Microsoft Teams is a workplace collaboration platform developed by Microsoft that allows individuals and teams to communicate, collaborate, and share information in real time. It is exclusive to users of Microsoft 365, and it is designed to streamline communication and increase productivity by bringing together chat, meetings, file sharing, and app integration into a single platform. If you’re not already using Teams and want to learn more about how it works, we have a blog about it.
- Create channels for team communication and collaboration
- Chat with individuals or groups
- Hold audio and video meetings with colleagues
- Share files and collaborate on documents in real-time
- Use third-party apps and services directly within the platform
- Access and manage their calendar and tasks
The New Teams
The new version of Microsoft Teams is visually very similar to the old one, so you’ll feel right at home using it – but there have been some significant improvements made to its speed, reliability and workflow.
- Faster
Teams now uses 50% less memory to run, which can be useful if you’re running multiple programmes at once. Tasks like launching the app to joining a conference call are noticeably quicker and smoother using the new version of Teams. - Support For Multiple Tenants
One of the biggest improvements has been support for multiple tenants and accounts. Microsoft has upgraded its authentication, notification, and synchronisation technology to deliver a seamless and consistent experience. For instance, some of our clients need to work with individuals outside of their organisation, which occasionally necessitates the use of Teams across multiple tenants or through several accounts. You can now stay signed in across all your multiple tenants and accounts, receiving notifications regardless of which one you are presently using, rather than having to continually log in and out of various accounts. - AI-Ready
The updated version of Teams is also better equipped to take advantage of new AI-driven improvements to search and workflow. Microsoft has already started integrating its “Sydney” AI into Bing search and several other AI tools are likely to launch in other Microsoft products (including Teams) by the end of the year.
How To Get New Teams
If you are a Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) customer, you should already have the standard version of Teams. If you are a 365 customer but don’t already have it, you can download Teams from here. Once installed, if you are eligible for the new version of Teams, you should see this toggle in the top left corner of your Teams window.
Switch the toggle over, your Teams window should close, and the new version of Teams will launch.
If you previously had custom appearance settings (such as using Dark Mode), these will not carry over, so navigate to Settings > Appearance and accessibility to customise the appearance to your liking.
Ready To Upgrade To The New Version Of Teams?
You can check your current Teams software today and see if you are eligible to upgrade (you will see the toggle in the top left corner). The latest version of Teams will roll out to all Microsoft 365 customers by the end of 2023, but many customers will get it much earlier than that. If you’re not already using Microsoft Teams or have yet to sign up for Microsoft 365, there’s never been a better time to start. Our team has helped dozens of businesses, both large and small, to transition to Microsoft 365 and unlock all its useful features (of which Teams is just one part). If you would like help making the most of Microsoft 365 in your business, speak to our team today.