Editor’s Note: Microsoft began shipping its unified Teams experience beginning on August 20, 2024. While Teams will eventually update itself to deliver the unified experience, you can also download the new Teams app directly. The original story, published on March 13, continues.
Have you been confused by Microsoft Teams, which offers one app for consumers and another for business users? If so, those days may be ending.
Microsoft is testing builds in the Windows 11 Canary and Dev Channels to streamline Teams into something that makes a little more sense: a single app. Build 26080 brings with it a unified Teams experience, allowing you to simply switch between accounts and environment rather than load separate apps for business users and consumers. You’ll simply switch between them by clicking your icon in the upper right-hand corner of the app.
“We received consistent feedback from personal and work users: You prefer a single Teams app that allows you to easily access and switch between personal and work accounts,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post. “This update lets you use one app for all kinds of Teams accounts.”
That’s true, and if you look back at Teams over the last few years you’ll understand why: Microsoft Teams for Home launched in 2020, with shared grocery lists and other features for consumers on iOS and Android. Then there was Personal Features in Teams, in 2021. If you haven’t heard of either of these, you’re not alone — that’s probably why Microsoft made its decision.
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Then, of course, there was Teams Chat within Windows 11, embodying the hope that friends would use Teams to talk to one another after hours… after talking to colleagues on Teams during the workday. Neither Teams Chat nor Microsoft’s People app for Windows 10 gained traction. By 2023 Teams Chat was spun off into the Teams Free app… which now is being assimilated into a single Teams app.
Yes, consumers may choose to use Teams. But it appears that Microsoft’s efforts to push consumers to use Teams may be finally, thankfully, ending.
Microsoft is also adding a number of commands to the integrated Windows version of Copilot, as well as testing a version of Copilot that could be undocked and run as a window. The new commands include:
The ability to:
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Microsoft is also adding additional accessibility features, including the ability to:
For reference, these commands already work:
Microsoft is also testing one potentially very interesting capability: a Power Automate plugin for Copilot. Power Automate is essentially IFTTT for Windows — the ability to create “macros” of automated tasks. But the app is still a little complex, and requires fiddling with an unfamiliar interface. Copilot could automate the process, and we’re interested to see what it can do. Examples include:
You’ll need to download a plugin from the Microsoft Store.
