Researchers say Slack and Microsoft Teams have fundamental issues vetting third-party apps and should overhaul their app model to be more like traditional OSes
Andy Greenberg / Wired :
Context & Ripple Effects
The researchers' critique lands on a platform battle with a long arc: Microsoft has framed Teams as part of its vision to build an operating system for the cloud, while Slack positioned itself as an open enterprise network and escalated to an EU antitrust complaint over Teams bundling. Openness was Slack's selling point; integration breadth was Microsoft's.
The irony is that security has been the stated fault line all along — a leaked internal Microsoft memo banned or discouraged Slack, Google Docs, and even GitHub over security concerns. If third-party app vetting in both ecosystems is as weak as the researchers claim, the OS framing cuts both ways: neither platform has actually built the app governance a traditional OS enforces.
First-order effects
- Slack and Teams admins learn that the third-party apps their organizations install are not vetted to OS standards, forcing security teams to re-evaluate integrations they treated as platform-approved.
- Third-party app developers in both ecosystems face pressure to meet stricter review, permissioning, and sandboxing requirements if the platforms adopt the researchers' recommendations.
Second-order effects
- Open-source and self-hosted alternatives like Mattermost and Rocket.chat gain a security-marketing angle against both incumbents, reviving the differentiation play they have run since 2016.
- Microsoft's own internal tool bans over security concerns become harder to defend externally if its flagship collaboration platform is shown to have the same vetting weaknesses it policed in rivals' products.
Third-order effects
- If workplace chat platforms adopt OS-style app stores — formal review, permissions, sandboxing — the open-integration era of enterprise software closes, and trust infrastructure becomes as central to these platforms as messaging itself.
- Regulators already scrutinizing Microsoft's Teams bundling in the EU may find app-governance failures a second front: platform control over third-party software distribution invites the same scrutiny mobile app stores have faced.
The trend: Enterprise collaboration platforms are being pushed from open integration toward operating-system-style app governance, with security vetting becoming the next competitive and regulatory battleground.