Microsoft has announced that the new Teams client is now generally available for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) customers.
The new Teams client is faster in overall responsiveness, such as launching the app and joining meetings, and is up to two times faster while consuming 50 percent less memory and disk space than classic Teams.
Fernando Klurfan, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, wrote in an accompanying blog post:
Users and admins can now experience and enjoy all the benefits of the new Teams app within their virtual desktops. The new Teams App in VDI has feature parity with classic Teams app and also has improved performance, reliability, and security.”
Microsoft says that switching between chats, channels, and activities will be “instant, without having to wait for content to load”, while the tech giant also promises that the new Teams has lowered shimmering and reduced wait times.
With the new Teams app, you can use one installer for both desktop and VDI and have the option to update automatically in VDI.
“Additionally, we are grateful to our committed customers who gave us feedback during public preview, which helped us improve several VDI-specific features and enhance the basics to guarantee smooth updates to the new Teams app,” Klurfan added.
With new Teams, admins can utilise application management tools like Microsoft Intune to streamline app deployment and updates through silent installation and removal. Intune can also improve the reliability and efficiency of installing the new Teams app while saving network bandwidth and disk space. It minimises idle memory consumption, too.
The MSIX packaging structure ensures Teams is covered by Windows security features. The newest app version will be updated with security updates and bug fixes, while the new Teams is compatible with MSIX App Attach. This makes it simpler to deliver the application to Azure Virtual Desktops.
The classic Teams in the VDI app will have support removed on June 30, 2024, after which users will no longer be able to use the classic Teams and will be asked to switch to new Teams.
What Else Has Happened in Teams This Past Week?
It’s been a busy week or so for Teams news.
Last week, EU antitrust regulators posted a questionnaire to Microsoft’s competitors to ask whether removing Teams from its Office bundle would level the playing field sufficiently from their perspective.
Furthermore, last week, Microsoft 365 celebrated the release of new Teams capabilities and the general availability of Loop on the platform with discounts for both Microsoft 365 subscriptions and Teams Phone bundles.
A 15 percent discount is currently on offer for Microsoft 365 Business Standard for customers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada until December 29, 2023. Teams Phone bundles can also be bought with up to 33 percent off the normal price between now and January 17, 2024.
The Microsoft productivity and collaboration suite also introduced Microsoft ClipChamp, a video content creation and editing software.
- Regulators Ask Competitors if Unbundling Teams is Enough
- New Teams Features and Loop Goes Live on Microsoft 365
It became apparent last week that Microsoft was developing an AI-powered therapist feature for Windows and a smart emotion-based journaling capability for Teams and Microsoft 365.
Microsoft had initially released a patent last month, filed on November 7, suggesting it was working on an emotion-focused therapy Copilot for Microsoft and Windows users.
“A method and apparatus for providing emotional care in a session between a user and a conversational agent,” the patent read. “Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot is becoming more and more popular and is being applied in an increasing number of scenarios. The chatbot is designed to simulate people’s conversation and may chat with users by text, speech, image, etc.”
Two weeks ago, Microsoft published another patent outlining its development of an AI-powered emotion-centred journaling feature. The patent for the emotional management system indicates it might be integrated with other Microsoft platforms, such as Teams and 365 apps, as well as the Windows operating system.
Last week, news broke that the tech giant was ending support for its 365 browser extension.
The extension, which has been downloaded by over 10 million Microsoft users across the Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome browsers, offers simple access to Microsoft 365 apps and documents through the web. The extension will be retired on January 15, 2024, and will be removed from the Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome web stores as an extension add-on.
Microsoft didn’t offer a reason why the browser extension was ending. However, it’s possible that it is trying to push users towards other ways of accessing 365 apps, such as the Edge sidebar.
