Microsoft Teams Goes Down as Europe Tries to Work From Home Coronavirus means people across Europe are self-isolating and working from home, but users of Microsoft's Slack competitor struggled to log in and send messages to colleagues.

By Adam Smith Edited by Frances Dodds

This story originally appeared on PC Mag

via PC Mag

Microsoft Teams, the company's Slack competitor has gone down today under the load of people across Europe attempting to work from home.

Teams users are reportedly having issues signing into the service and sending messages, and a Microsoft support Twitter account tweeted that it is "investigating messaging-related functionality problems within Microsoft Teams." Replies to that tweet indicate these issues are affecting users in Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Romania, among others.

We have reached out to Microsoft for the cause of the outage, but it appears to have been concurrent with an uptick in users logging on to work from home in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Europe recently became the epicentre of the pandemic, according to the WHO.

As Downdetector reports, workers started experiencing problems using Teams at approximately 8am GMT in Europe, before a massive spike at around 9am. Reports state that 77 percent of the problems were due to server connection, with 20 percent reporting problems accessing the website and a smattering of users unable to log in.

The spread of the coronavirus has affected workers, and the companies that interact with them, in a number of ways. ISPs have dropped their data caps as more people have to work from home, food delivery services are offering a "no-contact service,' and other companies are offering extended warranties or free pornographic content during the pandemic. Across the technology industry, product launches are expected to be delayed due to impacted supply chains and conferences have had to be cancelled.

To help combat the spread of the virus, Google is launching a website that tells you where to get coronavirus tests, and Microsoft has launched a coronavirus tracker through its Bing search engine.

Adam Smith

Contributing Editor PC Mag UK

Adam Smith is the Contributing Editor for PCMag UK, and has written about technology for a number of publications including What Hi-Fi?, Stuff, WhatCulture, and MacFormat, reviewing smartphones, speakers, projectors, and all manner of weird tech. Always online, occasionally cromulent, you can follow him on Twitter @adamndsmith.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business News

JPMorgan Shuts Down Internal Message Board Comments After Employees React to Return-to-Office Mandate

Employees were given the option to leave comments about the RTO mandate with their first and last names on display — and they did not hold back.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Business News

'More Soul-Crushing Than Ever': Popular Hiring Platform Finds Around 20% of Its Postings Were 'Ghost Jobs'

Is that job listing too good to be true? There's a one-in-five chance that it might be.

Business News

'Masculine Energy Is Good': Mark Zuckerberg Tells Joe Rogan He Thinks Companies Need More Aggression

On the most recent episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said corporate culture has become "neutered."

Business News

Zillow Predicts These 10 Places Will Have the Hottest Housing Markets in 2025

Zillow predicted that the hottest housing market of 2025 will be Buffalo, New York. Here's why.

Starting a Business

Starting From Scratch

Here's what you need to know before you launch your big-time food product.