Workplace collaboration software provider Slack Technologies Inc. claims it now has more than 12 million daily active users, and that those users are more engaged with its tools than those who use rival Microsoft Corp.’s Teams product.

If correct, it would mean Slack has fewer users overall than Teams, which claimed 13 million DAUs in July, though it’s still pretty close.

But Brian Elliott, Slack’s vice president and general manager of platform, said in a blog post today that the “deep engagement” shown by its users is evidence of its growing market penetration. Among its paid customers, the average user spends about nine hours a day connected to Slack, and about 90 minutes actively using its tools.

“What does this active use look like? It adds up to more than 5 billion actions weekly on average, including reading and writing messages, uploading and commenting on files, performing searches, and, most importantly to us on the Platform team, interacting with apps,” Elliott wrote.

Slack and Microsoft have been going head to head in the collaboration software market for a good couple of years now, with the former often seen as more popular with smaller companies and the latter appealing more to bigger businesses thanks to its integration with Office 365, at least according to popular wisdom.

But the fact Microsoft made no mention at all of user engagement when it published its 13 million DAUs tally in July suggests things aren’t so clear-cut. Indeed, Microsoft’s figures could well be inflated, because any customer with an Office 365 license is automatically counted as a Teams user, whether actively engaged with it or not.

Elliott hinted as much, noting that 70% of Slack’s top 50 customers are also Office 365 customers and using Slack’s Office 365 integrations.

“While our DAU numbers continue to grow, we measure our success by the value our customers derive from Slack and that value is evident in how deeply they are engaged with our product,” said Elliott. “It’s not a successful collaboration tool if people don’t use it.”

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