What is the difference between meet now and Teams?

Answered by Tom Adger

The difference between “Meet now” and Teams lies in their functionality and purpose within the Microsoft Teams platform.

1. “Meet now” button:
The “Meet now” button is a new feature introduced by Microsoft that allows users to quickly start an impromptu meeting or collaboration session. It reduces the number of steps required to initiate a meeting and provides a simple way to invite others to join.

Key features of “Meet now” include:
– Quick initiation: With just a click on the “Meet now” button, users can start a meeting instantly.
– Simplicity: The focus of “Meet now” is to provide a streamlined experience, eliminating the need to configure meeting settings or schedule in advance.
– One-time meeting link: When a user starts a meeting using “Meet now,” Teams generates a unique meeting link that can be shared with others to join the session. This eliminates the hassle of manually inviting participants or sending calendar invites.

2. Microsoft Teams:
Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive collaboration platform that offers a wide range of features and functionalities for team communication, collaboration, and productivity. It serves as a hub for teamwork, integrating various tools and services within a single interface.

Key features of Microsoft Teams include:
– Channels and conversations: Teams allows users to create channels for different topics or projects, facilitating organized discussions and collaboration. Conversations within channels can include text-based chats, file sharing, and threaded discussions.
– Meetings and video conferencing: Teams provides the ability to schedule and host meetings, complete with video and audio conferencing features. Users can invite participants, share screens, and collaborate in real-time.
– Document collaboration: Teams offers seamless integration with Microsoft Office applications, allowing users to co-author and edit documents together within the platform. This enables efficient collaboration on files without the need for constant file sharing or version control issues.
– Integration with other apps and services: Teams integrates with a wide range of third-party apps and services, such as SharePoint, OneDrive, and Power BI, enabling users to access and work with their preferred tools within the Teams environment.
– Persistent chat history: Teams maintains a persistent chat history, ensuring that conversations and shared files are easily accessible and searchable, even after leaving or rejoining a team.

The “Meet now” button is a simplified feature within Microsoft Teams that focuses on quickly initiating ad-hoc meetings with a unique meeting link. On the other hand, Microsoft Teams provides a comprehensive collaboration platform with various features for team communication, document collaboration, and integration with other apps and services.