In March, Microsoft launched a new version of Microsoft Teams for Windows users via a public preview. However, at the moment, the "classic" version of Teams for Windows is still the default for users. That will change later this year.
In an interview for the new Microsoft IT-based podcast UnplugIT, (via Petri), Anupam Pattnaik, Microsoft's Product Lead for the revamped Teams version, stated it would become the default for Windows users sometime later in 2023.
Right now, the issue is getting the new Teams version (which is also called Teams 2.0) to have the same features as the current "classic" Teams client, including things like Breakout Rooms. Pattnaik stated:
“Right now, the classic Teams is the default because we do not have all the features that we support in classic Teams in the new Teams,” Pattnaik explained. “That’s the reason we have right now classic Teams as the default option, but sometime later this calendar year, we’ll make the new Teams the default option when we have feature parity, and when we feel confident that users can switch to the new Teams.”
Pattnaik also said that Teams 2.0 will also be made available for Mac, web, and VDI platforms later this year, and will expand to Microsoft's education and government customers as well.
The biggest feature in the new Teams version is much faster performance compared to the current classic version. Microsoft says that the new Teams launches twice as fast, and users can also join meetings twice as quickly. The new Teams also uses up to 50 percent less memory than the current version and takes up 70 percent less storage space.
Some of the other new features in the revamped Teams include allowing users to stay signed into the app, even if they access it with different accounts and organizations. It also offers notifications on any Teams account they use.
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