Feature
The clock is ticking for anyone still on Classic Teams. Microsoft will be winding down support for the app on July 1. The change has been in the works for over a year. The new version fixes many of the legacy issues which followed the platform since it launched in 2016 as Microsoft's answer to Slack.
The Sunset of Classic Teams
Microsoft pushed Teams v2.0 into public preview in March 2023 as the antidote to sluggish response times and heavy memory usage. It moved into general availability in October 2023. At the time, Jeff Teper president of collaborative apps and platform at Microsoft, explained the new Teams was “built on a foundation of speed, performance, flexibility and intelligence — delivering up to two times faster performance while using 50% less memory so you can save time and collaborate more efficiently."
Microsoft continued the usual stream of upgrades and additions to Teams since then, but in late April, it finally announced the end-of-support date for “Classic” Teams. After July 1, the company will no longer release updates, patches or new features for Classic Teams users.
It has also indicated that anyone using classic Teams on older and unsupported operating systems (Windows 7, 8, 8.1) would begin to see warnings in August that the app will no longer work after Oct. 23 this year.
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The 'New' Teams
According to the most recent figures, Teams has 320 million monthly active users across 181 markets and 44 languages. It also claims that 75% of these users have already using moved to the new Teams, which makes the announcement a lot less disruptive.
The upgraded Teams ushered in some dramatic changes. Microsoft states that the new desktop app, which leverages WebView2 as the host and React as the web development framework, offers a massively enhanced performance. The new end user capabilities have also significantly improved the in-call and in-meeting experiences.
App speed and responsiveness for common workplace tasks like sending chat messages, switching between chat and channel threads, muting and unmuting audio in meetings, and more have all been optimized. The time it takes to join a meeting has decreased by more than 70%.
The list of improvements is long and extensive and Microsoft states there are more on the way. “We are just getting started, and our goal is to provide more updates like this along the way,” Teper wrote.
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Teams 2.0 Is Better, But More Improvements Are Needed
Teams was due for an internal overhaul, which incentivized rethinking how some features worked, Serious Insights founder and principal analyst Daniel Rasmus told Reworked.
Overall, some very good things came out of the new version of Teams, he continued, such as the ability to swiftly switch accounts, which will make consultants and contractors happy. But sticking points remain.
Here he points to how new channel experience, particularly the features that move people into a thread and out of the channel, may frustrate some. "It would be interesting to see the user experience research that suggested this was a good idea. Moving people out of a channel removes some context and increases the need to act. Rather than just expanding a conversation, clicking and back into a channel creates two additional actions, with little associated value to the experience,” he said.
As of April 30, significant issues remained with the new Team client as noted on learn.microsoft.com, which is one of the reasons why Microsoft keeps older versions of software in-market. The current rapid development and release cycles reduce testing and change end-user perceptions about the acceptable quality of shipping software, he continued.
Regardless, Rasmus reiterated that client software must be updated to receive the most recent OS releases and service updates. Microsoft could better serve its customers by improving communications and transitions around changes like this, as well as offering more of an explanation of what inspired the changes, he continued. When it introduced the ribbon on apps, for instance, they shared four years of research that lead to the ribbon.
Teams Needs to Play Better With Others
The communications capabilities might cause casual users to get lost, despite the apparent simplicity of the UI, he said. He points out that Outlook is a far more complex experience than Teams. However, unlike Outlook, which is personal, Teams is a shared environment over which individuals don’t have full control. Knowing where to go or what is meaningful once you arrive can be a challenge.
“In many ways, Teams is attempting to rationalize the collaboration experience by bringing many of the tools to one client. Unfortunately, Teams doesn’t live in a vacuum world. Not only must it compete with other tools, but it must also coexist with them,” he said.
Too Much Integration, Not Enough Customization
Engaged Organizations founder Rachel Happe agreed the classic version had some UX issues, which, from her perspective, were caused by too much integration and not enough customization of spaces. She hasn't tested the new version so couldn't speak to it specifically, but hopes it resolved these issues.
The integration of content from team sites, Yammer (now Viva) and email in different places essentially assumed all content was the same and context didn't matter, she said. However, context is everything, and for visual people, things like images and unique colors provide keys to that context — mash everything up and that meaning is lost.
Too Many Tools, Lack of Clarity
One frequently cited issue with Teams is its complexity. The issue, however, is not unique to Teams and stems from Microsoft’s efforts to provide organizations with as much choice as possible, Robert Bolder, founder of VPS Server, told Reworked.
“From Teams to SharePoint and other products, Microsoft's suite of workplace communication tools offers a wide range of functionality,” he said. “Nevertheless, this wealth of choices frequently breeds complications, impeding smooth cooperation. The learning curve is significant and users must go through a multitude of settings and applications.”
Microsoft can help workplaces fully use its range of collaborative technologies by placing a higher priority on user experience and more intuitive design, which the new version of Teams now offers, he said. "To fully realize the potential of Microsoft's range of tools for workplace communication, simplification is essential,” he said.
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Next Steps
What now? The classic version of Teams will start its slow shuttering on July 1 as more people move over to the new version. The final word goes to Jeff Teper:
“Up until now, using Teams for both personal and work has been complicated — with users having to switch between multiple apps to use their work (Entra ID) and personal (MSA) accounts. In the coming weeks, we will release a new unified Teams app that allows you to sign in and switch between these accounts with ease.”
In other words, while the new version of Teams is already established in the enterprise, Microsoft continues its development.