I recently had the pleasure of using Microsoft Teams, and my God, everything about that software was awful. First, you have to have a Microsoft account. But, defying all logic, that's not enough. Microsoft once again makes dumpster-quality software. See with even Google (who I'm no fan of, except that they are generally intelligent), you don't need a whole new sub-account to use Hangouts. You just go to your Gmail and use it. The whole point of harnessing the network-effect is to make an ecosystem within which it's easy to use the various tools. 'Keep it Simple, Stupid' is something Google does well, and anyone should. Microsoft does the opposite - they make everything stupidly difficult, it makes no sense, how are they still in business?
So barrier one is actually being able to use Teams. First, you have to have a Microsoft account, but that's not enough. If you're using it for school, well, I don't know how you find your account info. If you want to use it for a friends and family, they redirect you to dumpster-fire Skype. Finally, if you say 'for work', it lets you register - a second time.
See, Microsoft tries to cram everything reasonable into one application - its like Zoom + Discord + Slack + Microsoft's signature square ugly style. Microsoft software always looks like it was designed by Brezhnev's politburo.
As a result, it tries to silo everyone into their own work sites (like Slack does), but at the same time tries to compete with Zoom. Now with Slack, there is a whole thing where you shouldn't be able to just message people from other worksites - the people in Dr. Smith's lab need to get approval to talk to people in Dr. Johnson's lab. This avoids issues of spamming, harrassment, etc. For Slack, this makes a lot of sense.
On the flip side, Zoom protects from harrassment by well, protecting the video meeting room. Passwords, that kind of thing - no one can just waltz in (anymore, Zoombombing was a thing!) and bother people. So what does Microsoft, who tries to compete with Zoom and Slack do?
They do the dumbest thing - they do both. So I was dropping in on a Teams meeting I was invited to, and someone chatted me. But I coudln't chat them back! My 'org' didn't allow that (I didn't sign up with any 'org', to be clear).
Next, the sound quality. Everyone on the call had sub-Zoom sound quality. At first I thought it was just one or two people, but it was everyone. Atrocious! It wasn't nearly as good as filtering out background noise either.
Finally, I couldn't properly close out of the program. It froze my computer. I had to reboot by pressing the power button. I uninstalled. Terrible software.
What makes this all so offensive is (A) how extremely ugly Microsoft software is and (B) that they bought Discord! This is such a brazen display of 'Embrace, extend, and extinguish', it's disgusting. At least Google, Zoom, Slack, Apple - they have the generosity to make software that works and looks fine. Microsoft is like a drunken tyrant. Even if I was a staunch capitalist, I would consider Microsoft a threat to good taste and national security. Someone do something, please.