Microsoft Teams Adds Beta Support for Apple Silicon Macs

Microsoft has quietly released a beta version of Teams optimized for Apple Silicon Macs. 9to5Mac reported yesterday that the installer for this new version of Teams has been discovered on Microsoft’s website before the company officially announced its availability.

If Microsoft’s Office apps for macOS are already optimized for Apple Silicon Macs, a native version of Microsoft Teams has been one of the top-requested items on the app’s feedback portal. Microsoft confirmed two months ago that a native Teams client for M1 Macs was in the works, and an official announcement is likely coming soon.

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If you have an Apple Silicon Mac, you can download the new beta client from this link. We’ve downloaded and installed this native version of Microsoft Teams on an Apple Silicon Mac Mini, and it works as expected. It also starts significantly faster than the emulated version for Intel-based Macs, and that is much appreciated.

Microsoft Teams is known to be quite a resource hog, even though Microsoft claims that it has optimized the app to make it use up to 50% less power during meetings. We didn’t spend enough time with this new beta client, but if you do have an Apple Silicon Mac, let us know in the comments if you think this new native version makes better use of your Mac’s resources.

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Conversation 8 comments

  • TallGuySE

    Premium Member
    26 April, 2022 - 10:19 am

    <p>So far, so good. Like the article said, starts up much faster and overall seems significantly faster/smoother to use. Rosetta 2 is amazing technology, but of course it’s better to have native apps.</p>

  • vladimir

    Premium Member
    26 April, 2022 - 11:03 am

    <p>interestingly there is no teams version for WOA and the Rosetta equivalent technology is not amazing</p>

    • vladimir

      Premium Member
      26 April, 2022 - 11:05 am

      <p>I looked it up and it seems that there is a native ARM version of teams, sorry. Can’t edit/delete the comment</p>

  • rob_segal

    Premium Member
    26 April, 2022 - 12:45 pm

    <p>I haven’t used this long enough to gauge the improvements fully. Performance is smoother. Starting and closing the beta version is much faster. The memory usage seemed to have improved. </p>

  • ianbetteridge

    26 April, 2022 - 1:41 pm

    <p>It’s a mark of just how good Rosetta is that I actually thought Teams was native on ARM already. </p>

  • jashansen

    26 April, 2022 - 7:35 pm

    <p>I installed the beta and it’s incredibly faster. We use Teams heavily at work my work laptop is Windows, but on my MacBook Air M1, it’s even snappier. Does anyone know if when it’s out of beta, will this beta version automatically upgrade to the public release?</p>

  • jdjan

    Premium Member
    27 April, 2022 - 10:51 am

    <p>I don’t normally run beta software on my work laptop but I made an exception for this. I pretty much run Teams 24/7.</p><p><br></p><p>Next – Microsoft, can you please make it so that I can run Teams with multiple log-ins? I have to use Teams with more than one Microsoft account. I know I can use a WebApp to do this, but having multiple log-ins in the native client would have several advantages.</p>

  • dialworld

    04 May, 2022 - 5:36 pm

    <p>Installed it on my Mac Mini M1, agree on the speed and resource improvements. Seems like audio drivers still need Rosetta though. Also (MacMini having no camera), in my case I use a logitech 4K camera and something is breaking down with the colors people see me in whenever "someone" shares a screen. I see a green line below the main window someone is sharing and colors are off… So not 100% there yet, but almost. With these color issues had to uninstall. Will try again in the next release. Fingers crossed. This is my last tool that uses Rosetta.</p>

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