Teams no longer in Office: Microsoft makes Teams a standalone product

Microsoft Teams is no longer included in Office. Teams will no longer be delivered automatically in Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft 365. By no longer including Teams in Office, Microsoft is turning its platform for communication and project planning into a standalone product for business customers.

Why is Teams no longer included in Office?

Although the reasons for Teams no longer being included in Office are rather speculative, it is highly likely that Microsoft is taking this step in response to the EU's antitrust investigations. The linking of Teams and Office became an issue with the European Union because rival platform Slack filed a complaint accusing the tech giant of abusing its dominant position on the market by linking these services. Slack itself does not have any productivity software and therefore sees itself at a disadvantage. The complaint was successful and Office has been available in Europe for some time without Teams.

However, the EU Commission's investigations have not been completed and Microsoft is still facing a fine for anti-competitive behavior. In this case, a fine of up to 10% of annual turnover could be imposed. For a company that recorded revenues of 211 billion US dollars last year, this would amount to a considerable sum. Microsoft certainly wants to prevent this by separating Teams from Office worldwide.

Another reason could of course be that Microsoft can generate additional revenue if Teams is no longer included in Office and is a standalone product.

Teams no longer in Office, but OneDrive gets more functions

Microsoft 365 is available in different subscriptions. Depending on the size of the subscription, users have different features at their disposal. The Basic subscription is particularly limited. However, Microsoft is now activating a few functions in OneDrive for the Basic subscription that were previously only included in Premium plans.

The most welcome news for users of the Basic subscription is probably the full activation of the personal vault. Previously, this form of two-factor authentication was limited to three files in the basic model. Now the full 100 gigabytes of storage are available with the Basic OneDrive subscription.

Also helpful if several people are working on a file: In the Basic subscription, files can now be activated in the cloud with options for other users. This means that restrictions such as limited time access or additional password protection are possible.

With the Basic subscription, files in the cloud can now also be edited offline on mobile devices. Synchronization then takes place automatically as soon as the device is connected to the network again.

Data security is ensured with automatic ransomware detection, which is now also included in OneDrive's cheapest offer. OneDrive automatically sounds the alarm if it detects an infected file and also suggests a secure restore point.

With these functions, the Basic subscription has received some helpful features that were previously only included in higher-tier price regions. It is not known whether Microsoft is planning new features for the higher subscriptions in this context, but this cannot be ruled out.

Getting to know teams with skill it

Now that Teams is no longer included in Office, there are probably new users who want to familiarize themselves with the platform. In our four-day training Managing Microsoft Teams you will get to know Teams in its full scope and get hands-on practice.

OneDrive is part of our course Microsoft 365 Fundamentalsin which you familiarize yourself with the basics of Microsoft 365. Take two days to learn everything you need to know about Microsoft 365 and the applications it contains.