You’ll soon be paying for these features on Microsoft Teams

Now that the world is back to work and Microsoft knows we’ve gotten used to working on Teams, it plans to make us pay for some of its features.

We should have known it would only be a matter of time before we start paying for some of the app’s benefits. Microsoft is going to charge for features such as live translated captions and time markers in meeting recordings for when a user joins or leaves meetings.

The tech giant announced this week in its updated licensing agreement that it would move some features to Teams Premium.

Features going to Teams Premium:

– Live translated captions.
– Timeline markers in Teams meeting recordings for when a user left or participated in meetings.
– Custom Organization Together mode scenes.
– Virtual appointments: text message notifications.
– Virtual Appointments: Organizational analysis in the Teams management center.
– Virtual appointments: scheduled queue view.

Microsoft gives subscribers who use the free version a 30-day grace period before they are cut off, unless, of course, they pay.

“After the 30-day grace period, users will lose access to features previously available in Teams without the Teams Premium add-on unless the administrator purchases and assigns Teams Premium licenses for their users,” Microsoft notes.

Those who need a little more time to figure out if they are willing to pay for the listed features or not can use the trial license.

“Once trial licenses expire, users will immediately lose Teams Premium features,” Microsoft added.

It says items such as custom templates and meeting backgrounds will persist after the trial license expires, but they will become “grayed out and unusable.” We’re guessing that’s to remind you of what you once had and hopefully entice you to eventually pay for the premium version.

Remember that Premium is not available to everyone. To purchase the premium license, you or your company must meet the requirements below, as stated by Microsoft:

– Must be a commercial, global public sector, EDU, GCC or nonprofit tenant.
– On general release, Microsoft does not offer EDU-specific licensing or EDU discounts for Premium.
– GCC High- and DoD-tenants cannot purchase Teams Premium licenses on general release.
– Users must also be subscribed to Microsoft 365 or Office 365 with Teams.

As hybrid and remote working slowly become standard, expect more platforms to begin charging for features that were free at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown. Hopefully technology companies will polish them and sell us something that is actually worth paying for. Alternatively, there is always something similar for free on the net, but probably not as good.

Source: Microsoft