Casual Games Added to Microsoft Teams

You can play Minesweeper or Solitaire during meetings.

You can play Minesweeper or Solitaire during meetings.

While the Microsoft Teams app is primarily intended for business meetings in the same vein as Zoom or Slack, one of Microsoft’s priorities with its development is ensuring users spend as much time using it as possible. More time actively using Teams means less time using other apps, after all.

To this end, Microsoft announced this week that they’ve added several of Windows’ signature casual games as built-in features to the Teams app. Games like Minesweeper and Solitaire, as well as a new offering called IceBreakers, are now available to both play and stream to other users within the Teams app. Users can play together, or use the spectator mode to follow along with gameplay.

“Enhanced spectator mode allows everyone, whether actively playing that round or not, to follow the action and engage with the players on screen,” Nicole Herskowitz, a Microsoft corporate vice president, wrote in the company’s official blog, likening the experience to watching a game show.

Microsoft was especially enthusiastic about IceBreakers, which was designed for the express purpose of being an “ice breaker” game in Teams. “As we tested different game ideas across Microsoft, this was one of the most requested game types, and we listened to the feedback to create this game,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC.