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7 Ways to Connect Microsoft Teams and Slack in 2021
- Microsoft publishes a Slack connector in its connector inventory that enables some Slack and Microsoft Teams crossover. You will benefit from functionality like joining a Slack channel and can even set triggers for certain events. However, limited functionality stops experiments pretty quickly.
- Slack brings teams together to speed up collaboration, but some conversations are simply more efficient face-to-face. With the Microsoft Teams Calls app, it’s easy to quickly launch a Teams video call right in Slack, seamlessly moving from discussions to face-to-face.
- Download Microsoft Teams now and get connected across devices on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Collaborate better with the Microsoft Teams app.
Microsoft Teams and Slack both encrypt data, messages, and files, in transit and at rest. They also both enforce team-wide and organization-wide two-factor authentication. Beyond that, Microsoft.
This post exists to answer the question: Does Microsoft Teams integrate with Slack?
We know chat must be native, seamless, and simple to administer. But with both Microsoft Teams and Slack dominating the team collaboration market, enterprises using both apps need to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Most notably, we hear from customers that were thinking about moving from Slack to Microsoft Teams or blocking Slack in favor of Microsoft Teams, and vice versa.
Does Microsoft teams integrate with Slack?
Rather than continue working in silos, we’ve highlighted 7 ways to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams then gone out and found a better one for internal use and a better one for external use.
1 – Connect Slack and Microsoft Teams without introducing a new chat client
Native federation
Pros:
There are services in the marketplace that allow you to federate with other enterprises via their own chat client, but this doesn’t resolve the issue of multiple chat platforms in a single organization.
It does, however, bring them together in a slightly improved chat client.
Natively, apps like Skype for Business also provide this functionality. Skype for Business users just need to turn on the federation facility within their Office 365 admin portal.
Cons:
Some UC providers have started to introduce cross-platform messaging into their collaboration offerings.
Whilst this does remedy the issue of switching between multiple apps, the solution here is to totally replace the solution you are already invested in.
You can message any number of other businesses using most chat apps. But, this comes with the disadvantage of giving up the native app that everybody uses.
Guest access
Pros:
Take the typical example where your engineering team loves Slack and your IT and Sales teams prefer Teams.
Guest access on both platforms allows external parties to join in the conversation, but access is limited.
Cons:
Removing either (or both) of Slack and Microsoft Teams, in favor of a catch-all UC solution, almost always results in using Slack and Teams for some services.
Obviously, this is the ideal scenario for the UC provider. However, they may not always be the best fit for the business.
Moving your messaging stack to a new product could still leave you heavily invested in Microsoft Office 365 – a waste of a powerful app already paid for in your Office 365 strategy.
2 – Configure webhooks for Slack & Microsoft Teams
Pros:
By using webhooks, you have a low-cost solution to a complex enterprise issue.
Webhooks also take little time to configure per scenario. If the issue exists in a single channel, webhooks are a good solution to a large scale problem.
Cons:
The downside to using webhooks revolves around the amount of manual configuration required.
When you are dealing with multiple channels in an enterprise scenario, webhooks are simply not scalable.
They also don’t tend to display in a native way, and instead, from a bot.
End users have to re-train behavior in order to message cross-platform, and who has time for that? You? Didn’t think so.
In an organization of a few hundred or more, remembering who uses what platform becomes impossible to mentally track.
News also broke in April 2020 when it was discovered some Slack webhooks has been exposed as potential phishing hooks.
Researchers said there are nearly 131,000 Slack webhook URLs available on the Internet.
3 – Use APIs & bots to connect Slack & Microsoft Teams
Pros:
Bots for Slack and Microsoft Teams are on the rise. Bots can be leveraged to create a more native experience.
Microsoft publishes a Slack connector in its connector inventory that enables some Slack and Microsoft Teams crossover.
You will benefit from functionality like joining a Slack channel and can even set triggers for certain events.
However, limited functionality stops experiments pretty quickly. For example, direct messaging goes totally unmentioned.
Cons:
Most users, especially in the enterprise space, are still in the experimental phase in terms of users being comfortable using them.
One Github community working on a tool to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams expressed concerns that various API and migration tools are limited to basic functionality.
Most of these solutions are still configuration based.
This means you will spend incredible time and resource making each channel work for you – and maintain this configuration as you add and modify channels.
4 – Create your own app using an app builder
Pros:
Generally, app builders are simple to use.
With a no-code approach, you don’t need to hire a specialist engineer to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams
You can get a free trial to play around with your requirements.
Most app builders support a wide range of apps to integrate like Slack, Google Sheets, and Trello.
Cons:
Functionality is limited by the supported features available on a particular app builder.
One user got in touch with Mio for a replacement solution to using an app builder stating:
“I tried an app builder but it was too limited. Threads didn’t work, and users name matching was absent. “
The functionality will also be limited by your own building skills and requirements gathering.
While support is available with most app builders, it is considered a DIY approach to connecting Slack and Microsoft Teams.
5 – Slack and Microsoft Teams calling integration
The integration between Slack and Microsoft Teams VoIP functionality arrived as part of a comprehensive update at Enterprise Connect, April 2020.
Pros:
The update allows for Microsoft Teams calls to start through Slack. You can access the integration through the shortcuts button on Slack. This lightning-bolt shaped icon near your message input field allows you to start a Teams call instantly.
If you prefer the Slash command option on Slack, then you can opt for the /Teams-Calls to launch your Teams call from Slack instead.
Cons:
Unfortunately, the Slack and Teams calling integration is limited. It only connects one aspect of Slack and Microsoft Teams.
You can start a call through Microsoft Teams in Slack this way, but you can’t send instant messages or send files from someone on Slack to someone on Teams.
Tom Arbuthnot, Principal Solutions Architect at Modality Systems and Microsoft MVP, agrees the Slack and Teams calling integration is not a complete solution for connecting Slack and Microsoft Teams.
“The Slack “integration” to Microsoft Teams, while clever, is really just Microsoft Teams meeting join link in Slack that fires up Microsoft Teams to join the Teams meeting.”
Users often ask for further integration like being able to directly call or chat from one platform to another.
Team collaboration tools should allow access to a wide range of communication options. That makes the latest integration restrictive. After all, there’s a lot more to Slack and Microsoft Teams than just calling.
In an interview for UC Today, our CEO Tom Hadfield commented on news of the integration:
“The future of intercompany collaboration relies on full interoperability between Slack and Microsoft Teams. Cross-platform calling is a good start, but our customers tell us what they really need is cross-platform shared channels and direct messaging.”
6 – Use the Microsoft Graph API to migrate Slack to Teams
Microsoft is working on a migration API to help IT managers and Microsoft admins migrate chats from Slack to Teams.
As of September 2020, Microsoft has made documentation available and certain tenants can sign up to the beta program.
In theory, Microsoft wants to allow Slack messages to be migrated over to Teams without a delay or break in service and/or conversation.
The in-scope and out-of-scope items are included below:
Pros:
Previous attempts to migrate Slack to Teams have resulted in a loss of historical data and messages. The new migration API changes that.
![Slack Slack](/uploads/1/1/3/6/113648129/700165081.png)
As Tom Morgan, Product Innovation Architect at Modality Systems, pointed out his blog, an organization might be moving from Slack to Teams but have 5+ years worth of message history in Slack.
Previously, in this scenario, there have been workarounds that result in a disjointed and almost unworkable experience. With the migration API, theoretically, all messages and message information should be transferred over.
For businesses who decide they must migrate from Slack to Teams, instead of choosing interoperability between the two apps, this is the most likely option of keeping your Slack users happy.
Cons:
A game changer for most businesses is that messages can only be imported into public channels. If you plan to use private channels, Microsoft doesn’t offer support for this.
One further restriction is the lack of support for backups.
As documented by Tony Redmond, Principal at Redmond & Associates and Author of the Office 365 for IT Pros Book, this process doesn’t include a backup.
“The lack of a backup and restore API for Teams that covers team structure and content is regrettable. Because Teams is interconnected with the rest of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, it is a difficult application to backup. But that’s no reason for Microsoft to ignore the need.”
Tom Morgan also pointed out that the whole process made his head hurt.
“It’s a ‘behind the curtain’ operation that changes how I think about Teams messages. These aren’t operations for the every day, but if you need to migrate over messages from third-party systems into Microsoft Teams, these API calls will give you the power you need to achieve it. Just, make sure you don’t break any other parts of the delicate balance of time and space whilst you’re at it.”
7 – Federation to connect to external guests across Slack and Teams
Do you communicate with people outside your organization as well?
According to research, they’ll likely be using Slack or Microsoft Teams, but not necessarily the same as you.
It’s hard to chat with freelancers, contractors, and suppliers when you’re not on the same platform.
When this is the case, it becomes extremely unproductive moving out of your app to accommodate your guest.
Or even worse, end up resorting to email like it’s the 90s. (Okay, email has a purpose but you get the point).
That’s why Mio has created universal channels for Microsoft Teams with Slack.
You can stay in Teams and send messages to your contractors, suppliers, or clients that use Slack.
They stay in their platform too and Mio translates the messages across platform.
And it’s not just messages that are supported! GIFs, emojis, channels, DMs, and message edits/deletes are all supported.
If this sounds like something you need, try your first universal channel for free here. Your first three are completely free.
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Slack vs Microsoft Teams 2021 – The Enterprise Messaging Wars Continue
Slack vs Microsoft Teams has been heating up for some time now. With the pot about to boil over, we took a look back at what triggered the messaging wars and where we are at the end of 2019.
Back in July 2018, Wired ran the headline “The Office-Messaging Wars Are Over. Slack Has Won.”
This was in response to Atlassian striking a deal for Slack to inherit their HipChat and Stride customers.
Feb 15th 2019 was the date given for Atlassian customers to find a new home. The obvious choice was to migrate to Slack.
This short deadline posed a problem for some enterprises.
Businesses of a certain size have change control procedures and major projects on the go. So, a messaging migration wasn’t on the agenda.
But, before the migration comes the shopping and the due diligence.
Rightly, questions were asked.
Is Slack right for my business?
What about Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex?
How do I find and deploy a messaging platform by February 2019?
Messaging wars begin
Mio CEO, Tom Hadfield, responded with his own take on the Slack and Atlassian partnership.
Tom wrote, “While Slack may have won the Office Messaging Wars of 2014-2017, the Enterprise Messaging Wars of 2018-2020 are only just beginning.”
Tom suggested we were only on episode 5 of 20 of Game of Messaging Thrones and Slack vs Microsoft Teams would run on throughout the year.
With the arrival of Microsoft, Google, and Cisco on Slack’s home turf, Tom correctly predicted that was more to come.
The rise and rise of Microsoft Teams
To declare the messaging wars were over, only two weeks after Microsoft announced a free version of Microsoft Teams was a bold statement.
We only had to wait two further weeks to learn that Microsoft had officially named Slack as a competitor.
Slack vs Microsoft Teams was made official.
Towards the end of 2018, Spiceworks revealed the results of its latest business chat apps study.
They showed that Skype for Business is still number one with 44% use across 900 businesses surveyed.
We now know that Microsoft intends to discontinue Skype for Business in favor of Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft announced that Skype for Business Online will go end of life on July 31st, 2021.
What we also know is that 66% of companies using Microsoft Teams are using Slack in parallel.
So, it’s not a winner takes all market. And businesses continue to use multiple apps in parallel.
Covering other vendors in the market, the Spiceworks study also revealed expected adoption by the end of 2020:
- 53% Skype for Business
- 41% Microsoft Teams
- 18% Slack
- 12% Google Chat
- 1% Workplace from Facebook
Slack vs Microsoft Teams trigger points
Needless to say, these results triggered a raft of articles.
Marian McHugh of CRN Channel Web went as far as to say that Microsoft Teams had stolen the limelight from Slack and usurped the collaboration crown.
Perhaps the most topical view in the messaging wars debate is that of Agile IT who suggested that HipChat users are better off with Microsoft Teams, rather than Slack as the natural replacement.
We’ve seen published our own guide to migrating from HipChat to Microsoft Teams.
Their comparison of the two messaging players broke down key features that were of importance to HipChat users.
Whilst on point for the HipChat community, this was merely one of many articles comparing Microsoft Teams and Slack.
Most importantly, this was not the end to Slack vs Microsoft Teams.
Tim Gelardi, Senior Industry Analyst at MZA, told me he thinks:
“It’s going to be a big year for Microsoft Teams. They will continue to be the main blocker to many of the other solutions getting a foothold in organisations.”
As we moved further through the year, Microsoft continued to reveal more impressive numbers.
In November 2020, it was announced that Microsoft Teams now has 115m daily active users.
Where does Webex sit in the battle of Slack vs Microsoft Teams?
The next biggest name on the Spiceworks list was Google Hangouts.
This is surprising as Cisco Webex boasts a whole host of customers. A fair assumption is they were not included in the Spiceworks survey.
However, Cisco was recently named a leader in team collaboration software by Info-Tech, and then again in the prestigious Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS.
In the Info-Tech report, Cisco received an 8.3/10 composite score. This put them third overall, behind Slack and Asana.
Fuelling the fire that little bit more, Amy Chang, SVP of Collaboration at Cisco, commented in an interview with the Wall Street Journal:
“Last year we grew an entire Slack in 10 months”.
Could Google Hangouts enter the Slack vs Microsoft Teams debate?
Google had a strange couple of months at the back end of last year.
Seemingly, all was quiet on the messaging front.
Then, stories around Google Hangouts Chat being discontinued surfaced.
As it happens, Google isn’t killing Hangouts.
Head of Google Hangouts, Scott Johnson, confirmed in a tweet:
“No decisions made about when Hangouts will be shut down. Hangouts users will be upgraded to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet.”
Gartner initially included Google Hangouts in their Chat Wars article in 2017.
Google certainly hasn’t won the messaging war but they are hanging on in there.
Interestingly, Tim Gelardi suggested:
“Google is making a serious play for the enterprise now. It will be interesting to see how G-Suite customers take to the Hangouts Chat.”
At Google Next, Google announced new features to the platform, quashing rumors that it is due to disappear.
New features include:
- Guest access (Gmail integration)
- Hangouts Meet and Google Voice integration
- Out of office notifications
- Progressive web app
- Accelerated transition program
Furthermore, Google Currents was announced to be making a comeback.
The former social magazine app was discontinued in favor of Google Play Newsstand.
The new version should be a rival to Workplace by Facebook and is listed on Product Hunt as an enterprise replacement for Google+.
Last we heard from Google, Currents is still in beta.
Battlers from left field
Workplace by Facebook only received 1% of the Spiceworks survey. Since the study, Nestle has committed to a 210,000 user deployment.
Workplace VP, Julien Codorniou told me openly that the Workplace strategy is to attack the forward-thinking Fortune 500 customers.
Whilst there appears a lot of room to makeup, Tim Gelardi shares the same opinion.
“I think we will see Facebook gaining a lot of user base market share, but if the big Chinese providers (DingTalk, WeChat etc) can monetize their existing free users, they could be dark horses.”
There is also the potential for Unified Comms vendors to make a real play in the messaging wars this year.
Seeking to add team collaboration into their more traditional Unified Comms play, increasingly we see more and more alternatives to Slack.
Vendors like RingCentral now include messaging and collaboration offerings in their solutions.
Glip and Circuit act as potential threats to the larger players in the messaging wars – particularly if the focus (mainly in Europe) is still on telephony.
Could this be a way into the war or will the big three trump these solutions on sheer brand power?
Who will win the enterprise messaging wars?
I reached out to industry experts to get their opinions on who would win the messaging wars.
Blair Pleasant, Co-Founder of UCStrategies.com, summarizes nicely:
“There doesn’t have to be one winner – lots of room in the messaging space for multiple vendors – and more choices for customers.”
CTO and Head of AI at Five9, Jonathan Rosenberg, who recently gave his thoughts in our “Mio Chats” interview series, suggests that:
“2019 will be a transition year with early deployments at scale. Microsoft Teams will do well as Office 365 scales and Cisco Webex will grow as well. Slack still wins downmarket and line of business.”
Interoperability in the messaging wars
As the market continues to grow considerations must be made for instances of multiple messaging platforms.
Graham Walsh, Strategic Alliance Technical Director for EMEA at Creston, recognized this in his comment:
“I think one fundamental piece of the jigsaw is missing – interoperability. I get asked it all the time. Can Slack talk to Hangouts etc? With so many acquisitions, not everyone wants to be on one platform. Let users have the choice.”
Kevin Kieller, Co-Founder of enableUC, said that multi-vendor solutions sound okay in theory but couldn’t see it happening.
“Google, Slack, and Microsoft want you in their ecosystem.”
The reverse is the belief of Umar Sear, Director of Business Collaboration, Mobility & IoT Solutions at Tata Communications.
“I believe it’s going to get a lot more diverse. We need to find a way to interoperate between the platforms.”
Andy Dignan, SVP of Professional Services at Five9 approached the messaging wars from a customer angle.
“2019 will be the year that customers who have Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex will get closer to choosing one solution, maybe two. The users will decide.”
Alaa Saayed, ICT Industry Director at Frost & Sullivan, agreed that Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex will continue to grow but that Slack will win the 2019 messaging wars.
The enterprise messaging wars continue
It’s fair to say that the industry remains fragmented but full of great messaging platforms, and there is no clear winner of the enterprise messaging wars.
In Tom Hadfield’s initial article, he suggested we were only on episode 5 of Game Of Messaging Thrones.
Over a year later, I’d suggest we’ve made it to around episode 8.
Slack
In fact, since the original time of publishing this article, Slack has released its latest active user count.
As of October 2019, Slack has now reached 12 million daily active users. Another powerful tactic in the messaging wars but an amazing achievement nonetheless.
Following the original 10m announcement in July, we eagerly watched the Slack IPO.
Other than share prices going up and down, all we’ve really witnessed is speculation.
Users and admins haven’t removed Slack and opted for Microsoft Teams.
Nor will they willingly do this in the future.
Teams Slack Integration
And they shouldn’t have to.
You wouldn’t remove everyone’s Macs because other people used Windows laptops, would you?
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams announced at Enterprise Connect that their app is in use by 500,000 organizations across the world.
Monstrous numbers, but Slack CEO, Stewart Butterfield, calmly played off that he wasn’t worried.
Following Slack’s claim of 12m daily active users, Microsoft Teams responded with 13m daily active users of their own.
Cisco Webex
Cisco hasn’t gone under the radar either. Amy Chang led a keynote at Enterprise Connect, and then UC Expo, where she introduced users of Webex to cognitive collaboration.
Export Slack To Microsoft Teams
Intelligent features like Webex assistant, People Insights and facial recognition will be turned on in Webex soon.
Furthermore, both Jabber users and BroadSoft UC-One SaaS users will now have access to Webex messaging features.
Who will win the enterprise messaging wars?
Microsoft Teams Slack Alternative
I’ve rewritten this post a few times now but the conclusion remains the same.
The enterprise messaging wars are not over. They’re still heating up.
Microsoft Teams Slack Integration
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