Other Microsoft Teams Use Cases

You may know Microsoft Teams from the enterprise world and, at this point, you might be familiar with it already. What you may not know yet is that Microsoft Teams cuts across all industries and even has dedicated versions, applications, and devices to help users take advantage of the platform effectively.

This chapter gives you an overview of the other Microsoft Teams versions targeted at specific industry sectors and scenarios, showing you the dedicated features available in each version. We will also take a brief look at the devices certified for use with Teams.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Microsoft Teams for Education
• Microsoft Teams for frontline workers
• Microsoft Teams for personal use
• Microsoft Teams devices overview

Microsoft Teams for Education

Microsoft Teams for Education is a special edition of Microsoft Teams designed specifically to cover education scenarios for all ages. It is the ideal tool for remote learning, but can also be used as a complement to in-person classes, where teachers and students can get connected not only in the classroom but from anywhere.

This edition uses the same Microsoft Teams application as the enterprise edition, but each user must have an education license to get access to the dedicated education features. You can learn more about the Education plans at the following link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/academic/compare-office-365-education-plans.

When compared with the enterprise version, the Education version has different user profiles, a different user interface that is enabled by default, and a special application that can be used for assignments, as you will see in the following subsections.

Layout

If you have kids in school...

Microsoft Teams for frontline workers

Most frontline workers do not have access to a dedicated computer or mobile device to communicate with their peers when using Microsoft Teams. When they do have access, communication needs to be more agile than that performed using a mouse and keyboard.

This edition uses the same Microsoft Teams application as the enterprise edition, but each user must have a frontline worker license to get access to the dedicated frontline workers features. You can learn more about the licenses for this plan at the following page: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/frontline.

To address business scenarios for frontline workers, Microsoft has created dedicated applications tailored for the Microsoft Teams mobile version, like Walkie Talkie, and also Shift Management, which is available for both mobile and desktop.

Dedicated applications

Microsoft Teams for frontline workers helps frontline professionals manage their schedules...

Microsoft Teams for personal use

The platform you use to do your daily work has evolved, and now you can also use Microsoft Teams to communicate and share content with your family and friends, from your desktop or mobile application.

Microsoft Teams for personal use has reduced functionalities when compared with the business version. With it, you will be able to:

• Chat with friends and family
• Create chat groups
• Make video calls
• Schedule meetings in your personal calendar
• Share files and photos
• Share task lists within individual and group chats

Important!

Microsoft Teams for personal use is only available for Microsoft personal accounts and requires them to be connected to a mobile phone number.

On the desktop

To start using Microsoft Teams for personal use from your desktop application, you should do the following:

1. Using your enterprise Microsoft Teams account, click on your profile picture...

Microsoft Teams devices overview

Microsoft Teams has a wide variety of devices certified to work with the platform, improving existing experiences and creating new experiences for the users that depend on the platform to accomplish their daily tasks.

In this section, you will get an overview of all the device categories that Microsoft has currently certified and a brief explanation of the scenarios they were built for.

Microsoft Teams certified devices are divided into seven different categories: headsets, speakerphones, desk phones and Teams displays, Teams Rooms, monitors, web cameras, and room system accessories. Below we take a more detailed look at each of these:

• Headsets: The headset devices certified for Microsoft Teams offer rich audio quality and a plug and play feature that automatically defines the device as the default to use in Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams headsets are available in a wired format using USB or with a Bluetooth connection. From them...

Summary

In this chapter, you have learned how Microsoft Teams can be used outside the enterprise world to help people from all types of industries stay connected.

You got an overview of the dedicated version of Microsoft Teams for Education. With it, you will be able to better understand how teachers and students all over the world stay connected even when they are not in school. You got an overview of how frontline workers are leveraging the Microsoft Teams platform to stay in touch and streamline their communication while on the go and while working on shop floors. You also learned how Microsoft Teams is connecting friends and family using the same principles used by companies worldwide to aggregate information and communication. Lastly, you got an overview of the Teams devices available that allow you to extend the features of Microsoft Teams through the use of physical hardware.

In the next chapter, we will continue to look at extending Microsoft Teams, but through...