Microsoft Corp. wants to grow adoption of Microsoft Teams among the more than 2 billion frontline workers worldwide who spend most of their time away from a desk.

The company today debuted several new features for the messaging service that promise to ease communications among employees, as well as simplify information technology operations. The flagship addition is a capability called Walkie Talkie that’s rolling out for the mobile version of Teams.

As the name suggests, Walkie Talkie is a push-to-talk button inside the app interface that allows the user to connect quickly with colleagues. Microsoft is making a three-pronged pitch to enterprises. The company said Teams is more convenient for employees, since they don’t have to carry a physical walkie-talkie around alongside their phones, and more cost-efficient for IT groups since they have to buy fewer devices. Lastly, the service promises improved security. 

“Unlike analog devices with unsecure networks, customers no longer have to worry about crosstalk or eavesdropping from outsiders,” Emma Williams, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of modern workplace verticals, wrote in a blog post. “And since Walkie Talkie functions over Wi-Fi or cellular data, this capability can be used across geographic locations.”

Security is a major theme in the update Microsoft announced today. In addition to Walkie Talkie, Teams is getting a new dashboard through which managers such as store supervisors can centrally approve password resets and enable or disable SMS sign-in for employees. This latter feature allows staff to log into Teams using a onetime code sent via text message.

In the employee-facing interface, meanwhile, Teams now provides a security option for instantly logging out from all the chat rooms, applications and browser sessions open on a device. It’s mainly intended to ease shift handovers among employees who share the same company-supplied handset.

Microsoft is also adding deeper integrations with external applications, including SAP’s SuccessFactors human resources platform, and a tool for distributing customized to-do lists and workflows to teams.

Frontline employees are a growing focus in the competitive team communications market. Facebook Inc. has added a bevy of frontline-focused features to its Workplace platform, which helped it land a 210,000-user deal with Nestle S.A, last year, and several startups have emerged with chat tools targeted specifically at this segment.

Industry poster child Slack Technologies Inc. notably doesn’t yet offer anything comparable to Teams’ Walkie Talkie feature or SMS sign-in option. However, that may change in the future given the company’s high-stakes rivalry with Microsoft. The messaging provider’s shares dropped 10% this past November when Microsoft announced that Teams hit 20 million daily active users, a milestone that came just months after the service had surpassed Slack in usage for the first time. 

Images: Microsoft