IMO, MS Teams works pretty well. Not as good as Slack, but not horrible.
The Horror of Microsoft Teams
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Re: The Horror of Microsoft Teams
#12I had the fun experience recently of having to rename a bunch of files that happened to have a # in the filename, since that character is forbidden in filenames that are uploaded into teams. Additionally, you can't seem to attach a .json file... though renaming it to .json.txt works. It's frustrating for sure. Thankfully they finally fixed some issues recently so I can copy chats out of Teams without running into too…
Additionally, you can't seem to attach a .json file... though renaming it to .json.txt works. It's frustrating for sure.
Ran into something very similar during my (very) short stint doing Sharepoint development. I'm guessing it's some sort of limitation burried deep in some default MS code somewhere.
Re: The Horror of Microsoft Teams
#13I had the fun experience recently of having to rename a bunch of files that happened to have a # in the filename, since that character is forbidden in filenames that are uploaded into teams. Additionally, you can't seem to attach a .json file... though renaming it to .json.txt works. It's frustrating for sure. Thankfully they finally fixed some issues recently so I can copy chats out of Teams without running into too…
We can't have people trying to collaborate on programming. That's hacker stuff that doesn't belong on the corp network.
Re: The Horror of Microsoft Teams
#14I can believe they’re overtaking slack because they make Teams an aggressive default install with the Office 365 client, and it’s replacing Skype for Business.
We use teams at work. Most people i know cant stand it. Its chatoix UI. 10 tabs on each «teams». Ive deleted the app. Whenever someone tags me i just open their browser app, reply and close. Even having the tab open sometimes causes cpu and memory spike and my laptop fans starts wirring. If they kill skype/lync for teams, MS is making a huge mistake. Lync and Outlook are the most distraction free softwares we use.
Re: The Horror of Microsoft Teams
#15I don't know. A lot of these issues (and I must admit I totally lost interest at the point I got to the complaints about message threading, although I did skim to the end[1]) are really personal preference. Take message threading as an example: we use it all the time and it works well. I actually prefer it to Slack threads.
My main beefs with Teams are:
- Performance: it's just far too damn slow to switch views.
- Awkward to switch back to a channel or another chat whilst on a Teams call.
- Connectivity: it's better than it was at handling disconnection and reconnection but, overall, it's still a ####ing moron and a timesink - you're still forced to restart on occasion (which takes too damn long).
One thing I do like: when our company switched from Slack to Teams[2] what I very quickly noticed, and what has persisted over the last year(ish) that we've been using it, is the much higher SNR. Maybe it's that Teams isn't so fun to use but, whatever the reason, there's just way less distracting guff being posted and, perhaps to my surprise, it turns out I'm quite happy with that.
Slack gives the appearance of productivity and collaboration without any of its substance. Teams, well, it's still an IM system and therefore always going to be subject to some level of wrath from me, but for the most part it feels like it does what it does well enough and doesn't try to be the centre of attention quite as much.
[1] Where I was mildly irked to read, "Microsoft Teams is the solution that nobody asked for the problem that nobody had," in the conclusion. I mean, really, if you're going to say that you ought to be honest enough to acknowledge that you could say the same about any current gen IM app. I certainly never asked for software that would make it even easier for people to keep disturbing me when I'm in the middle of something else, and I know more than a few people who feel similarly.
[2] Teams came with O365 and losing history with Slack was becoming a problem, but not one that felt like it was worth paying what Slack charge to solve: we felt like there were better ways to use that money, and overall - and after initial reticence - I'm happy with that decision.
Re: The Horror of Microsoft Teams
#16I prefer Teams to slack. I haven't used slack in a couple of years, so it may have improved since. For Teams, I like the built in screen sharing and the fact that you can share a window rather than a screen. I use 43" monitors so sharing full screen is impractical for someone viewing on a laptop. The voice / video "Teams meetings" are also pretty handy; we would do remote standup using that. I am also able to turn off audible notifications. I'm probably biased because I've been in Microsoft shops for years.
Re: The Horror of Microsoft Teams
#17The lack of muting/do not disturb is why I just leave MS Teams off all the time.
Re: The Horror of Microsoft Teams
#18I can believe they’re overtaking slack because they make Teams an aggressive default install with the Office 365 client, and it’s replacing Skype for Business.
We use teams at work. Most people i know cant stand it. Its chatoix UI. 10 tabs on each «teams». Ive deleted the app. Whenever someone tags me i just open their browser app, reply and close. Even having the tab open sometimes causes cpu and memory spike and my laptop fans starts wirring. If they kill skype/lync for teams, MS is making a huge mistake. Lync and Outlook are the most distraction free softwares we use.
Skype for Business (Lync) was discontinued in July, and support will stop July 31, 2021.
Re: The Horror of Microsoft Teams
#19I can believe they’re overtaking slack because they make Teams an aggressive default install with the Office 365 client, and it’s replacing Skype for Business.
That's correct. The company where I am currently working at was using Slack but recently decided to stop paying for Slack and instead use Teams since they were already paying for a subscription to Office 365 for each employee.
I hate it. My colleagues hate it. The UI is terrible. Most of the time navigating between the channels is a pain and the UI is just horrendous.
I think the funniest thing that was released lately was the 6 emojis that you can use on a message(thumbs up, love heart ...).
The emojis are of bad quality and look like crap.
Anyway, you can't pay me enough to use this stuff and as the author said in this article, if and when I change jobs I will be making sure that the team I start on will not use this sorry excuse of bloatware.
Re: The Horror of Microsoft Teams
#20At my work, we use Teams a fair bit, and I'll go out on the limb to defend it (a limb I'm quite familiar with at this point ;) ). Thinking of it as a Slack alternative is, IMO, the wrong starting point. We barely use it for chat (as we have Slack as well). Instead, we use it as a file share and central information home. Each group within a team has a channel and we use the tabs to track meeting notes, embed external calendars, and more.
And importantly, we use it for file sharing. Each channel is a root point for a team-specific folder. This is helpful because storing common docs there means they are perpetually available to collaborators, as opposed to OneDrive storage, which in my experience has been very hit or miss (sahre links expiring, etc. ). People can trust that team content is there.
There are downsides. It took me a few months to find my 'optimal' usage pattern, I can't have channel-specific sharing, and it takes me a while to explain the above to people on the team. It is far from perfect, but it is better than sharing a bunch of files in email threads or maintaining unofficial google docs in a Microsoft world.