The new Microsoft Teams client, with a rethought architecture, is expected to release in preview form by the end of March. The new “Teams 2.0” client has been in the works for a long time, as reported by The Verge. Yet, the “Teams for Consumers” concept has already been seen in action with the new Talk app for Windows 11.
While Microsoft has made improvements over the years, the Teams program is still notorious for being a resource hog on both Windows and macOS machines. However, the Electron framework will no longer be used in the next test version of Teams 2.0, which will be published the following month. Instead, Microsoft’s Edge-based Webview2 technology and the React JavaScript library will be used.
Compared to similar applications, this one should use around 50% less memory, put less strain on the CPU, and allow laptop batteries to last longer between charges. Users will be able to switch between Teams 2.0 and the existing app by using a toggle that is expected to be included in the preview version that will be published the following month. Microsoft has introduced a similar feature in test versions of its Outlook desktop programs, and this one will be quite similar.
Lastly, this architecture will help us add support for multiple accounts, work life scenarios, release predictability, and scale up for the client. It will be a journey but with #Windows11 we have taken key first steps.
— Rish Tandon (@TandonRish) June 24, 2021
The new Microsoft architecture, according to Rish Tandon, the former director of Microsoft Teams engineering, is crucial for future improvements to Teams. This was said in a Twitter thread outlining the first round of updates to Microsoft Teams for Windows 11 in 2021. Teams should now open much faster or give the impression of being more responsive, whether you’re giving a presentation at a meeting or responding to correspondence. There have been many complaints about Teams’ performance, but the new software should fix most of them, particularly on older machines.
Microsoft Teams will soon be six years old, and the company plans to mark the occasion with a party next month. There are 270 million monthly users as of January 2022, making this app one of the fastest growing in the Microsoft ecosystem.
