The next generation of Microsoft Teams is here, and I’m staring at Slack, wondering when I’m going to get a similarly impressive update.
In a blog post, Microsoft announced that it is now rolling out the new, completely rebuilt version of Teams in a public preview. The preview that is available today is only available for those using Teams on Windows, FYI. The company also started rolling out its new feature which allows users to turn themselves into a 3D avatar on a video call.
So, what’s new with the new Teams? The most obvious is a redesign, but there’s a lot more going on underneath the hood. According to the company, Teams has been rebuilt using different coding languages that have made the app much more efficient. In the video below, you can see that the new preview of Teams now loads about twice as fast as the old version. The company says that the new app also takes up only half of the memory and less storage.
Of course, there’s always a lot more with a major overhaul like Microsoft Teams got today. In addition to the performance gains, the app has been redesigned, added the ability to switch between accounts, and will integrate with the company’s upcoming AI features like Microsoft 365 Copilot. To celebrate, Microsoft released a promotional video showing off all of the changes. Check it out below:
Microsoft says that it plans to roll out the public preview of the new version of Teams later this year and will make it more broadly available by the end of the year.
Looking at the new version of Microsoft Teams and the AI features the company is planning to roll out to its productivity suite definitely has been feeling some FOMO. I’m currently deep in the Google Workspace and Slack ecosystem, but seeing what a more closely integrated productivity suite can offer, especially when it is boosted by AI, has me hoping Google can catch up. Otherwise, I might be jumping on the Microsoft/OpenAI train.
