I feel like part of the problem was that Microsoft tried porting instant messaging and video calling services into the Office suite for decades and it didn’t stick. I remember previous attempts like Skype for business and Lync, with few people in the companies I worked at incorporating it into their workflows.

It took COVID and full remote work to push people into using a program like Zoom over SMS and phone calls. Once most of corporate America switched to using Zoom for conference calls, Microsoft had to rush out a new product that could unseat Zoom quickly.