Businesses of all sizes will be able to get paid through Microsoft Teams, adding a whole new dimension to the service.
The video conferencing platform is integrating payments as it looks to become even more helpful for businesses everywhere by allowing them to request payment during a Teams meeting.
Microsoft even says that customers will be able to pay "in just a few clicks", meaning that fiddly online payments and complicated invoices could soon be a thing of the past.
Microsoft Teams pop-out meetings
In its entry on the official Microsoft 365 roadmap, the company notes that the feature will be particularly useful for smaller businesses that have moved online during the pandemic.
It mentions appointments, classes or events being hosted on Microsoft Teams, with a request for payment being sent during the actual meeting itself.
Users will need to connect with a third-party service to receive their payment, although Microsoft has not yet named any particular partner or payment provider as of yet.
The service, which is still listed as being "in development" on the roadmap, will also only be available for businesses registered in the United States and Canada for the time being.
It has a scheduled general availability date of October 2022, and upon release, should be available to Microsoft Teams users on Mac, Android, iOS, Desktop and Web.
The news looks to set Microsoft Teams apart from its competitors in the video calling space, and appears to be the first such option to let pariticpants pay directly in a meeting.
Zoom allows users to set up paid entry to its calls, particularly in the case of webinars, with an integrated PayPal system alongside other payment options. Google Meet also features a link with PayPal, but requires a third-party integration to do so.
If Microsoft has been able to bypass some of these steps, then Teams could steal a march on its competitors, and potentially grab more of the increasingly-lucrative SMB market.
- Check out our list of the best online collaboration tools out there
