Microsoft Teams (classic) gets an extended lifeline despite the new client reaching feature parity

What you need to know

• Microsoft has pushed the end of availability for Teams classic from March 31, 2024, to July 1, 2024.
• The company says this will give admins ample time to address any issues they might have encountered while transitioning to the new Teams app.
• The new Teams client shipped to general availability in October 2023 and has already reached full feature parity for almost all features compared to the classic version of the app.

Microsoft shipped its new Teams app to broad availability last year in October. As you might already know, the new client is two times faster and consumes 50% less memory when compared to the classic version. It also promises a smooth transition between chats and channels (up to 1.7 times faster).

The tech firm made it easy for users to switch between the new Teams app and the classic version. You can change the entire user experience of your Teams app by clicking on a toggle. 

However, the company announced in November that it would automatically upgrade users from the classic version to the new Teams app after March 31, 2024. This move was received with mixed feelings, with the vast majority blatantly expressing their preference for the classic version of Teams over the new client.

Luckily, Microsoft has seemingly listened to the users' outcry expressed across social media platforms and has extended the end of availability for its classic Microsoft Teams client.

When is the end of availability for classic Teams client?

Microsoft was initially set to automatically upgrade Teams classic users to the new Teams app after March 31, 2024, but it has pushed its end of availability to July 1, 2024.

While making the announcement, Microsoft indicated:

"We're aware of the concerns around our timeline. Classic Teams users who have encountered issues moving to new Teams or who don't meet the prerequisites to upgrade will still have access to the classic Teams client until July 01 2024 at the earliest. This will give admins more time to address any issues encountered during this process."

Microsoft recommends transitioning to the new Teams app as it has already hit feature parity with the Teams 'classic.' Moving forward, the company will only add new features to the new Teams app. 

As of December 2023, Microsoft had surpassed 320 million active monthly users on Teams. Perhaps the launch of the new Teams client had something to do with this spike, similar to when Microsoft Copilot contributed to the growth of Bing's user base.