Popular team communication application Slack is adding integrations with its main competitor, Microsoft Teams, according to company CEO Stewart Butterfield.
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While details on these updates are scarce, the news comes as a surprise to many considering the deep-rooted competition between the two platforms. In the wake of COVID-19, many companies have temporarily shifted to working remotely, leading to an astronomical rise in users over a very brief period of time. Microsoft announced that 12 million users were added to the platform between March 11 and 18, bringing its total amount of daily active users to 44 million globally.
While similar in functionality to Microsoft Teams, Slack users are limited by a lack of full compatibility with elements of Office 365 (a staple in many workplaces around the world). Last year, Slack enhanced its compatibility with Microsoft’s productivity suite by adding support for OneDrive and Outlook. However, integrations achieved between all elements of Microsoft 365 are second to none and are compatible with the over 1 billion devices around the world currently running Windows 10.
At this time, the nature of the relationship between Slack and Microsoft remains unclear. Publicly available APIs make integrating elements of Microsoft’s software family possible, though deeper native integrations are more easily achieved through direct collaboration.
More news is sure to come over the coming weeks and months as technology and communication companies continue to grapple with the incredible demand of new tools driving productivity and collaboration while working remotely.
Yesterday, Slack broke concurrent user records as more companies around the world are migrating to a virtual office following government-mandated orders to shelter in place in an attempt to "flatten the curve" and curb the coronavirus' spread.
