Microsoft shares details on Teams block if app is not updated after 90 days

Microsoft recently updated one of its Microsoft 365 Admin Center messages regarding Teams app updates. The company reiterated that Teams, if not updated for more than 90 days after a new version release, will become unusable as it will remain blocked till it is updated.

Microsoft explained the reason behind the move in a previous message stating that maintaining app security was the number one priority. It wrote:

In today’s security climate, our work across the company and greater industry to keep this critical ecosystem secure is more important than ever. And while we also ship bug fixes and other new features via continuous innovation, in the end security is job one.

Keeping Microsoft Teams up to date is critical to ensure your devices are secure and compliant. By default, and as designed, Teams updates automatically which successfully updates most clients in the world without additional overhead for customers.

Microsoft Teams is governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy which requires that the Teams desktop client be kept up to date. .... As documented, when a client falls out of date, the user will see:

• Recurring in-app alerts, if the app is between 30d-90d out of date. Except in VDI environments, where this will occur between 60-90 days out of date.
• A blocking page in Teams, if the app is greater than 90 days out of date. At this point, the app will show options to update, to contact their IT administrator, or continue to Teams on the web.

A few days back, the message was updated, and more details have been added regarding how the app will display the block warning banners:

Versions of the new Teams client that were released more than 90 days ago will be blocked. An in-app warning banner will show up 60 days before the app is blocked (30 days for VDI).

..

Users will see blocking page

• Starting April 11th, 2025, for users using the Windows desktop app
• Starting May 6th, 2025, for users using the Teams app in VDI environment
• Starting May 15th, 2025, for users using the Mac desktop app
• Users will see warning banner starting 60 days before they are blocked (for VDI environments only, users will see it 30 days before they are blocked)

Microsoft has asked IT admins and system administrators to set the Teams app to automatically update to the latest version so as to avoid this. For those who have access to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center portal, you can view this under the message ID MC1047923.