Microsoft rolls out new Teams app to all users

Microsoft is rolling out its revamped Teams app for Mac and Windows users, the company announced.

The tech giant rebuilt the new app, which has been available as a preview for businesses to test since March 2023, from the ground up.

“Our goal was to reimagine Teams from the ground up to deliver a faster, simpler, smarter, and more flexible app to help you stay productive and collaborate more effectively,” said Microsoft.

The result is that the revamped app is twice as fast as the previous version and uses 50% less memory.

The older version of Microsoft Teams was notoriously resource-hungry for older PCs and laptops.

Microsoft said the app’s installation is three times faster than before and takes up 70% less storage space.

The update involved Microsoft ditching the Electron foundation of the older app in favour of its own Edge WebView2 technology.

Microsoft has also moved to the React JavaScript library and focused on improving the Microsoft Teams design with the Fluent design language system for various user interface improvements.

While the new version of the app has been in testing for some time, it rolled out to preview users without several features, which the company says it has now added.

“We have made notable progress since the launch of new Teams in public preview,” it said.

“New Teams now has full feature parity for almost all features including custom line-of-business apps, third-party apps, breakout rooms, 7×7 video, call queues, PSTN calling, contextual search in chats and channels, cross-post a channel conversation, and more.”