Which of Microsoft’s chat apps is the winner?

Skype even has a Copilot chat bot if you’re lonely.

© SKYPE

TWO APPS that do the same thing, owned by the same company, that run on the same platforms and are even interoperable. It may seem strange that one hasn’t been closed down in favor of the other, but Microsoft has kept Skype and Teams running in parallel, keeping them separate through features and pricing plans.

Both Skype and Teams can be used for online group meetings and video or voice calls, they have text chat facilities, screen sharing and file sharing, and are both free—to begin with, anyway. They also have similar user interfaces that appear to be converging as new updates arrive. Only one offers live streaming, however, and only one has digital whiteboards and breakout rooms that can be useful when giving presentations or trying to coordinate a large meeting.

Being Microsoft products, both come as Windows apps, but there are web apps, mobile apps, and programs for other operating systems, too.

The main difference between the programs is that while Skype is a communication platform, Teams is a collaboration platform. The subtleties of this may be difficult to grasp, as the two apps’ features overlap so much, but it boils down to Teams being a more sophisticated—and harder to use—tool than Skype, with integration into Microsoft Office and tighter security. Skype, by contrast, has a simpler interface, and is set up to get you talking or texting with another person or multiple people.