If you're a Windows Insider in the Dev and Canary channels, you may know that Microsoft recently released a new Teams app, which brings together the business and personal versions of Teams into a single app with support for multiple accounts. While it's still mostly based on the Teams app for work, this change is a great first step to fix the mess that is Microsoft's strategy for messaging.

There's still work to be done, but this move gives me some hope for the future. Here's why I'm hopeful and what Microsoft still needs to do.

Microsoft's messaging problem

It's been a mess for years

Let's rewind a little bit to last year when I wrote a long-winded complaint about the state of Microsoft's messaging efforts. It's important to look back on this since it's the primary reason for this article as well.

Microsoft has had a rough history with messaging, transitioning from its fairly successful Windows Live Messenger platform to Skype, which it had acquired in 2012, and later to Teams, often doing a poor job of handling that transition. The transition from Skype to Teams was particularly confusing, though, especially as Microsoft has yet to retire Skype entirely.

In the business world, the transition was fairly quick. By 2019, Skype for Business was retired in favor of Teams. But for consumers, it's been a mess. Microsoft stopped including Skype with new Windows installs around 2021, and with Windows 11, it introduced a version of Teams made for personal use. You might think that spelled the end of Skype, but by the end of the year, Skype received a major update, and that happened again in 2022. Skype has also been home to some of Microsoft's AI features, being among the first to feature integration with Copilot (then called Bing Chat), as well as adding features like a news feed, which the personal version of Teams never got. To this day, these features still aren't in Teams. At the same time, Teams has a Communities feature that isn't available in Skype, so it's just a big mess of what apps support what.

There's also a disparity between Teams for work and Teams for personal use, with most app integrations being exclusive to the work version of the app. It's a problem that makes it hard to know which app to use for what, or if your version of Teams can use a certain feature you've heard about.

One app to rule them all

Unifying the Teams apps is a logical move

Microsoft's recent announcement that it's bringing the Teams for work and Teams (free) apps together makes perfect sense, and I'd argue it's long overdue. No one can really say this is a bad idea. In fact, Microsoft has had a unified Teams app for a long time, if you're on Android or iOS. Windows was different, but there was no reason for it. All it did was create confusion for users of both apps, especially when you needed to join a Teams meeting as a guest and needed the work version of the app, without any good reason as to why the app you already have wouldn't work.

It's also good to see that this new app is largely based on the version of Teams that's designed for work, which hopefully means that the groundwork for all the features we're used to hearing about is already there. The free version of Teams was lacking a lot of features, so hopefully this is a good sign of things to come.

What Microsoft still needs to do

Personal Teams accounts deserve more

While a unified Teams app is a step in the right direction when it comes to fixing Microsoft's messaging strategy, there's still more that needs to be done. First off, while I mentioned above that the unified Teams app is a good sign for the future, that's basically all it is right now. Personal Teams accounts still don't have access to all the features that work accounts do, and it doesn't make sense. Teams for work has a ton of integrations with third-party apps, but even with Microsoft's own services.

For example, Teams for work can integrate with Microsoft Whiteboard, and Whiteboard is an app that's also available for personal use. Why can't that integration also work for personal Teams accounts? That's just one of many examples that could be used here, and I hope having a unified app makes this more feasible. Not to mention that further integrations could totally make sense for personal users, with apps like OneDrive (or other cloud storage services) and real-time collaboration in Office. I get that the personal version of Teams is free, but just as Teams for work is part of Microsoft 365, some of these features could also be exclusive to Microsoft 365 Personal/Family subscribers. There are already premium features in Teams reserved for subscribers, so there's room for it to be done with other features, too.

Focus on Teams

It's time to let Skype go

The other thing is that Skype needs to go. I know there's still a large userbase of Skype fans, but that app just doesn't have the appeal it used to. Even the more stubborn users have left the platform, and there's no growth left in Skype. Microsoft should transition these users to Teams, and if it doesn't think it can convince users to move over, it just automatically turn any Skype account into a Teams account, assuming users are already using a Microsoft account anyway. Make the systems interoperable for those who can't update to Teams yet, and phase out Skype over time.

I understand that the process above will upset some users, but Microsoft's efforts should really be focused. The company struggles to keep a single messaging app alive and relevant, so why try to sustain two? Given how quick Microsft can be to shut down some of its other endeavors, I'm very surprised Skype has lasted this long.

It won't happen overnight

As much as I want to see this change happen as quickly as possible, I'm not fooling myself into thinking Microsoft will quickly fix its messaging app situation. After all, we've been in this mess for years, and things have shown little signs of improving until recently. Still, sooner or later, I hope Microsoft can make its messaging apps relevant again and keep its focus on a single app that's actually good.