Next Generation Microsoft Teams Announced

Microsoft is reimagining the Teams app and has begun a public preview allowing organizations to experience the new Teams client. The new Teams app includes major updates to the user interface to streamline and simplify the experience while the backend of the app has been overhauled making it significantly faster and using less system resources. With the change in the backend of the app and how the app is built, each feature must be updated. Currently the most common features have been finished and thus the reason for the new public preview. However, there are still many features not in the new Teams app. Over the course of 2023, the new Teams app will be finished, and a transition will begin to bring all customers into the new experience. More information on the new Teams app can be found here. 

Why This Matters

• Teams is one of the most important apps in how Microsoft sees people working together daily. While the experience isn’t a huge change, it will impact everyone using Teams. The Teams app is significantly faster. The user interface updates, though, may cause some initial confusion for some individuals at the point of transition.
• The preview allows organizations to enable or disable the option to try the new client. This is important as IT teams and those responsible for how employees work should begin now to understand the changes and impacts. Most employees should not change, yet, with missing features and training.