Microsoft Teams for personal is not that great and we're not sure why

Does Microsoft's Teams for personal use stand a chance? Too much competition and not enough passion suggests it doesn't.

The New York Times-owned Wirecutter recently did a roundup of best messaging apps. It is thoroughly written and backed by some extensive testing of 11 services, whittled down to 5, and evaluated by six users as to which was preferable. The review criteria included setup (security, control), message threading, search quality, file sharing, mobile and desktop app support, and ease of making video calls.

I do not find it surprising Slack is rated as the best and Microsoft Teams fell under "like it or hate it." Indeed, the inside joke about Microsoft Teams is so many people use it because they are forced to by their employer, not out of some preferred user choice.

The critiques are valid. Teams is "a nightmare to set up," the piece notes. Compared to Slack or Google Chat, it is slow and not as "pleasant to use." Wirecutter rightly points out that Microsoft's app onl...