Get ready to dive into Microsoft’s revamped Teams experience! New Teams has been rewritten from the ground up to be faster, simpler, and a more flexible experience.
Microsoft has meticulously planned the rollout, ensuring a seamless and efficient transition for users. As we examine the timeline, features, and improvements, we’ll equip you with the knowledge needed to embrace this evolution confidently.
Let’s embrace the future of teamwork together!
Timeline
Let’s begin by unraveling the timeline for this momentous transition. While it’s been an option for months to use New Teams in beta, March 2024 marks the commencement of the official introduction of New Teams features, initiating a gradual onboarding process for users. This phased approach allows ample time for exploration and adaptation to the enhanced functionalities before the full transition in April 2024. Any remaining Classic Teams users will be seamlessly migrated to New Teams post-transition.
Exceptions do exist, such as Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) users who have until June 30, 2024, to make the transition, ensuring flexibility amidst the change.
Improvements and Features
Prepare to be captivated by the myriad of improvements and features that accompany New Teams. From enhanced performance to a more streamlined user experience, we’ll dissect the differences between the old and new, empowering you to embrace the future of collaboration.
Collaboration
New Teams revolutionizes collaboration, introducing game-changing features designed to elevate teamwork to new heights.
Microsoft Loop
In New Teams meetings, taking meeting notes has undergone a remarkable transformation. With the integration of Microsoft Loop, seamlessly transitioning from note-taking to task creation has become a breeze. Within just 5 minutes, the transition from capturing notes to generating actionable tasks becomes effortlessly smooth.
Loop even offers a concise summary, enabling you to quickly catch up on any vital details you may have missed. It’s more than just jotting down notes; it’s about efficiently converting those notes into actionable items.
Microsoft Stream
Teams has now seamlessly integrated with Stream, offering a streamlined method for recording meetings. But here’s the real gem: automatic transcription! This feature allows you to easily revisit meetings at your convenience, review discussions, and even search transcripts for specific content.
Copilot
Introducing Copilot, a revolutionary addition to New Teams that’s set to transform your meeting experience. Here’s the lowdown: Copilot serves as your intelligent meeting assistant. Seamlessly integrated into Teams chats, Copilot stands ready on the right-hand side to offer its assistance.
From summarizing discussions to highlighting key takeaways, this feature ensures that crucial information remains front and center, preventing it from getting lost in the conversation flow.
But that’s not all—Copilot also boasts a range of prompts meticulously crafted to simplify information retrieval. The ultimate aim? To customize Copilot to align with your preferences, transforming it into a personalized and invaluable assistant tailored specifically to your workflow. Rest assured, your interactions with Copilot remain private—only you can access the insights and prompts it provides.
User Interaction
Let’s dig into the evolution of user interaction, comparing the dynamics between Classic Teams and New Teams. 
In Classic Teams, users had the option to follow another user’s presence for notifications. However, with the advent of New Teams, we’ve witnessed a profound transformation. Now, at any point, you can effortlessly access a comprehensive overview simply by selecting a user’s avatar or profile photo.
This expanded overview includes a wealth of information, from their current online status to their next available calendar slot in Outlook, work hours, local time, and even their work location, whether they’re working remotely or in-office.
This enhancement not only streamlines the interaction process but also enriches it, offering users a more insightful and robust experience.
Contact Management
In the previous iteration of Teams, contacts were intertwined with Chats. With the introduction of the updated version, a significant alteration has been made. Contacts are no longer directly accessible within chat threads; rather, they are now conveniently housed within the new People app.
Through the simple action of clicking the three dots menu, we can effortlessly manage and access our contacts. This transition streamlines our interactions, offering a more structured and efficient method of handling our contact list.
Org Chart Navigation
Now, let’s investigate the improved navigation and organizational enhancements. In the previous iteration of Teams, users could access an organizational chart during one-on-one chats.
These features have transformed with the evolution. Users can now simply click on a user’s avatar anywhere in Teams to navigate directly to the organizational chart within the profile card. These enhancements significantly contribute to a more intuitive and seamless navigation experience.
Notifications
The evolution progresses with a notable transformation in notifications. In Classic Teams, notifications were reliant on Windows notifications. Now, they have undergone a significant overhaul. They are entirely managed within Teams.
Accessing Settings by clicking on the three dots beside your user image, you can navigate to the new dedicated subcategory for “Notifications and activity.” This consolidation not only simplifies the user experience but also enables more centralized control and customization of notifications directly within the Teams platform
Aesthetics
Our exploration of the differences between Classic and New Teams reaches its peak with aesthetics. In Classic Teams, the Teams theme setting stood alone, whereas in New Teams, it has been integrated with other Office applications.
Now, the Teams theme setting automatically syncs with your operating system theme by default, while still offering users the option to personalize this default setting within Team settings, specifically in the Appearance and Accessibility section. This integration fosters a uniform and cohesive visual experience across Microsoft applications.
The Big Advantages of New Teams
Here are four essential advantages worth noting. Together, these features enhance the efficiency and user-friendliness of the Teams experience.
1. Speed
In this fast-paced work world, speed is everything. With New Teams, we’re experiencing faster installation, app launch, meeting join times, and a 1.7 times faster switch between chats and channels.
This means quicker access to the information you need and enhanced productivity. Speedy performance allows users to engage more with the application. With this extra time, you can explore features, perform tasks, and install more specialized apps to help with your workflow.
2. Efficient Resource Usage
New Teams is optimized for resource utilization, consuming up to 50% less memory and 70% less disk space. This not only enhances the app’s responsiveness but also frees up valuable resources for other applications, ensuring a smoother overall experience.
3. Swift Navigation
Navigating through different chats, channels, and activities is now faster than ever since they’ve reduced wait times and lowered shimmering, making your interactions within Teams instant and seamless.
A faster, more responsive user experience is crucial for accessing relevant information quickly and efficiently, not to mention making the application more enjoyable and user-friendly. This minimizes frustration associated with slow or cumbersome interfaces, leading to a smoother and more satisfying interaction with the application.
4. Consolidated Features
Instead of a mass urban sprawl of features, New Teams brings a high-rise skyscraper approach. They’ve consolidated key features to streamline the user experience.
This not only enhances accessibility but also ensures that you can locate essential functionalities with ease. The streamlined design promotes ease of use and accessibility integration with tools like Loop and Stream.
Experience collaboration possibilities from efficient meeting recaps to intelligent assistance with Copilot. New Teams is designed to integrate seamlessly with other Microsoft technologies, creating a cohesive and interconnected ecosystem.
In Summary
The transition to New Teams is scheduled to occur after March 31st, 2024. Classic Teams users, with some exceptions, will be automatically updated, ensuring everyone is aligned with the latest changes in the Teams landscape.
From faster responses and reduced memory consumption to streamlined features and integration possibilities, New Teams is designed to enhance project management efficiency within a modern, dynamic landscape. The why behind embracing New Teams becomes clear when we look at the enhanced performance, streamlined features, integration possibilities, and optimization of modern workflows.
We recommend embracing this cohesive ecosystem and remember; the journey doesn’t end here. New Teams is a tool for continuous improvement, and adapting to this dynamic landscape will be key to success in the modern workplace.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or need further clarification.
P.S. If you want to learn even more, we have a video on this topic available here.
