[German]At the beginning of October 2023, Microsoft released its new Teams 2.0 client for macOS and Windows in general – after a beta phase that started in spring 2023. There is still a little time to upgrade missing functions and eliminate bugs. But Microsoft already announced at the beginning of November 2023 that the Teams 2.0 client will be mandatory from April 1, 2024 (no April Fool's joke). Currently some users (German, French etc.) are suffering from translation bugs.
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Teams 2.0 client just released
In the article New Microsoft Teams 2.0 Client released for macOS and Windows, I mentioned the release of the new Teams 2.0 client. Microsoft announced this in the Techcommunity article Announcing general availability of the new Microsoft Teams app for Windows and Mac. The new Teams 2.0 client now has full feature parity for almost all functions, according to Microsoft.
This also includes custom line-of-business applications, third-party applications, group rooms, 7×7 video, call queues, PSTN calls, contextual search in chats and channels, cross-posting of a channel conversation and more, it adds. The new version comes with the promise that the client will require fewer resources and will also be faster than the old client. And some new functions have probably also been added.
According to this Microsoft site, the client is ready and will be rolled out to users in stages over the coming months. If you want to switch to Teams 2.0 immediately, you can do so via a "Try new Teams" button in the title bar – this also allows you to switch back to the classic Teams client for a transitional period. However, administrators in companies can control whether users receive the new Teams client (see this article).
Teams 2.0 will be mandatory from April 2024
Via my colleagues at Dr. Windows, I came across the information in this German article that the Microsoft Teams 2.0 client from Microsoft will be mandatory for all users from April 2024. Administrators in corporate environments would then no longer be able to control whether users should still use the old Teams client or the new version 2.0.
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Microsoft has probably published a corresponding entry in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center on this topic. This was probably noticed by someone who published it on Petri.com. According to the entry, customers can continue to use the classic MS Teams client until March 31, 2024. From April 1, 2024, the use of the new Teams 2.0 client will be mandatory. The old Teams clients based on the Electron framework will then be updated to the new version.
Microsoft recommends that IT administrators in companies prepare for this date accordingly to ensure a smooth transition to the new Teams 2.0 client in the company. Microsoft recommends setting the Teams update policy to "Microsoft-controlled" and configuring the "Use new Teams client" setting to "New Teams only".
Microsoft points out (according to Petri.com, I do not have access to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center) that this change will not affect Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments. Currently, the new Teams version for VDI environments is only available in a public preview. In addition, the automatic rollout of the Teams 2.0 client should have no impact on Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) and Surface Hub devices.
Question for administrators: Have you already switched users over to the Teams 2.0 client? Are there any major problems or is everything running smoothly? Do you expect any major problems with the update, or have there already been?
Currently German admins are not too optimistic, that will be a good move. Too many features are missing, some things are broken and some times it seems, that Microsoft's developer are using AI to translate their stuff. I've covered the details within my German article.
Microsoft has confirmed this as "TM687047" in Microsoft Teams Service Health Advisory: Users' contact card in Microsoft Teams may contain an incorrect translation of "Free until" in some languages
User impact: Users' contact card in Microsoft Teams may contain an incorrect translation of "Free until" in some languages.
More info: Impact occurs for, but may not be limited to, users leveraging Microsoft Teams in the German, Spanish, French, and Italian languages. All Microsoft Teams connection methods are affected.
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