France will phase out the use of American video conferencing platforms Microsoft Teams and Zoom across its public administration by 2027, replacing them with a domestically developed system called Visio. The decision was announced by the French government as part of a broader effort to strengthen digital sovereignty and reduce reliance on foreign technology providers.
The move comes amid growing concern in France and across Europe about dependence on United States based digital infrastructure, particularly for sensitive government communications. Officials have said the shift is aimed at ensuring greater security, confidentiality, and continuity of public electronic communications, especially during periods of geopolitical tension or service disruptions.
Visio is a French made video conferencing platform developed under the government’s Suite Numérique initiative, which seeks to replace commonly used foreign digital tools such as Gmail, Slack, and Zoom within the public sector. These tools are intended solely for civil servants and are not designed for public or private commercial use.
The platform has been undergoing testing for about a year and is currently used by around 40,000 public sector employees. It includes features such as automated meeting transcripts and speaker identification powered by artificial intelligence technology from French start up Pyannote. Visio is hosted on a sovereign cloud operated by Outscale, a subsidiary of French software company Dassault Systèmes.
French authorities said the transition to Visio could significantly reduce licensing costs, estimating potential savings of up to 1 million euros per year for every 100,000 users. The government also cited recent United States cloud service outages as a factor that reinforced concerns over reliability and foreign dependence.
The rollout of Visio is expected to take place gradually, with full deployment across all government departments targeted within the next two years. The initiative reflects a wider European push to regain control over critical digital infrastructure and keep sensitive state data under domestic oversight.