If you’d told me in 2016 that Microsoft Teams would become the backbone of modern work, I might have laughed. Or at least rolled my eyes and opened Slack.
Fast forward to 2025, and Teams isn’t just alive—it’s thriving, evolving, and running the show for 320 million monthly active users worldwide. But what does the “state of Microsoft Teams” actually look like today?
Let’s break it down-warts, wins, widgets, and all.
Teams in Numbers: Usage and Growth
Let’s start with the headline: 320 million monthly active users. That’s not just a big number—it’s a “how do they even keep the servers running?” number. But it’s Microsoft. That, alone, is answer enough.
Now, some might say we haven’t had a new number for a while. But, honestly, do we need a new number?
Teams is the digital HQ for enterprises, schools, governments, pretty much everyone.
If you’re collaborating, sharing, or just trying to find that one file from three months ago, Teams is probably involved.
Is anyone really concerned about the lack of user figures from Microsoft? Probably not.
The New Teams Experience: 2024–2025 Feature Highlights
Microsoft has been on a relentless update cycle. The last 18 months have seen some of the most significant changes since Teams launched.
Unified Chat and Channels
The 2025 update changed how users interact with Teams. Chat and channels are now unified into a single, cohesive interface.
This redesign streamlines collaboration. It makes it easier to access, triage, and organize conversations. But, yes, it does take a little getting used to. If you’re a heavy user of Teams, you must now unlearn those autonomous functions.
The new filters system and @mention view consolidates all mentions across chats and channels into a single, organized feed. No more hunting for what matters most; pleasing those with perhaps less Teams usage than the absolute pros.
External users can join teams and private channels, but not shared channels. This remains a common source of support queries.
Refreshed Teams and Channel View
It’s not just chats and channel messages that got a facelift over the last 18 months.
This new view makes it easier to organize, manage, and keep up with teams and channels. You can sort, pin, and show only the channels you care about.
Custom Sections and Personalization
Users can group conversations, bots, and AI agents into custom sections. This allows teams to design their workspace around unique processes.
It also reduces inefficiencies. Everything is where you need it.
Chat Details Pane
No more tab-hopping! The new chat details pane gives you everything you need:
- Pinned messages
- Search
- Uploaded/shared documents
All without leaving the conversation. This has become a must-have feature for productivity—but one that competitors had implemented many years before.
Meeting Recap Notifications
Thanks to the advent of Copilot, Teams now creates a meeting recap and notifies you when it’s ready.
You can jump straight to the summary with one click. This means not hoping someone recorded it and waiting around for them to share access.
You can also export Q&A from meetings to get an overview.
Copilot Integration
AI-powered Copilot is now deeply integrated with the entire Microsoft 365 stack. Specifically to Teams, Microsoft says it “automates mundane tasks, summarizes meetings, and provides intelligent insights”.
There is a learning curve when it comes to Copilot, however. And there is a barrier to adoption in that everybody has spent the last nine years learning how to use Teams efficiently and now you’re saying there’s a better way.
For certain users, it’s got to be a no-brainer and definitely worth the money. For others, it’s a nuisance if you try to force it.
Video Clips and Name Pronunciation
Asynchronous work is the name of the game if you’re interested in deep work reducing interruptions (or simply reducing meetings).
Those who get it (and let’s not get into an argument over that here) thrive with levels of productivity they never imagined before.
Teams has made it so you can record and add video clips to messages and posts.
Another related feature is the recording of your name in your profile card so others can hear how to pronounce it. (You can also do this on LinkedIn.)
Improved Hyperlink Handling
I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t that a basic requirement? It is. But at least Teams now handles these better.
Hyperlink insertion is now as easy as selecting text and pasting a URL. No more clunky dialogs and no weird unfurling during link sharing.
Presenter Overlay
Presenters can choose from several modes (Standout, Side-by-side, and Reporter) to display their video feed alongside or overlaid on the content being shared.
For example, in Standout mode, the presenter’s video appears superimposed on the lower corner of the shared content, allowing the audience to see both the presenter and the material simultaneously without having to choose between them.
Device Integration: Teams Everywhere, for Everyone
Teams is no longer just an app on your laptop. It’s in meeting rooms, on desk phones, mobile devices, and smart displays. In fact, Teams has been everywhere for a while. Only, now it’s a lot better for people in the room and outside the room.
The latest Teams Rooms devices from Cisco, Jabra, Poly, and Crestron bring AI-powered cameras and spatial audio. One-touch join experiences are now the norm.
Yes, that’s right. I said Cisco. The two companies continue to play nice in 2025, going as far as guesting in each other’s keynotes at Enterprise Connect. It’s now commonplace to see blog posts like, What’s new on Cisco Devices for Microsoft Teams.
You’ve even got Cross-Tenant Join, using Cisco’s Video Integration for Microsoft Teams (VMT) technology.
Apple AirPlay support on Teams Rooms for Cisco means you can present from your iPhone without a cable hunt. It’s a bit different to the meeting room of 2016!
For IT, device management is getting less painful. Microsoft’s release channels and Android Open Source Project (AOSP) management make it easier to keep everything secure and up to date.
Graham Walsh, who’s spent more time with Teams devices than most of us have spent in meetings, calls this “the year Teams Rooms finally just work.”
BYOD Room Presence is another smart touch. When you connect to peripherals in a BYOD room, your workplace presence updates to “In the office.” You can also see which colleagues are nearby.
Meetings: The Microsoft Teams Staple
Even when Slack was thriving, users and admins sought a secondary app to satisfy their meeting requirements. The success of tools like Zoom, Webex, and indeed Teams, could be argued to Slack’s decline to create a genuine meeting (or calling, for that matter) solution.
Teams offers no fewer than eight ways to hold meetings or events. These range from ad hoc calls to large-scale Town Halls.
The new unified interface makes it easier to manage these options. Tighter integration with Outlook means you can accept or decline meetings directly from Teams. For those calling for a smoother integrated meeting experience (of which, there were many), your request has finally been fulfilled.
Breakout Rooms now offer enhanced controls. Organizers and co-organizers can manage breakout sessions with relative ease. It used to be the case that a specific Teams power user had to control the Breakout Rooms due to complexity. For the most part, this has been removed.
Town Hall Meetings have improved. Organizers and presenters can now chat before the event, and all participants can annotate collaboratively during presentations.
AI and Copilot: Productivity We Weren’t Expecting
Love it, hate it, need it, or don’t care about it, there’s no escaping Copilot(s).
Microsoft has done its best to turn Copilot into the cornerstone of the Teams experience. It doesn’t just assist users; it anticipates their needs. Which is quite cool if you need it.
It summarizes meetings, drafts messages, and helps you catch up on threads you’ve missed. These are the most obvious and most marketable uses of Copilot.
There are tons of industry and job type use and edge cases that will prove useful (and a solid return on investment) if you have the time to get used to working with this new type of tool and can convince your workforce to change the habits they spent the last X years forming.
This is the major stumbling block when it comes to Copilot adoption—and AI adoption in general. We’re talking about business change. Human changes to what they have made autonomous. It’s multiple short term changes for considerable long term investment.
Other basic, more palatable and adoptable functionality includes:
- Meeting Recap and Summaries are now automated: Copilot generates actionable meeting recaps, so you never miss a key point.
- Intelligent Notifications: The new @mention view uses Copilot AI to show you a personalized view of what matters most (to you).
Security, Compliance, and Administration
With great power comes great responsibility—and a lot of compliance checkboxes.
For some businesses, Copilot and some extremely complex add-on technologies will never make it through security reviews. For others, these fairly recent additions are more than welcomed:
- Advanced Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Now extends to chat and channel messages. Sensitive information is protected across all communication channels.
- Audit Log Enhancements: Offers more granular tracking of user activity. This supports better incident response and compliance.
There have also been considerable updates to generic security features like conditional access, MFA, threat alerts, DLP policies, eDiscovery, and information barrier policies.
There’s also the Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit 1.0, which is primarily designed to help enterprise security administrators manage Group Policy Objects (GPOs) and security baselines for Windows and other Microsoft products.
It allows users to download, analyze, test, edit, and store Microsoft-recommended security configuration baselines.
As for administration, the Teams Admin Center (TAC) has had something of a glow up.
Number managers can now manage Direct Routing phone numbers without the need of a CIA-proofed Excel spreadsheet.
Editing note: Fun fact…I thought I’d ask Copilot to summarize the major changes in the TAC over the last 15 months. I eventually got this list below, but it took four different prompts to get to TAC-only and within my timescale. Quicker than me finding them one-by-one? Just about. But still rather annoying when this is supposed to be artificial intelligence.
- Control over shared content visibility: Admins can configure meeting policies to determine when shared content is visible to attendees in meetings, webinars, and town halls.
- Admin control over in-meeting chat: New policies allow admins to restrict chat duration, ensuring messages can only be sent while a meeting is active.
- Shared line history on Teams Phone devices: Admins can manage shared line settings, enabling users to view call logs for all shared lines within a group.
- Speed dial customization for touch phones: Admins can configure speed dial options on Teams-certified touch phone devices for easier communication.
- One-time passcode (OTP) for joining meetings: Admins can enable OTP authentication for external attendees without a managed Teams account.
- Teams Premium policy settings: Admins have expanded controls for managing Teams Premium features, including advanced meeting protection and analytics.
While the TAC did suffer an outage in December 2024, its new features have generally received a positive review in the online world.
Teams Phone: PSTN Calling, Operator Connect, and Fixed Mobile Convergence
Teams Phone is Microsoft’s cloud-based phone system that enables organizations to make and receive external calls through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) directly within Microsoft Teams.
By May 2025, we know that there are 80 million Teams Phone users, of which over 20 million are PSTN users.
If we take the 320 million monthly active users figure as gospel, the ratio of Teams Phone users is 25% use Teams for some form of calling. For those who use Teams Phone for PSTN calling, the figure drops to just 6.25%. I don’t know what those stats mean, but there’s quite the chasm for a technology, provider, etc. to exploit, surely?
Teams Phone replaces traditional PBXs and provides a near-full suite of calling features, including hold, transfer, reporting, and voicemail. Teams Phone can be connected to the PSTN using several flexible options: Microsoft Calling Plans, Operator Connect, Direct Routing, and Teams Phone Mobile.
One notable addition this year has been the ability to manage Direct Routing numbers from within the Teams Admin Center. While trivial to those outside the world of number management, it’s an incredibly welcomed addition.
With Microsoft Calling Plans, Microsoft acts as your PSTN carrier, offering a simple, integrated solution for assigning phone numbers and managing calling minutes. This is ideal for organizations that want a fully cloud-based experience without managing external telephony hardware or contracts.
Operator Connect is another popular option, enabling organizations to choose from a growing list of certified third-party providers who deliver PSTN connectivity directly through the Teams Admin Center.
As of May 2025, there are 109 operators covering 106 countries and this number continues to rise as more carriers join the program. Operator Connect streamlines provisioning, management, and support, making it easier for IT teams to deploy and manage voice services at scale.
Teams Phone Mobile
It had been on the radar for a while but it seems like fixed mobile convergence (FMC) is sexy once again.
Teams Phone Mobile introduces true FMC for mobile-first organizations. With Teams Phone Mobile, a user’s SIM-enabled mobile number becomes their Teams phone number, allowing calls to be made and received on both mobile devices and Teams endpoints.
This solution is available through select carriers, like EE in the UK and Verizon in the US, and provides features like unified call history, automatic call recording, and a single voicemail system for both mobile and Teams calls. It ensures a consistent business identity, enhances compliance, and enables seamless handoff between devices.
Providers like Tango Networks have expanded FMC capabilities with its solution, Tango Extend. Using an eSIM approach, Tango Extend allows organizations to add Teams phone numbers to both personal and corporate-managed mobile devices.
Setup is straightforward: users scan a QR code in the Tango extension within the Teams desktop app to configure their eSIM for Teams.
Tango’s service is available via Operator Connect, Direct Routing partners, and calling plan resellers, with initial availability in the US and UK and plans for further international expansion.
With these options, Teams Phone delivers a highly flexible, enterprise-grade telephony solution that meets the needs of organizations of all sizes and industries. Whether you want a Microsoft-managed experience, a trusted carrier relationship, or advanced mobile integration, Teams Phone provides the tools to connect your workforce anywhere and on any device.
Complementary phone services
Microsoft Teams has become the hub for business communications, but many organizations need more than just calls and meetings. That’s where complementary services like those from Akixi, Tollring, and a select few others come in, adding essential layers of insight, compliance, and integration.
These providers offer real-time call analytics embedded directly into Microsoft Teams, allowing businesses to monitor call activity, agent performance, and key metrics without leaving the Teams environment.
Customizable dashboards display live data on call queues, wait times, missed calls, SLAs, and call volume trends, helping operations teams make proactive decisions and optimize staffing across multiple locations.
Compliance call recording is now a must-have, especially in regulated industries. Akixi’s certified call recording solution, powered by Oak Innovation, is fully compliant with FCA, PCI, MiFID II, GDPR, and HIPAA standards.
It works seamlessly with Microsoft Calling Plans, Direct Routing, Operator Connect, and certified contact center solutions, ensuring that every call can be securely recorded and retrieved for audit or dispute resolution.
CRM integration is another key differentiator here. Akixi connects telephony systems to over 300 CRM applications, streamlining workflows and improving customer engagement.
When a call comes in, customer-specific data pops up automatically, and call logs are saved directly into the CRM, reducing manual entry and ensuring data accuracy. Outbound calls can be placed with a single click, and all updates sync in real time.
For businesses with unique requirements, Akixi offers custom integration capabilities and a powerful API, supporting telephony-based CRM integration via desktop apps for Windows and Mac. Features like Click-to-Dial and real-time call data are available through intuitive interfaces, making it easy for agents and managers to stay productive.
These complementary services help organizations unlock the full potential of Teams, delivering compliance, operational insight, and seamless customer experiences—all within the familiar Teams environment.
Whether you need advanced analytics, secure call recording, or deep CRM integration, these providers ensure Teams can meet the demands of modern business. As a managed service provider with Teams in your portfolio, not offering these services can be a major flaw.
Contact Center and Voice: The Enterprise Push
Teams is no longer just about chat and meetings. In fact, it’s been quite some time since those using it properly thought so. Its capabilities as a voice and contact center platform have expanded dramatically over the last 18 months.
Teams Phone Extensibility for Dynamics 365 Contact Center is a game changer. Organizations can now unify telephony, compliance recording, advanced calling policies, and AI-driven customer interactions within Dynamics 365.
This means simplified management and broader geographic reach. Advanced features like Enhanced 911 and customizable dial plans are included.
Mark Vale, a Teams Phone architect and MVP, calls this “the most significant move for Teams Phone since launch.” It’s a direct answer to years of customer requests for robust, natively integrated CCaaS and UCaaS solutions.
Third-party contact centers remain vital
While Microsoft Teams has boosted its own calling and customer engagement features, third-party contact center solutions are still essential for organizations with advanced needs.
These integrations provide omnichannel routing, AI analytics, CRM integration, compliance recording, and workforce management that often go beyond native Teams capabilities.
Microsoft runs a formal certification program for contact center vendors to guarantee quality, reliability, and interoperability with Teams. Certified solutions are tested for compatibility, security, and user experience, so organizations can deploy them with confidence.
Integration models include Connect (Direct Routing/SBC), Extend (deep Teams client integration), and Unify (Azure Communication Services-based). This flexibility lets organizations choose a contact center that matches their operational needs and user experience expectations.
For many enterprises, these third-party solutions remain essential for delivering premium customer experiences and ensuring compliance. They help organizations integrate customer service with broader business workflows while keeping Teams at the core of collaboration.
As of May 2025, Microsoft-certified contact center providers include:
Enghouse Interactive, ComputerTalk (ice Contact Center), and Anywhere365
These platforms offer cloud-based contact centers with skills-based routing, analytics, AI chatbots, intelligent IVR, and deep CRM integrations.
Audiocodes
The Voca contact center by Audicodes uses Teams Phone extensibility to provide conversational AI, smart IVRs, and an omnichannel experience in a single app within Teams. Its major focus is that you only pay for concurrent channels and you get a lean implementation; often set up in one day.
Imagicle
Imagicle leans on AI to provide an omnichannel solution including voice, chat, automation, agent workspaces and compliance recording—neatly integrated into Teams.
Landis Technologies
Known for its attendant console and contact center solution, providing real-time analytics, call recording, and customizable wallboards.
CentrePal
CentrePal is a fully native, certified solution built for Teams using the Extend integration model, offering voice, chat, advanced routing, and reporting within the Teams client.
Five9
Delivers a Teams-enabled contact center with consolidated directories, intelligent routing, and global calling capabilities.
8×8 Contact Center
Provides omnichannel engagement and analytics tightly integrated with Teams.
Luware
Luware Nimbus covers both basic receptionist and complex contact center requirements. Luware claims to tailor every solution to differing customer needs.
Webex Contact Center
Certified for Teams, our friends at Cisco help combine self-service, AI analytics, and omnichannel communications using Teams Phone.
Heedify
Offers a smaller-scale contact center for those who don’t need an expensive omnichannel solution. There’s also an attendant console option for busy receptionists who don’t need a full contact center license.
Other certified or in-process vendors include IPDynamics, Caseris, FrontStage, Unexus, Vier, Vonage, Genesys, and Zoom.
Community and Ecosystem: The Power of People
The Teams community is one of the most active and passionate in the industry. In fact, I’ve never seen anything like it. No other UC vendor comes close when it comes to community.
Be it online or in-person, the Microsoft community is thriving.
You’ve got the hub: the Teams community page online.
But you’ve also got a LinkedIn community with over 100,000 participants…
And the hundreds of MVPs and Teams influencers with their own niche followings that help spread the good word (and sometimes bad words) about Teams and the Microsoft ecosystem.
Events like Commsverse (UK) and Comms vNext (US) are more than just conferences.
They’re grassroots gatherings where MVPs, IT pros, and customers swap war stories, share hacks, and grill Microsoft on what’s next. Commsverse is known for its “No Sales, Just Tech” ethos.
Comms vNext is fiercely independent and community-led. It focuses on hands-on experience and practical advice.
Speakers like Tom Arbuthnot, Graham Walsh, and Mark Vale don’t just evangelize. They challenge Microsoft to do better. They surface bugs, feature gaps, and user frustrations that might otherwise be swept under the rug.
The community also drives open-source projects, publishes blog posts, and provides peer support in forums and user groups.
The Good, the Bad, and the User Reviews
The Good
Teams offers deep Office integration, centralizing chat, meetings, and files. The pace of new features, especially around AI and automation, is relentless.
Teams Rooms and certified devices “just work” for most users. The community is a global network of experts, MVPs, and everyday users pushing the platform forward.
The Bad
Users still report sluggishness, especially with lots of channels or messages. The UI can feel busy and notifications sometimes go missing or multiply. It’s just not as slick as the likes of Slack. But maybe it doesn’t need to be anymore?
The recent backlash over the phase-out of Office 365 Connectors showed that Teams can stumble on communication and migration support. Some features lag behind on non-Windows platforms, a frequent complaint among Mac and Linux users.
Public Reviews
“Teams makes it easy to deal with tech problems,” says one IT support pro, highlighting screen sharing and remote control as game-changers. Another reviewer calls it “empowering teamwork every day,” especially for organizations already invested in Microsoft 365.
On the flip side: “Feels slow, especially with lots of channels or messages,” and “Occasionally the mic/camera won’t open and you have to restart the app” are regular quotes you need not search hard for. Not everyone is a fan.
Expert Voices: What the MVPs and Analysts Say
In the spirit of AI, I asked Copilot to summarize chats I’ve had, videos I’ve watched, and blog posts I’ve consumed (or written) over the last 18 months.
Here’s what the people with the most influence think about Teams:
- Tom Arbuthnot regularly highlights how Teams is simplifying external collaboration and making hybrid meetings less of a headache. He also calls out the challenges of migrating millions of users and the ongoing struggle for feature parity.
- Graham Walsh has chronicled the journey from Skype for Business to Teams, with a focus on meeting rooms. He notes the architecture is more flexible, but the transition hasn’t been painless.
- Mark Vale continues to push for better voice and contact center features. He emphasizes that real-world deployments are rarely as simple as the marketing suggests.
- Rob Scott, host of UC Today News, points to the rapid adoption of Teams Phone and Teams Rooms, calling out the milestone of 20 million Teams Phone users and over a million Teams Rooms deployed globally. He and Tom Arbuthnot both see AI-driven features like Intelligent Recap and Translator Agent as game changers for collaboration and customer engagement.
- Olly Henderson, Head of Video Product at Jabra, notes that advancements in meeting room technology and edge AI are making video conferencing more reliable and accessible. He emphasizes the importance of device partnerships and innovation in creating seamless hybrid meeting experiences.
- Chandra Chivukula, Vice President of Engineering for Microsoft Teams, credits the move to the new Teams client in 2024 for enabling greater agility and consistency across platforms. He believes this foundation will support even faster innovation and a more unified user experience going forward.
The Road Ahead: What’s Next for Teams?
Microsoft’s roadmap shows no sign of slowing down. Expect continued investment in AI, automation, device integration, and security.
Announcements point to more Copilot features and AI-driven workflows. There will be deeper integration with Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Dave Michels, an enterprise comms analyst with Talking Pointz, wonderfully articulated that “Teams will become the input source for Copilot Studio”.
This, in my opinion, could be the biggest step for generative AI in Microsoft. Rather than leaning on what already exists, this means Copilot will be constantly updated with information and documentation and forever learning.
Enhanced security and compliance tools are coming. Smoother external collaboration and a continued focus on accessibility and user experience are top priorities (for users and admins anyway).
When it comes to rolling out new features and changes, Microsoft has come under some scrutiny for communications. Busy admins will want to put ChangePilot on their radar, aimed to help admins stay on top of Microsoft 365 change.
Conclusion: Teams in 2025
Microsoft Teams in 2025 is a powerhouse. It’s deeply integrated, device-friendly, and backed by a passionate (and vocal) community.
The platform’s reach is undeniable.
Its ongoing evolution—especially in AI, devices, and contact center capabilities—keeps it relevant for organizations of all sizes.
But Teams isn’t without its pain points. Performance hiccups, interface quirks, and unpopular product decisions still frustrate users and admins alike.
The community, however, remains its secret weapon. Experts, MVPs, and everyday users push the platform forward, hold Microsoft accountable, and make sure Teams doesn’t stand still.
If you’re already in the Microsoft ecosystem, Teams is hard to beat. But as always, go in with your eyes open-and keep an ear out for what’s really being said.
Are you a provider of Teams services and need help with your content marketing?
I’m Dominic Kent and I work with Microsoft partners to create content assets that make your business money. With 17 years in unified comms and contact center, I challenge you to find a more qualified hybrid of UC and marketing skills.
