Update (January 11, 2023 at 6:46 PM): This article previously stated that features from the free version of Teams would be moved to Teams Premium. The features that are moving are from the version of Teams that comes with Microsoft 365 to Teams Premium. The piece has been corrected to reflect this fact.
What you need to know
- Microsoft Teams Premium is scheduled to become available in February 2023.
- The service offers several features to enhance the Teams experience, including AI tools, security enhancements, and the ability to customize meetings and webinars.
- Some features that have been available in the version of Teams that comes with Microsoft 365 will move to Teams Premium.
Microsoft Teams Premium is a new service from Microsoft that will enhance the Teams experience with a range of features. Teams Premium will include options for personalizing meetings and webinars, using AI to organize communication, and protecting meetings with watermarks and other security features. The service is set to launch in early February 2023, though pricing is not confirmed at this time.
While the version of Teams that comes with Microsoft 365 will continue to be available after Teams Premium rolls out, some features will move from the Microsoft 365 version of Teams to Teams Premium (via The Register). There will be a 30-day grace period where these features remain available on Teams. Following that, tenants will have to have a Teams Premium add-on.
In an FAQ page about Microsoft Teams Premium, the company lists which current Teams features will move to Teams Premium:
- Live translated captions.
- Timeline markers in Teams meeting recordings for when a user left or joined meetings.
- Custom organization Together mode scenes.
- Virtual Appointments: SMS notifications.
- Virtual Appointments: Organizational analytics in the Teams admin center.
- Virtual Appointments: Scheduled queue view.
Teams Premium has been in preview since December 2022, allowing organizations to test it out to evaluate if it's worth a monthly fee. A dedicated webpage from Microsoft lists all of the features and illustrates how Teams Premium compares to Teams.
Windows Central take
While I doubt any of the features that are currently set to move to Teams Premium will be deal breakers for Teams users, I hope Microsoft carefully considers which features it moves. I understand that the company wants to shift people to certain subscriptions, but I hope the current Microsoft 365 version of Teams is not gutted.
It makes sense that virtual appointment SMS notifications, custom organization Together mode scenes, and some other features will require a premium add-on. I just hope that Microsoft expands Teams Premium by adding new features rather than migrating more things over from Teams.
At the moment, there's no indication that Microsoft has plans to remove any more features from Teams. I hope it stays that way.
