By Matt W. 02/27/2019
Likely one of the more confusing WTW scenarios for Office 365 users is the decision between whether to use Microsoft Teams or Yammer. For many, it’s even more of a headscratcher than the decision to use Microsoft Teams or Outlook. Teams rolled out (kind of by surprise) in 2016 and has become the darling of the Microsoft modern workplace. However, that doesn’t mean Yammer has no role.
Introduction
Yammer and Microsoft Teams can overlap a little bit in their use cases, but I find it makes a lot of sense to use them for separate reasons. The way you want to communicate is generally the deciding factor on which to use when: Yammer or Teams.
I won’t say this article is prescriptive for all people in all situations, but I will stand by the recommendations made here as good practice for making the most of both apps and improving how you interact with your colleagues, customers, vendors, and everyone else you work with.
Generally speaking, Microsoft Teams is best for smaller groups of people that work closely together in a directed way whereas Yammer is best for ad hoc interaction with people across an organization. Let’s talk a bit more about where you’d use Yammer versus Teams and why.
Larger organizations will see a real need for both applications; smaller organizations (less than 1,000, let’s say) may see no need to use both. In the latter situation, I’d generally recommend using Teams over Yammer if you have to pick one of the apps to use exclusively.
Let’s get into the use cases and reasons why I make those recommendations.