Microsoft is making its Walkie Talkie feature of Microsoft Teams generally available to all users of its communications app today. Walkie Talkie lets Microsoft Teams users turn smartphones or tablets into a walkie-talkie that works over cellular data or Wi-FI. It was originally announced two years ago, and has been in preview until today.
Microsoft has primarily pitched this at frontline workers, employees who are customer-facing and run day-to-day operations inside companies. The software maker is even teaming up with Zebra Technologies to add a dedicated push-to-talk button on a range of Zebra mobile devices. These devices are used widely by frontline workers, the employees that have helped steer the world through the ongoing pandemic.
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Walkie-talkie features are still rare in communications apps. WhatsApp lets you record snippets of audio than can be sent and received, and Slack launched its Discord-like Huddles feature last year to let people drop in and out of calls easily. Apple did launch its own walkie-talkie feature on the Apple Watch in 2018, using push-to-talk over a FaceTime Audio call.
