Another Day, Another Microsoft Rant…

As I predicted a year ago, Microsoft is dropping Skype, and trying to persuade people to move to a version of Microsoft Teams intended for home users. It will come as standard in Windows 11, but it is already available for Window 10 as a download. Actually, it’s been available for some time for iOS and Android devices, with support for Windows having been added in the past few weeks.

I’ve been using the business version of Microsoft Teams for some time, but I thought I would check the personal version out in view of the likely demise of Skype in the not too distant future (if Microsoft has its way).

For years, I’ve had two Microsoft Accounts, each associated with its own separate email address, and for years, both accounts have had the same mobile number associated with them because I have a single mobile phone.

I’ve just tried to set up the personal Microsoft Teams application with the second Microsoft Account.

I get to the stage where it asks for a phone number to be added to the Microsoft Account. But, hang on I think, that account already has my number – why is Teams asking for it again? Oh well, no harm in giving it again I think.

Wrong.

I get a message saying: “That number is already taken”, followed by a message from the Authenticator app on my phone telling me that my phone number has been removed from my account. Er, what?

Could it be that the developers of Microsoft Teams cannot conceive of a use case where someone can have multiple email addresses, but only has one mobile? Please say it isn’t so.

Gah!