Microsoft has released trial versions of a new Teams desktop client for Windows, with the goal of making it “twice as fast while consuming half the system resources.” The new client is anticipated to eliminate user confusion and improve interface consistency, while also supporting a larger variety of systems.
In a post on the Microsoft Tech Forum, Anupam Pattnaik, a Teams product marketing manager, said that the updated client enables “up to two times quicker performance while consuming 50 percent less memory.” The new Teams client also promises to make things easier and more user-friendly by consolidating everything in one location.
Microsoft prioritized the most common user engagements, such as moving between conversations, channels, and activities, to improve navigation. The business has also promised that moving between these functions will be instant, with no need to wait for material to load.
Seeing the initial Teams client’s “fundamental UX flaws,” Microsoft design managers Thad Scott and Colin Day noted in a post on Microsoft Design that adjustments were required. They said; “initially, channel posts followed a chat-like model, where new posts and comments came from the bottom-up. Threaded conversations like this were a unique differentiator for Teams. But this is where we needed to be humble and admit mistakes based on feedback. Differentiator or not – the model confused people. It looked like chat, but behaved like threads.”
More than 50 new capabilities in the new Teams client preview will assist administrators in managing Teams across numerous tenancies and accounts in companies. Admins may now be logged in to all of their accounts at the same time and receive notifications regardless of which account they are presently using.
The preview is presently accessible for corporate customers that choose to participate, and users can revert to the standard Teams version at any moment. Microsoft intends to make the new Teams publicly available later this year, with a macOS version following in 2023.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheRegister.