Key Takeaways
- Say goodbye to the classic Teams app on July 1, 2024 – no more updates or improvements after that date.
- Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 users face a faster end to Teams access by October 23, 2024.
- Upgrade to the new Teams for faster speeds, more features, and continued access.
Microsoft began updating the classic Teams users to a faster version of the app on March 31, signaling that it’ll stop supporting the older version sooner rather than later. Well, the day has arrived. After days of waiting, the software giant has finally given us enough clarity on when it’ll stop supporting classic Teams and in what circumstances the app will stop working completely.
Classic Teams becomes unsupported from July this year
July 1, 2024, is the date when the classic Teams app becomes unsupported, and no further improvements and new features will be rolled out to the users after that day, as a result. In other words, you’ll still be able to use the classic Teams after it reaches end-of-support if you have configuration issues or an unsupported OS. But in that case, you’ll have to learn to live with periodic in-app dialogue messages, urging you to update to the new Teams app, and of course, no more updates will be available.
Some Windows and Mac users need to act fast to continue getting access to the Teams
While the end-of-support date impacts everyone, some Windows and Mac users need to worry more than others if they have no plans to upgrade to the new Teams. So, who is impacted more, you ask? The short answer is anyone running Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. That’s because Microsoft will block access to Teams for users with those older Windows versions as early as October 23, 2024. Microsoft says that it will start displaying a warning message about the end of availability in August.
The other groups of users impacted by this are those with configuration issues, people who are still running Windows 10, macOS versions below Big Sur, and LTSC. If this is you, Teams will no longer be available for use from July 1, 2025, unless you switch to the new Teams. However, it’s worth pointing out that all the cutoff dates given here are for Teams desktop clients, the Teams web app will remain accessible as long as you’re running a supported web browser.
Related
Microsoft’s new Teams app is a step in the right direction to fix messaging on Windows
Microsoft is finally making strides to fix messaging on Windows, but we’re not quite there yet.
What are the advantages of using the new Teams app?
Microsoft claims that the new Teams is faster and simpler and takes 50% less memory space as compared to the classic one. In addition, all the major features, including breakout rooms, 7×7 video, call queues, and contextual search in chat, are available in the updated Teams desktop clients. Another reason why you should finally embrace it is because all the changes Microsoft has planned will be available for the new app only.