Microsoft has given a preview of a new business video platform called Microsoft Stream, which is geared towards business communication. Stream builds upon the learnings of Office 365 Video and has been designed to provide a unified communications platform. Anyone with a business email can sign up today and use Stream for free to upload, share, discover, tag, secure and playback their video.

Microsoft did not clarify when they plan to start charging for Stream, or what it will cost, but did say they will always have a version of Stream that remains free.

In the neat future, Microsoft plans to enhance the functionality of Stream. The company hopes that the Microsoft Stream portal will be the destination for both live and video on demand. The service will offer intelligent video search functions - searching within the video; integration with other business apps like PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, SharePoint and other business applications; and manage access and settings for the IT. Through the Microsoft Stream APIs, Microsoft's partners will be able to create custom applications and make them available in AppSource, Microsoft?s marketplace for business applications.