Microsoft started making the new and improved Teams apps for Windows and Mac generally available in October 2023. At the time, Microsoft allowed users to have the choice to switch to the new Teams apps or keep using the older "classic" Teams via a toggle.
However, the company then announced in November 2023 that any remaining "classic" teams users would be automatically updated to the new Teams app after March 31, 2024.
Now it looks like Microsoft is going to give "classic" Teams users a few more months, or longer, before the switch to the new Teams apps is made. In a post on Microsoft"s support site (via MSPoweruser), the company revealed it will extend "classic" Teams access to at least July 1, 2024.
The support site said this change was made due to some users "who have encountered issues moving to new Teams or who don"t meet the prerequisites to upgrade." The extension will give business admins more time to fix any issues in switching over from "classic" teams to the new Teams apps.
The part of the alert that stated this "classic" Teams extension will last until "July 01 2024 at the earliest" would also hint that Microsoft could add even more time for users to get ready for the new Teams app if admins and IT users need some extra weeks or months.
Microsoft introduced the new Teams apps for Windows and Mac earlier in 2023. They were designed to perform twice as fast compared to the older "classic" apps. The new Teams apps have also been made to use less memory and disc space.
The company has also indicated in the past that the new Teams now have reached "full feature parity for almost all features" compared to the "classic" Teams apps. Going forward, new features will be added only to the new Teams apps.