Microsoft Teams and Skype federation has been on the Microsoft 365 roadmap for quite some time now, but the company is about to make it a reality really soon. Indeed, the software giant now indicates an estimated March release for the Teams/Skype Consumer chat and calling interoperability, and Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet added today that Microsoft is notifying Office 365 customers that the rollout of this feature will be completed in April.
After Microsoft made Skype for Business (previously Lync) interoperable with Skype consumer, the Skype/Teams interoperability has been a long time coming, and users will be able to contact each other across the two services by using their email addresses However, Microsoft explains in the Office 365 Message Center that the Skype/Teams federation will be turned off by default, and it will be up to Office 365 admins to enable it.
Even though Microsoft Teams is now free to use for everyone (with some features requiring an Office 365 subscription), Skype remains an important “prosumer” app for Microsoft. Interestingly, Microsoft is also rumored to be working on a new “Teams for Life” app that may bring together the best of Skype and Microsoft Teams, though details are still scarce for now.
