What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a communications platform for workgroups that competes with the likes of Slack, Zoom, and Cisco Webex, however it offers much better integration with the Microsoft Office ecosystem. Teams lets you organize chats with teammates, participate in video conferences, and share files.
With the new Teams app that launches up to 2X faster and enables you to join meetings up to 2X faster, you can focus on what matters most to you. The new Teams has been optimized for more efficient use of system resources, using up to 50% less memory. It adds support for users that collaborate across organizations and manage multiple work or school accounts. You can be signed into multiple organizations and accounts simultaneously and receive notifications for all your accounts, no matter which one is currently in use. The new Teams also ensures simplified IT management and enhanced data security.
Faster and more resource efficient
We made a significant investment to overhaul the Teams platform to meet our goal for new Teams to be twice as fast while using half the system resources.
To optimize navigation, we prioritized the user interactions that occur most frequently, including switching between different chats, channels, and activities. On average, a typical user switches ten thousand times per month, emphasizing the importance of a faster and more responsive experience. With new Teams, switching between chats, channels, and activities will be instant, without having to wait for content to load. A fast-scrolling experience is crucial for you to access relevant information quickly and efficiently. With the new Teams, we have lowered shimmering and reduced wait times. The change enables faster app responses to your actions. The new Teams app has been optimized for resource utilization to free up memory and disk space for other applications and provide compatibility with a broader range of computers.
We partnered with an independent benchmarking firm, GigaOm, that tested the performance of new and classic Teams across three different laptops (low-end, general purpose, and high-performance). GigaOm conducted tests comparing new Teams to classic Teams on areas such as installation behavior, application responsiveness, and impact on system resources such as memory and disk space.
These are some of their findings on new Teams’ speed and performance improvements.
- Install app up to 3X faster
- Launch app up to 2X faster
- Join meetings up to 2X faster
- Switch chats/channels up to 1.7X faster
- Consume up to 50% less memory
- Consume up to 70% less disk space
Collaborate more effectively across organizational boundaries
We understand how challenging it is for you to collaborate across organizations and manage multiple work or school accounts. You cannot receive real-time notifications during calls or meetings across organizations or accounts. Switching from one organization to another or from one account to another interrupts your workflow since it requires you to log in and out constantly.
New Teams will enable you to collaborate more effectively across organizational boundaries by being actively signed into multiple accounts at the same time and receiving real-time notifications no matter which one is currently in use. You can seamlessly engage with users across multiple accounts and organizations without having to drop out of a call or meeting, ensuring no disruption to your workflow.
Getting started with the new Teams
If you are in the public preview program, you will have immediate access to the Try the new Teams toggle. If you are in the Targeted Release program, you will have access to the preview of new Teams starting mid-April 2023. If you’re in production, your admins will have the option to opt-in by using the Teams update management policy to select which users in your organization can see the toggle and get access to new Teams.
Here is how you can preview the new Teams experience today:
1. Open the Teams desktop app on your Windows machine.
2. Turn on the Try the new Teams toggle at the top left corner of the Teams app.
3. Select Get it now from the pop-out dialogue. The new Teams will start installing.
4. Your Teams app will reboot to open the new Teams experience. Any subsequent actions you take will happen in the new Teams by default, like joining a Teams meeting from Outlook.