Remote working apps surge

Remote working software is seeing a surge in use as the spread of coronavirus moves many jobs and classes online.

Microsoft’s Teams chat and conferencing app has gained more than 12 million daily users in the last seven days alone, a spokesperson for the company told The Hill on Thursday.

Teams now has 44 million daily users that have produced 900 million meeting and calling minutes each day of the week.

“It’s very clear that enabling remote work is more important than ever, and that it will continue to have lasting value beyond the COVID-19 outbreak,” Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

“We are committed to building the tools that help organizations, teams, and individuals stay productive and connected even when they need to work apart.”

Remote conference service Zoom has also seen an uptick in usage as coronavirus has spread.

While the company declined to provide The Hill with specific figures on usage rates, it pointed to commentary from CEO Eric Yuan during a conference call on fourth quarter earnings earlier this month.