As the global pandemic persists, Microsoft Teams have witnessed a staggering increase in usership.
On March 31, Microsoft said the collaboration platform set a new daily
record of 2.7 billion meeting minutes in one day -- obliterating the record of 900 million set just two weeks earlier.
Along with massive increases in usership, people appear to be using the
platform in novel ways.
For instance, as a result of events being moved online, the number of Microsoft Stream videos in Teams per week has increased over five times in the last month.
Microsoft Stream is the service that powers live events and meeting recordings in Teams. Microsoft has also seen a considerable increase in Teams usage on mobile devices.
The number of
weekly Teams mobile users grew more than 300% from early February to the end of March.
Some of the platform’s largest usage increases have been from customers in industries most impacted
by the pandemic.
For example, with 183,000 tenants in 175 countries using Teams for education, Microsoft has seen large increases in usage of Teams on mobile devices from customers in higher
education and primary and secondary education (K-12).
The tech giant has also seen a significant increase from customers in government-related industries.
In Teams meetings, people are
turning on video two times more than before the outbreak began, while Microsoft saw total video calls in Teams grow by over 1,000 percent during the month of March.
Also, more people are turning
to video services to stay in visual contact with friends, family, colleagues, and coworkers.