Communicate with your whole team at the push of a button: Walkie talkie comes to Teams

If you like looking at all the new features in your Microsoft Teams application, you might have noticed the walkie talkie feature in preview.

It may have seemed like just a fun gimmick. Now Microsoft has rolled it out to iOS devices as well, meaning it can be used by every member of your team.

Have you tried it out on your Android device?

We believe it has the potential to become a powerful communication tool.

Let’s have a look at what it is and how you’d use it.

You may remember real walkie talkies in the 1980’s! At the time they were the coolest way to talk to your friends on the move – this was before we had mobiles.

With a walkie talkie you press a button to talk, and everyone who has a device on the same frequency as yours can hear you talk.

Then you let go of the button so they can reply when you let go of the button. And only one person can speak at a time.

What that gives you is real time voice conversation between a group of people.

The new Teams feature works in exactly the same way.

Now you no longer need to call, just like a walkie talkie you push a button on your phone to speak, and everyone in your team channel can hear you.

This feature works on both Android and iOS devices, so long as they’re connected to the internet. It even works if your phone is locked.

The walkie talkie was originally created with front-line workers in mind. 

The idea is that when you’re away from your workplace you can quickly and securely communicate without the need for additional devices or being slowed down by the hassle of a phone call which may end up going through a voice-automated system

We can see this being useful for remote workers too. It doesn’t matter whether your team are in the office or working from home – they are still able to have a voice conversation in real time.

Can you see how this feature would help your business?

Before you can use walkie talkie in Teams, you’ll need to make sure it’s enabled. Your administrator will need to do this in the Teams admin centre and it’s really simple and easy.