Microsoft to Retire Classic Teams in March 2024

Microsoft has informed its commercial customers that it will retire the OG version of Microsoft Teams on March 31, 2024 and auto-update users to the new Teams if they’ve not done so by then.

“On October 5, 2023, we announced the general availability of the new Microsoft Teams app for Windows and Mac.,” Microsoft explains to customers in its Microsoft 365 Admin Center. “We mentioned in our GA announcement that classic Teams users will be automatically updated to new Teams in the coming months. Today, we want to inform you that after March 31, 2024, any classic Teams users who have not updated to new Teams will be automatically updated to new Teams.”

I learned about this change via a report from our friends at Petri. And looking at my own Microsoft 365 Admin Center, I can see that this message is one of four that Microsoft delivered yesterday.

Unlike the new Outlook, the new Teams is nothing but upside: It’s a smaller, lighter client that offers up to double the performance of its predecessor while using half the RAM. And there’s no training overhead: Anyone using classic Teams will find the new app immediately familiar. I can also say from years of daily hands-on experience that the new Teams fixes all of the reliability issues I had previously experienced.

Admins who wish to make the switch early across their organization can learn more on the Microsoft TechCommunity website. There is also more information about the transition on the Microsoft Learn website.