Microsoft is going to integrate functionalities from two of its most successful products: the professional social network LinkedIn – which it acquired in December 2016 for $26 billion although it continues to operate independently – and the video calling application Microsoft Teams, one of the most widely used video conferencing app worldwide.
LinkedIn has had to slow down its operations in China
Starting in the coming weeks, Microsoft Teams will display the LinkedIn profiles of people participating in a video call. This information will be displayed in individual chats, allowing users to learn more about their co-workers when they are developing common jobs or holding corporate video conferences.
Users will be able to choose whether they want others to be able to know their LinkedIn profiles or not, and who will have access to this information, among the people with whom they are having a one-on-one conversation.
At the moment, this functionality is in the development phase, although Microsoft is already targeting a date – March 2022 – as a possible worldwide launch. The ability to display LinkedIn information will be available to both Microsoft Teams users on the web and those using the desktop version.
This is the first integration of the professional social network into a Microsoft product since the Redmond company acquired the platform five years ago. Microsoft’s strategy in recent years has focused on the corporate environment – its Productivity and Business area has grown by 19% in the last year – and it is in this context that this new functionality is framed.
Microsoft is providing the social network with new functionalities such as the creation of a Freelancer Services area. Although in recent months it has had to close in China due to local government pressures, the company has developed a specific app for this territory with more than 1.1 billion potential Internet users.
