Microsoft releases new Teams experience

Microsoft is rolling out a new Teams experience for all their customers. This will be a new version for desktop and web, rebuilt and re-engineered to improve the Microsoft Teams services.   

You may have seen a banner announcing the release of the 'new Teams' experience and informing you that ‘Your Teams app will be upgraded to the new Teams in the beginning of January 2024’. Don’t worry, you don’t need to do anything, but you should note that change is coming soon so you are not surprised when your app is upgraded. 

When will new Teams be available?

New Teams will be available for new users downloading Teams from www.office.com from January 2024. Eventually all Microsoft Teams users will be moved to new Teams.

In the meantime, some users may be offered the option to ‘Try the new Teams’ via the current ‘classic’ version of Teams. If you see this offer, you can use the toggle to try it out. 

If you use Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome to access the web version of Teams, you will also notice the new Teams experience from early 2024. Other browsers will be added throughout the year.  

If you choose to try new Teams before it is formally rolled out, you can switch back to classic Teams at any time until the final cut-off date which is currently 31 March 2024. Bear in mind that any dates detailed in the rollout are subject to change by Microsoft, so do check.  

What's different in new Teams?

With a faster and more flexible user experience, new Teams is designed to help you save time and work together more efficiently and securely. We've listed some of the new features below or you can find out more on Microsoft's website.

• Speed! Launch the app faster, join meetings and switch channels more quickly.  
• New help options built into the desktop and web version of New Teams. 
• New Teams notifications are now controlled directly from the app so you can choose exactly what activity you get notified about.  
• Faster presence updates as your availability and status are set.
• Choice of where new posts appear in channels (top or bottom).
• Smaller memory footprint and increased stability.  

When will the new Teams become the default? 

At the moment, Microsoft gives the date as January 2024, but they have also posted an article stating that the final cut-off date for classic Teams availability and support is 31 March 2024 - these dates may be subject to change. We will let University members know if the dates change significantly.   

Finding more information

The best way to find up-to-date information about Teams at Oxford is to join the Nexus365 User Group (NUG), the joining code is LNJVOFR.

You can read about fellow Oxford users’ experiences with the new Teams client in the Q and A channel.  

Lots more information about using Teams can be found on our IT Help website.