Microsoft Teams appears to be struggling with the extra demand placed on the communication and collaboration platform by people working remotely during the coronavirus outbreak.

The main problem appears to be with Microsoft Teams’ messaging feature, with many users complaining that messages are either slow to deliver or not delivering at all.

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The website DownDetector, which monitors site outages, showed that problems with Microsoft Teams began at 8:49am GMT. DownDetector’s outage map shows that the issue is affecting Microsoft Teams users in Europe.

Given the outage began as many in Europe started their working day, it is possible that Microsoft Teams’ infrastructure is struggling with the extra demand placed on the service as millions of people in Europe work from home as social distancing measures kick in.

Microsoft Teams offered free during COVID-19 outbreak

Microsoft is one of many companies to offer free or discounted remote working tools during the COVID-19 outbreak, which has swept across the world and caused major disruption for everyday life.

Microsoft is offering a free six-month trial of its premium Teams chat app, as well as 1TB of storage. According to the company, it has experienced a 500% increase in Teams meetings, calling and conferences in China since the end of January, as well as a 20% increase Teams usage on mobile devices.

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In an update posted on Microsoft’s Twitter support page, the tech giant said: “We’re investigating messaging-related functionality problems within Microsoft Teams. Please refer to TM206544 in your admin center for further details.”

Microsoft Teams users took to Twitter to voice their frustration.

One user wrote: “@MicrosoftTeams, how’s your infrastructure coping with extra load this morning?”

Another said: “Everyone’s working from home and @MicrosoftTeams  is dog slow!”

In February Microsoft Teams was down after an authentication certificate expired.

Verdict has contacted Microsoft Teams and will update this page with its response.

Update: A Microsoft spokesperson said “We’ve resolved an issue that may have impacted a subset of customers in Europe.”

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