Microsoft Teams Offers CarPlay Integration, Improves Calling

Microsoft has announced significant improvements to Teams, adding CarPlay integration and improved calling features.

Microsoft Teams is one of the company’s premier applications, and has been steadily dominating the corporate messaging market. The company is staking so much on Teams, that it sees it as “a platform that transcends operating systems that will be even bigger than Windows.”

The latest announcement includes a number of significant improvements, including the ability to integrate with Apple’s CarPlay platform.

CarPlay support: Placing and receiving calls in the car will soon be easier than ever, thanks to CarPlay support for Teams Calling. With CarPlay, you can use your vehicle’s built-in controls to operate Teams, including using Siri to place and answer calls.

Microsoft is also improving the application’s calling features, helping Teams be a viable replacement for traditional phone options.

Transfer calls between mobile and desktop: Teams makes it easy to place and receive calls from several different endpoints, including desktop and mobile devices, but sometimes you need to move locations or devices to finish your call. Starting in early 2021, you will be able to shift your calls between your mobile and desktop endpoints with an easy-to-use interface on the Teams app.

Call merge: Calling users can bring multiple different one to one calls together to combine conversations and simplify multiple conversations. Call merge is now available for both PSTN calls and VoIP calls.

Teams has long surpassed Slack’s user base, even as Microsoft continues to expand the platform’s ecosystem and abilities. These latest features continue to demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to the platform and should be welcome improvements for customers.