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Can Microsoft Teams send text messages?
As more companies move to remote work, IT teams can enable sending text messages through Microsoft Teams for quicker and easier communication among users.
As people begin to rely more on real-time communication through collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, the differences in texting and IM are becoming less clear. This is especially the case when the recipient is not a corporate user and still needs to be able to communicate with a Teams user.
However, not everyone installs the Teams app on their personal phones. Employees may want to contact users who don't have access to Teams on their phones but still need to receive messages and notifications through text message.
To support the lack of access to corporate tools on personal devices, IT admins are working to enable text messaging through Teams. While Microsoft does not natively support text messaging with Teams, there are two ways this can be accomplished.
How to send text messages in Microsoft Teams
One option is the use of third-party integration tools that can receive a Teams IM and route it through a mobile provider to its destination. Workflow automation app Zapier, for example, is one platform that supports this type of integration.
The second option is to enable Direct Routing, where a Teams phone number receives support for more advanced voice capabilities, like texting. This is available through service provider partners, such as Falkon VoIP and RingCentral, that support voice calling and texting as part of their integration with Teams.
Texting to communicate with other users is a valuable function where IT teams are finding ways to enable this feature in Microsoft through the use of third-party providers.
