Microsoft Teams to get end-to-end encryption for calls in July

New Delhi: Microsoft is set to jump on the encryption bandwagon. The company’s roadmap says Microsoft Teams, its video calling and work collaboration tool, will start encrypting calls made over the platform from July onwards. The feature was first announced at Microsoft’s Ignite conference in March this year.

“Teams will support an option to use end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for ad hoc 1:1 Teams VoIP calls, providing an additional option for conducting sensitive online conversations. To support customer security and compliance requirements, IT will have full control of who can use E2EE in the organization,” the roadmap says.

It’s unclear whether the company will offer E2EE on the free version of Microsoft Teams, but the roadmap confirms that it will come to desktop, iOS, Android and government versions of Microsoft Teams. While Microsoft hasn’t clarified whether E2EE will work through the browser versions of Teams, work collaboration tools usually don’t allow that.

The feature also brings Microsoft up to speed with rival platforms like Zoom, which added E2EE late last year. The platform allows both free and paid users to use end-to-end encryption, and works only on its Mac, PC, iOS and Android apps.

Teams has been gaining priority amongst Microsoft’s app portfolio for a while now. The company had also added a $30,000 bug bounty program for Teams, which is a sign of its prominence. Teams is also set to get invite-only meeting controls and multi-geo support, which allows organizations to store data at multiple geographical locations.