New Microsoft Teams for Mac Client to Launch in Preview This Month

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Key takeaways:

  • Microsoft is launching a public preview of its new Teams client for Mac this month, featuring improved performance and efficiency.
  • The new Microsoft Teams desktop app replaces the resource-intensive Electron framework with Microsoft’s WebView2 technology, resulting in a faster and less memory-intensive application.
  • The new Teams client will be available on Mac devices running macOS Big Sur (11) or higher.

Microsoft is gearing up to release the public preview of its new Teams client for macOS later this month. The revamped Microsoft Teams for Mac aims to enhance performance and efficiency, shedding the resource-intensive Electron framework in favor of Microsoft’s WebView2 technology.

Microsoft launched a significant revamp of its Teams app in public preview on Windows back in March 2023. The current Teams client is built on the Electron framework, which is notorious for resource utilization and poor performance. Since its launch, Microsoft has been continuously working on improvements for Teams to reduce RAM and CPU usage, especially on low-end or older hardware.

Fortunately, Microsoft has now ditched Electron and moved toward the WebView2 technology instead. The primary goal of the new Microsoft Teams desktop client was to make it faster and less resource-intensive. Microsoft boasts that the app is two times faster and uses 50 percent less memory compared to the previous version. It also supports new AI-powered features, multi-tenant collaboration, and seamless switching between different tenants and accounts.

“With multi-tenant organization (MTO), users in organizations that manage employees across multiple tenants will have the ability to search for coworkers in another tenant, have single chat thread with other users, receive real-time notifications, join meetings, and calls in another tenant, and multitask from their home tenant,” Microsoft explained on the Microsoft 365 admin center.

New Microsoft Teams for Mac Client to Launch in Preview This Month

How to try the new Microsoft Teams for Mac client

Once rolled out, macOS users will see a “Try the new Teams toggle” within the classic Microsoft Teams app (version 1.6.00.12303 or higher). It will be available in preview on Mac devices running macOS Big Sur (11) or higher. This change will be applicable to tenants where the UseNewTeamsClient is configured to Microsoft default.

The new Microsoft Teams for Mac will support all the features available in the Windows client except Green Screen, Cameo, and NDI. Microsoft Teams users will be able to switch back to the classic app at any time with the same toggle button.

Microsoft also plans to make its new Teams app the default client for all enterprise and business customers (Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, and Teams Essentials, etc.) next month. The company recommends IT administrators to prepare for this upcoming change in their organizations.