Tech giant Microsoft has now made its Walkie Talkie feature available to all Microsoft Teams’s users. It unveiled the Walkie Talkie feature in 2020 but it has remained inactive for most users.
Just yesterday, it announced “the general availability of Walkie Talkie app in Teams on a wide range of Zebra mobile devices, such as the rugged take-it anywhere TC-series, the sleek customer-facing EC-series, and the ultimate scanning device MC-series.”
Microsoft said it designed this feature for frontline workers and employees who are customer-facing and are on the move managing day-to-day operations inside companies
The collaboration between Microsoft and Zebra technologies brings Teams’ digital Walkie Talkie functionality with a dedicated push-to-talk (PTT) button on Zebra devices so frontline workers can enjoy clear, instant, and secure communication at their fingertips.
How does the Walkie Talkie feature work?
The Walkie Talkie feature allows quick Push-To-Talk communication between members in a team. Like the traditional Walkie Talkie, only members of the same team that join a channel on Microsoft Teams can communicate via the push-to-talk feature.
Currently, Walkie Talkie is not pre-installed. To enable this feature for users in your organization, you need to add Walkie Talkie to the App Setup Policy assigned to users from the Teams Admin Center. Once enabled, Walkie Talkie will become available on the app within 48 hours.
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Adding Walkie Talkie to your app list
In the Microsoft Teams admin center, under Teams app > Setup policies, you should have Allow user pinning set to On. Then, under the Pinned Apps section, click +Add Apps.
On the Add pinned apps panel that appears on the right, use the Search textbox to look for Walkie Talkie. When you have it as a search result, select the Add button to the right of the name to add it to your list.
The Walkie Talkie app should now appear on the Pinned Apps list, and be available for use once you click the Save button.
Walkie Talkie feature is now available on Android & iOS and it works anywhere with WiFi or cellular internet connectivity.
