Microsoft said the new version of the collaboration platform — often accused of high CPU usage — will be “twice as fast while using half the system resources.” Credit: Microsoft Microsoft has unveiled a new app for its collaboration platform Microsoft Teams that it said will deliver faster performance and streamline the user experience. First launched in 2017, Microsoft Teams is a collaborative workspace within Microsoft 365/Office 365 that acts as a central hub for workplace conversations, collaborative teamwork, video chats and document sharing. Microsoft claims the app, which has been criticized for hogging resources, has 280 million monthly users, and 1,900 apps that integrate directly with it. Microsoft said the changes to Teams unveiled on Monday make it faster, simpler, more flexible, and smarter. “We have been listening to your feedback, which has culminated in a reimagining of Teams from the ground up,” the company’s president of collaborative apps and platforms, Jeff Teper, wrote in a blog post. According to Teper, the new Microsoft Teams app is designed to be “twice as fast while using half the system resources.” To do this, Microsoft has re-architected its platform, moving away from the combination of custom HTML/CSS and now-deprecated AngularJS that Teams was initially built on and instead layering Fluent UI on React, and moving data processing over to a client data layer. Microsoft has also changed technology on the host side, transitioning from Electron to WebView2. This halved the time needed to launch the app and to join a meeting, with memory consumption also decreasing by half, according to test results by independent benchmarking firm GigaOm provided by Microsoft. In addition, Microsoft has made it simpler to manage notifications, search for information, and manage messages within Teams by reducing the number of clicks necessary to access this information. It has also made changes to the platform’s authentication model, synchronization, and notification systems. This means that customers who use Teams across multiple tenants or accounts can now stay signed in across them all and receive notifications no matter which one they are currently using. Building on the AI capabilities Microsoft rolled out with its Teams Premium subscription tier, the newly overhauled Microsoft Teams app will include intelligent recap and Copilot for Microsoft Teams, which was first announced in early March 2022. Microsoft expects to make the new Teams publicly available later this year, but commercial customers using Windows can already access the public preview. Related content news analysis Apple earnings: About that iPhone 'slump' in China Based on information from Thursday's earnings report, it seems that data pointing to an iPhone slump in China were over-baked. By Jonny Evans May 03, 2024 9 mins iMac iPhone Apple news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe