if you have Microsoft Teams as part of Microsoft 365. If your organization already has Microsoft Teams, you can access it by signing in to Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams, the hub for team collaboration in Microsoft 365, integrates the people, content, and tools your team needs to be more engaged and effective.
-->If you're the admin for Microsoft Teams in your organization, you're in the right place. When you're ready to get going with Teams, start with How to roll out Teams and Set up secure collaboration with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.
If you're new to Teams and want to learn more, check out our short Welcome to Teams video (55 seconds).
Don't miss our Welcome to Teams for the Teams admin video (just over 3 minutes):
If you're looking for end user Teams Help, click Help on the left side of the app, or go to the Microsoft Teams help center. For training, go to Microsoft Teams Training.
Teams architecture
Teams is built on Microsoft 365 groups, Microsoft Graph, and the same enterprise-level security, compliance, and manageability as the rest of Microsoft 365 and Office 365. Teams leverages identities stored in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Teams keeps working even when you're offline or experiencing spotty network conditions.
To see where Teams fits in the context of Microsoft 365, check out this architecture poster: Teams as part of Microsoft 365
When you create a team, here's what gets created:
- A new Microsoft 365 group
- A SharePoint Online site and document library to store team files
- An Exchange Online shared mailbox and calendar
- A OneNote notebook
- Ties into other Microsoft 365 and Office 365 apps such as Planner and Power BI
When you create a team from an existing group, that group's membership, site, mailbox, and notebook are surfaced in Teams. To learn more, check out this poster: Groups in Microsoft 365 for IT Architects
To customize and extend Teams, add third-party apps through apps, bots, and connectors. With Teams, you can include people from outside your organization by adding them as a guest to a team or channel. As part of Microsoft 365 and Office 365, Teams offers a robust development platform so you can build the teamwork hub you need for your organization.
Tip
For a deep dive into Teams architecture, watch the videos on the Teams Platform Academy.
Managing Teams
As the admin, you'll manage Teams through the Microsoft Teams admin center. For a quick orientation, watch the Manage Teams using the Teams admin center video (3:03 min):
To learn more:
To stay on top of what's coming for Teams and all other Microsoft 365 or Office 365 products and services in your organization, be sure to check Message center and the Teams roadmap. You'll get announcements about new and updated features, planned changes, and issues to help keep you informed and prepared.
Upgrade from Skype for Business to Teams
Teams is the primary client for intelligent communications in Microsoft 365 and Office 365, and it'll eventually replace Skype for Business Online. To stay on top of new features coming to Teams, see the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. To complement persistent chat and messaging capabilities, Teams offers a comprehensive meeting and calling experience, with built in, fully integrated voice and video. Check out Teams is now a complete meeting and calling solution in the Microsoft Teams Blog.
If you're running Skype for Business and are ready to upgrade to Teams, or if you're running Skype for Business and Teams side-by-side and are ready to fully move to Teams, we have the tools, tips, and guidance to help make your transition successful. To learn more, see Upgrade to Teams.
Teamwork
Every team is different; there's no one-size-fits-all approach to collaboration. Microsoft 365 and Office 365 are designed to meet the unique needs of every team, empowering people to communicate, collaborate, and achieve more with purpose-built, integrated applications.
When deciding which Microsoft 365 or Office 365 apps and services to use, think about the work your organization does and the types of conversations your teams need to have.
Teams, as the hub for teamwork, is where people - including people outside your organization - can actively connect and collaborate in real time to get things done. Have a conversation right where the work is happening, whether coauthoring a document, having a meeting, or working together in other apps and services. Teams is the place to have informal chats, iterate quickly on a project, work with team files, and collaborate on shared deliverables.
Outlook for collaborating in the familiar environment of email and in a more formal, structured manner or when targeted and direct communication is required.
SharePoint for sites, portals, intelligent content services, business process automation, and enterprise search. SharePoint keeps content at the center of teamwork, making all types of content easily shareable and accessible across teams. Tight integration with Outlook, Yammer, and Teams enables seamless content collaboration across conversation experiences.
OneDrive for Business for storing files and sharing them with people that a user invites. Content that a user saves to OneDrive for Business is private until the user shares it with others, making it the best option for storing personal and draft documents that are not intended to be shared or not ready to be shared.
Yammer to connect people across the organization. Drive company-wide initiatives, share best practices, and build communities around common topics of interest or areas of practice. Crowdsource ideas to foster open discussions with people across the company.
Office apps are all the familiar tools that people know and use regularly, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
Teams content updates
See a weekly list of Teams topics that have been updated.
Teams known issues
See Teams Troubleshooting.
Ms Teams 365 Download
Teams client release notes
See What's new in Teams.
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The Microsoft Teams admin center is gradually replacing the Skype for Business admin center, and we're migrating Teams settings to it from the Microsoft 365 admin center. If a setting has been migrated, you'll see a notification and then be directed to the setting's location in the Teams admin center. For more information, see Manage Teams during the transition to the Teams admin center.
By default, Teams is turned on for all organizations. If you used Teams during the preview period, the setting stays the same as what you set during your Teams preview.
Download Microsoft Teams
As an administrator for your organization, you can assign user licenses to control individual access to Teams, and you can allow or block what content sources can be used in Teams. See Manage Microsoft Teams settings for your organization or Admin settings for apps in Microsoft Teams for more information.
To learn more about managing individual licenses, read Microsoft Teams service description.
Ms Teams 365 A1
Turn Teams on or off for your entire organization
Ms Teams 365 Download
Tenant-level control for Teams was removed effective August 2018. Control access to Teams in your organization with user-level licensing. To learn more, see Manage user access to Teams.