Microsoft has confirmed that it is retiring Microsoft Teams Free (classic) in the coming months.
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According to Microsoft’s website, the legacy free Teams app for business will no longer be available after April 12.
Microsoft Teams Free users have been warned that they risk losing access to their chats, files, teams, and meetings if they don’t upgrade to a paid licence.
Users do have the option to remain on a free version of Teams by signing up for the newer free option, titled ‘Microsoft Teams (free)’.
However, to keep existing files, users must manually save and transfer them to their new free account, as files won’t transfer automatically.
Microsoft recommends that most users update to Microsoft Teams Essentials for unlimited group meetings and 10GB of cloud storage per user for £3.00 per user per month.
Microsoft Teams Premium
The retirement of Microsoft Teams Free comes weeks after Microsoft released its newest licence, Microsoft Teams Premium.
The newest licence is designed to offer customers familiar meeting solutions as well as webinars, virtual appointments, meeting intelligence, and more, which are often add-on products.
Earlier this month, Nicole Herskowitz, Vice President of Microsoft Teams, commented: “As we face economic uncertainties and changes to work patterns, organisations are searching for ways to optimise IT investments and re-energize employees to achieve business results.
“Now—more than ever—organisations need solutions to adapt to change, improve productivity, and reduce costs.
“Fortunately, modern tools powered by AI hold the promise to boost individual, team, and organizational-level productivity and fundamentally change how we work.
“This promise is rapidly becoming a reality. At Microsoft, we’re working to incorporate new, AI-powered capabilities across our consumer and enterprise products, including Microsoft Teams.
“As part of this continuous innovation, I’m excited to share that Microsoft Teams Premium is generally available.
“Built on the familiar, all-in-one collaborative experience of Microsoft Teams, Teams Premium brings the latest technologies, including Large Language Models powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, to make meetings more intelligent, personalised, and protected—whether it’s one-on-one, large meetings, virtual appointments, or webinars.”
Teams Premium is loaded with features powered by OpenAI following Microsoft extending its long-term partnership with the company through a multi-billion dollar investment to accelerate AI breakthroughs.
The company’s partnership with the ChatGPT creator has already been in place since 2019 and will now continue in this multiyear deal as the organisations look to share AI technology with the world.
The partnership extension ensures that Microsoft will be the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI, Microsoft will deploy OpenAI models to its customer base, and Microsoft will increase investments into OpenAI’s independent AI research.
