Microsoft has updated its Teams app, making it simpler and
smoother to use than before. The new Teams client, according to Microsoft, is twice as
fast “while using 50 percent fewer resources.”
More specifically, installing the Teams app would be a three
times faster process, while launching or joining Teams meetings would be two
times faster. Additionally, the app would take up less than 70% space on computer,
and 50 percent less memory.
For a long time, Microsoft had been receiving complaints about
Teams being too slow or consuming a lot of memory or battery. It took the
company some time to resolve the issue to cater to its users, including millions
of those that joined Teams during the pandemic, that had the demand for Teams
skyrocketing.
Sumi Singh, CVP of engineering for Microsoft Teams, explains
that Teams has been loading two JavaScript frameworks that account for making
it heavier than it should have been. Now, the app has been completely moved to the
React JavaScript library, alongside Microsoft’s Edge WebView2 technology. Since
Team’s resources are now shared with Edge, the app uses lesser memory and disk
space, hence an improvement in its overall performance.
In addition to enhanced performance, Teams also now showcases better visuals that are more in alignment with Windows 11, making it look more like a part of the Windows family. The new visual elements majorly include Windows 11’s Mica translucency and the white canvas colour, as well as less of the purple colour of the old Teams.
The new Teams has also been designed to function in a more
simplified manner. For instance, a drop-down menu makes it easy to switch between
different accounts in an organization. Another update is the automatic lowering
of hands after participants are done speaking, which in the previous version was
a manual option. The canvas, too, has become more coactive with the addition of
the ability to post Loop components on Whiteboard.
Lastly, users can also expect to see AI-powered features in
Teams, including the soon-to-be integrated AI filters, avatars, and Microsoft’s AI
assistant Copilot. Users will be able to interact with Copilot in Teams by using
it in group chats, and having it perform tasks such as scheduling meetings,
summarizing, or answering general questions. Copilot will also function as a
chatbot that extracts and provides data and information from across Microsoft
365 services and apps.
Microsoft has launched the revamped Teams app in preview
mode, and plans to roll it out on a larger scale later this year. The “try the
new Teams” toggle can be found in the top-left corner of the current Teams app
to access the preview.
