ChaitanyaBCan I send SMS using Microsoft Teams?
Updated: Oct 19
After the COVID pandemic pushed us from our office to homes, we have become closer with Microsoft Teams than ever! And the companies, too, are striving to provide a single seamless communication platform to all their digital users and external stakeholders.
This prerequisite creates a necessity to send and receive text messages using Microsoft Teams!
Microsoft Teams Texting is a feature where we can send and receive regular messages or SMS using Microsoft Teams numbers. Let us look more into the MS Teams texting in this blog…
What is Microsoft Teams?
Before getting into details of MS teams texting, let us first know what MS Teams is, though most of us are aware of it already!
Microsoft Teams is a unified communication tool developed especially for a business communication platform. It has been a one-stop solution for all types of communication, such as texting, calling, video conferencing, etc.
Presently, it is replacing other communication platforms such as Skype and Microsoft Classroom. It is interesting to note that the Teams daily active users have increased from 13 million in 2019 to 145 million in 2021. This increase is about 10.15 times or 1015% in two years!
Thus, we can see how Microsoft Teams has been increasingly gaining popularity in recent years as a business communication platform.
How is SMS different from MS Teams chat?
MS Teams Chat:
MS Teams chat, like any other instant messaging service, sends text messages over internet protocols. Despite several advantages, Microsoft Teams is more like a walled garden since it requires both the sender and receiver to have the Teams application on their phones or PC!
Additionally, it requires an internet connection to send and receive messages.
SMS:
SMS or Short Messaging Service works on an entirely different communication channel, i.e., using cellular towers.
SMS is sent and received in control channels through cellular towers. Here, SMSC or SMS Centre is a controlling center used to temporarily store, receive, and send messages.
So, SMS requires only a mobile carrier signal and GSM to communicate without using any applications.
Thus, we could find how the same messaging services work on entirely different communication channels and cannot be directly integrated!
Why should you SMS-enable your MS teams?
Though MS teams are preferred for business communications, it is yet to gain popularity as a personal communication platform. So, you cannot expect everyone to have MS Teams on their phone or PC!
Let us take, for example, the organization ABC in retail trade uses MS teams as a messaging application. It sends groceries to its routine customer Linda and wants to notify Linda of its delivery. Calling the customer would take more time and cost, and thus it decides to send messages to their number.
But it is not compulsory that Linda needs to have a Teams number to receive notification, or else ABC needs to get a new text-enabled phone. So why can’t ABC use SMS-Enabled MS Teams number rather than other cumbersome procedures?
How do you enable SMS in Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft does not provide any additional features to enable SMS in the MS Teams application. So, SMS cannot be directly integrated with Microsoft Teams.
However, this feature can be added by initially porting the Teams number through a direct routing technique. This process enables the Teams number to make and receive external phone calls.
Falkon VoIP provides this service and inherent additional benefits such as cost-effective plans, accessing all countries, and seamless service compared to Microsoft Calling plans with access to only 16 countries.
And then, the number is text-enabled to send and receive SMS. This feature addition is a dual advantage. Customers can now use MS Teams numbers for both Voice-calling the external numbers and SMS texting the numbers using this feature.
Get started for MS teams texting by scheduling a demo with our Falkon SMS team.