The two companies have partnered to ease collaboration for shared customers, with a video streaming integration also in development and due early next year. Credit: Meta Microsoft Teams users can now access newsfeed updates in Meta’s Workplace enterprise social network without switching screens, thanks to a new integration announced by the two companies Wednesday. And plans to enable streaming of Teams video calls directly from Workplace are also in the works. The integrations are the first between Microsoft’s workstream collaboration tool and Workplace, which has more than 7 million paid subscribers. (There are already existing Workplace integrations with Office 365 apps, including Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive, with support for Teams on the Meta (formerly Facebook) Portal video device due next month.) The new integrations provide two functions. First, a Workplace app for Teams can be pinned to the Teams side navigation bar or added as a tab to provide access to the Workplace newsfeed within the app. Workplace content can be marked as “important” by Teams admins to draw users’ attention to certain information. Individual users will also be able to pull content from a Workplace group into a Teams channel to highlight to colleagues, as well as react to Workplace posts directly from Teams. The video integration, due in early 2022, will let users view a Teams video call from Workplace and comment in real-time. Presenters in Teams will be able to monitor view engagement and reactions in both apps simultaneously. Although the two companies compete in a variety of ways (Microsoft’s Viva Connections also provides social network capabilities, for instance, and both recently unveiled competing visions for immersive collaboration) Wednesday’s move is an acknowledgement that many customers now rely on a range of tools to support employee collaboration. The integration with Teams “will make it easier for people who use both tools for work to keep up to date with information and create even more opportunities for company-wide engagement,” said Ujjwal Singh, head of product at Workplace. Meta Meta’sWorkplace app for Teams can be pinned to the Teams side navigation bar or added as a tab for quick access to the Workplace newsfeed. Singh, who said earlier this year that a Teams integration was in progress, pointed to joint customers that have already been trying out the integrations, Vodafone and Flight Center. In a statement, Jeff Teper, Microsoft Teams CVP for product and engineering, said “it made sense for us to come together to help our mutual customers unlock collaboration and break down silos within their organizations.” The integrations should be of particular benefit to Workplace customers who see the app as their central employee communications solution but use Teams for day-to-day productivity, said Angela Ashenden, principal analyst a CCS Insight. This is common at large organizations where communications and HR teams rely on Workplace, while IT is responsible for Teams as a collaboration and productivity platform, she said. With that in mind, the integrations make a lot of sense for Meta since they help push information from Workplace to users where they tend to spend the bulk of their time. “By surfacing the newsfeed in Teams, Workplace can continue to reach those employees, while allowing comms and HR leaders to retain control over the communications and employee engagement platform strategy,” she said. Ashenden noted, however, that while the integrations help connect the two platforms, users of both Teams and Workplace still face challenges — particularly due to the overlap between their respective chat functions, Teams Chat and Workplace Chat, which can create confusion for employees. Related content analysis With three zero-days, it’s a patch-now Patch Tuesday for May This is one of those months where it’s important to roll out Microsoft’s latest round of fixes as soon as you can. By Greg Lambert May 17, 2024 9 mins Microsoft Windows 10 Windows Security opinion Review: The M4 iPad Pro — an amazing AI PC Light, thin, and indiscreetly powerful, Apple's new iPad Pro will be seen as more than just a tablet once Apple introduces genAI in iPadOS. By Jonny Evans May 17, 2024 11 mins iPad Apple iOS news Citrix parent mulls selling ShareFile amid streamlining efforts The disinvestment of ShareFile is seen as a strategic move by Cloud Software Group to refocus on its core competencies. By Gyana Swain May 17, 2024 3 mins Citrix Systems Collaboration Software news Google brings Gemini AI to the classroom Google is making its Gemini AI assistant available for Workspace for Education customers beginning on May 23. By Matthew Finnegan May 17, 2024 4 mins Education Industry Generative AI Google Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe