Introducing New Microsoft Teams for Education

[Guest Mike Tholfsen]

In our continued efforts to provide updates and upgrades to the Microsoft Teams experience, our product groups pay great attention to the feedback provided by our users. One area that users of Teams for Education have commented on has been the overall performance and stability of the platform, which certainly can have an impact our users’ ability to effectively manage Teams within their institution. With this feedback in mind, Microsoft is excited to announce that the Teams app is being re-designed with a performance-driven focus and will be launching (currently in preview) as the next evolution of Microsoft Teams – New Teams.

 

 

 

Here’s a quick look what users can expect from New Teams:

 

• 2X faster, whether you’re starting up the app, presenting in a meeting, or responding to messages
  
• 50% less memory, lower CPU, disk utilization, and less battery life
  
• Use multiple accounts and multiple tenants (MTMA) more seamlessly
  
• More reliable, improved security and better manageability – using trusted types, stringent CSPs, and integration with MSIX
  

 

The New Teams interface is available on Windows Desktop only.

 

 

 

How to Opt In

 

 

Once New Teams is released for the Education sector, users will see a Toggle Button in the top left corner of the Teams Desktop in their current version of Teams (Classic). Users can turn this toggle on, when prompted, and can access the New Teams experience by clicking "Get it now" to install the new Teams client.

 

 

 

Users can go back to Classic Teams at any time, simply by toggling off the button in the top left corner.

 

 

 

Note: There will be a Teams Admin Center policy flag to control showing or hiding this toggle to users. The policy flag for Teams for Education is default OFF. Admins must turn the policy flag ON to show the toggle to their users.

 

 

 

 

When will New Teams be available?

 

 

All features in the current (Classic) version of Teams will be available in New Teams in different phases.

 

 

The first phase of features is already available to test for IT admins and was released in February 2023.

 

 

New Teams will be generally available for all Education users tentatively by H2CY2023, and Microsoft will communicate this availability in advance before rolling it out.

 

 

 

Please Note: EDU customers will receive New Teams on a different timeline than Enterprise customers in order to serve the unique needs of the education sector.

 

 

 

For more information on New Teams, please visit - The new Microsoft Teams desktop client - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

 

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