Back in March, Microsoft announced the public preview of the new Microsoft Teams app for Windows. The new Teams preview app is built from the ground up focusing on performance, speed and intelligence. Even though the new Teams client will have most of the features that are already available in the existing Teams client, Microsoft has made some changes to the existing features. Find the list of changes below.
| Classic Teams | New Teams |
|---|---|
| Purple toast notifications | You’ll no longer see the purple “toast” notifications, and the taskbar icon will behave a little different. Notifications will be via Windows native notifications to provide a consistent experience. |
| Adding a Wiki to a channel tab | You’ll no longer see a Wiki app. Instead, select the Notes app. |
| Adding third party cloud storage service from Files app and Files tab in channels | You’ll no longer see the “Add cloud storage” in the Files app on Teams’ left navigation bar and within Files tab in Teams’ channels. Now you can add the 3rd party storage app directly from the Teams App Store. |
| Look up an organizational chart while in a 1:1 chat | Select a user’s avatar or profile photo anywhere in Teams and navigate to the organizational chart within the profile card. |
| Look up LinkedIn while in a 1:1 chat | Select a user’s avatar or profile photo anywhere in Teams and navigate to the LinkedIn tab within the profile card. |
| Adding a document library (DocLib) app to a tab in channels | Use the Sharepoint app instead. Then add the document library from there as a tab to the channel. Existing document libraries will automatically convert to a SharePoint document library on first use. |
| Activity tab in chat | No longer available |
| Ability to save messages and files in Teams | No longer available. Will be replaced later this year by a similar feature. |
| Allow users to follow another users presence, then notify them of availability | Select a user’s avatar or profile photo anywhere in new Teams to quickly get an overview of their online status, next available calendar slot in Outlook, work hours, local time, and work location (remote or office). |
Apart from the above feature changes, the new Teams client preview also lacks some popular features like breakout rooms, etc. Microsoft will deliver these existing features to the new Teams in the coming months.
