In 2011, Microsoft launched Office 365, a collection of apps bundled under one subscription, and accessible across desktop and handheld devices. Since then, the technology giant has consistently added tools and new features to enhance it. Microsoft’s remote work offerings began in earnest with the launch of SharePoint 2001, a collaboration tool for communication amongst teams and centralized content storage. Office 365 was rebranded as Microsoft 365 in April 2020 and it uses a subscription model. It also added a new project management app, Lists, to its enterprise software suite in May 2020 followed by the launch of its productivity tracking tools named Power BI Goals in May 2021, Microsoft announced the tool is built on Microsoft’s data visualization platform, Power BI, allowing users to assign and track tasks to manage productivity.

Word Online was launched in 2010—a rival to Google Docs. Users could create, share and collaborate using office package tools such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In 2011, the company launched Lync, an instant messaging, audio, and video conferencing tool which was combined with Skype for Business after Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype for USD 8.5 billion that same year. Moreover, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn reportedly invested around USD 50 million in virtual events startup Hopin’s oversubscribed secondary Series C round in June 2021. The two companies are expected to collaborate to allow users to extend their live events reach to LinkedIn.

Microsoft Teams, launched in 2017, became the primary communication tool for Microsoft 365. It provides threaded chats, voice and video conferencing, and file sharing, with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint all built in. Microsoft Teams is considered a strong rival to Slack. Teams is included in a Microsoft 365 subscription and was later announced to be directly integrated to its operating system Windows in June 2021. As a result, Slack filed an antitrust claim against Microsoft citing unfair use of Microsoft’s market power to drive adoption of Teams, in July 2021. Teams reported 75 million daily active users (DAUs) in 2019, well ahead of Slack's last reported 12 million. As of December 2021, Teams had 270 million monthly active users, up from 250 million in July 2021.

As a result of the COVID pandemic, Microsoft has made efforts to make its offering more suited for hybrid work where organization-wide training programs, conferences, and virtual events are the norm. Microsoft launched a set of new updates to its Office productivity suite in June and September 2021 to bridge the gap between in-office and remote coworkers. In line with this, Microsoft launched Loop, a centralized hub to synchronize work across the Microsoft 365 suite, in November 2021. Microsoft unveiled its virtual reality platform, Microsoft Mesh, which enables users to meet virtually in 3D spaces, in March 2021. Powered by the Azure cloud platform, Mesh allows individuals to interact by appearing on-screen as avatars or animated characters.

Microsoft announced the acquisition of Peer5, a developer of technology that enables large-scale live video streaming solutions, in August 2021. Microsoft intends to integrate Peer5’s eCDN technology into Microsoft Teams to enable large-scale live video streaming. Microsoft also announced plans to acquire the web-based video editing platform Clipchamp in September 2021. Through the acquisition, Microsoft aims to improve its offerings in the video editing space, noting that Clipchamp is a “natural fit” in extending Microsoft 365’s cloud-based productivity features.