Microsoft is developing a family or home version of their Teams service to allow small groups and families to share information and communicate online.
It’s adapted from the existing business version of Teams but will include some useful features for families like shared calendar, assign tasks, chat, voice & video messaging, link to OneDrive Vaults, photo sharing and even Location Sharing. Don’t worry, the last one is optional.
Source: Microsoft
Switching between personal and work Teams
A new version of the Teams app will allow switching between the existing work/business Teams and the Home/Family Teams.
Desktop program integration
We really hope that this Teams Home (whatever it’s called) will allow integrated use of the Windows and Mac desktop Office programs; Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
All Microsoft is saying is
“Share documents, tackle projects together, build a family budget, or help with homework using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. ”
Within specifying which Office apps will be included.
The current free Teams is severely hampered by the limitation to the web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Apply for the Teams home preview
Microsoft is accepting requests to try the new Teams for home.
Go here to apply, it uses a standard Microsoft Forms.
The list of countries has many common testing countries; USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, European countries and others. Australia and New Zealand aren’t on the pull-down list which is a little strange. If your country isn’t listed, choose Other and enter it’s name in the box provided.
When and how much?
When will Microsoft Teams Home (or whatever it’s called) go public and what will it cost?
There’s no release date announced. It’ll probably be a few months away and could be pushed out further given the current ‘interesting’ times.
Price is anyone’s guess. We expect it’ll be a flat price per family not the per user pricing for business Teams.
How about an addition to the new Microsoft 365 Family plan (formerly Office 365 Home) or a new ‘Family Plus’ plan which includes Teams Family for a higher annual price?
What’s inside Microsoft Teams; teams, channels, chats, wiki, files, apps, tabs, sites
How Microsoft Teams fits together; organizations, teams, channels, apps and people
Ignore Microsoft’s opportunistic marketing, Teams is not for everyone
