Microsoft Teams Gets Faster AI-Powered Search

Microsoft announced yesterday that it is updating the search experience in its desktop client for Teams. While we wait for Teams 2.0, a complete revamp of the desktop app announced earlier this year, Microsoft is bringing a much-needed update to the way search results are displayed.

Starting in November, Microsoft will roll out the changes to search in Teams to Microsoft 365 tenants. With the rollout expected to be complete by mid-November.

Search results are now full page, instead of restricted to a small panel on the left of the app. And in place of accessing search filters, like From and Type etc., as dropdown menus above the results, search is divided into categories as tabbed pages at the top of the new results page.

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The old search results panel in Microsoft Teams (Image Credit: Microsoft)

Much like search works in Outlook for iOS and Android, results will be displayed full screen and segmented into categories that you can expand, like Messages, and then Files for example, to see more.

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The new search results page in Microsoft Teams (Image Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft Teams search gets faster results, improved filtering, and AI-powered relevance

Microsoft says about the updated search experience in Teams:

“A new search results experience in Teams for Desktop clients will be launched to make finding messages, people, answers and files faster and more intuitive. This redesigned search results page features better context, faster results, improved filtering capabilities with AI-powered relevance based on the people and content you engage with most in Teams and other Microsoft 365 services.”

Microsoft didn’t say whether the new search experience will come to Teams on the web, but I think it’s safe to say that it will sooner or later.

Teams 2.0 client moves away from Electron framework

The yet unreleased Teams 2.0 client moves away from the clunky cross-platform Electron framework used in today’s Teams desktop app. It could be that the new search experience coming to the current Teams app is something Microsoft has been working on for Teams 2.0.

But this update is likely to be something Microsoft has been working on for all its Teams clients and the web experience, so hopefully the announcement doesn’t mean that we’re going to have to wait longer than expected to see Teams 2.0 hit general availability.