The new Teams app starts rolling out in April with easy account switching.
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Microsoft is finally creating a single version of Microsoft Teams that will allow you to switch between personal and work accounts easily. The new unified app is currently in testing and will let Microsoft Teams users switch between multiple tenants and personal or work account types.
This new version of Teams will be rolled out to commercial users in April and will include an account switcher that’s accessible from the profile section. “We received consistent feedback from personal and work users: you prefer a single Teams app that allows you to easily access and switch between personal and work accounts,” says Microsoft in a blog post. “This update lets you use one app for all kinds of Teams accounts.”
In future updates, you’ll also be able to select the account you want to use when joining a meeting link or even join a meeting without signing in. This unified app will even let you launch personal and work accounts for Teams with separate icons on the taskbar instead of having to install and launch separate apps.
Notifications are also being improved in this updated Teams app, so you can see which team a notification has come from. “In addition, personal notifications have more details, giving clear and easy actions from the notification banner,” says Microsoft.
Microsoft has long had a rather confusing experience for Teams users who use both personal and work accounts. Windows 11 integrated Teams directly into the taskbar, but this Chat experience only worked for personal accounts. Microsoft walked away from this direct integration in recent Windows 11 updates, but you still need to download and install two separate Teams apps to access both personal and work meetings. That meant having Microsoft Teams (free) and Microsoft Teams (work or school) both installed, and it’s easy to launch the wrong one.
Microsoft is now planning to remove the Microsoft Teams (free) app in the future and convert everyone to this single app which will just be Microsoft Teams. This new Teams experience will be part of an upcoming update to Windows 11, version 24H2, which will be available later this year.
