The new chat and channel experience in Microsoft Teams is now available for commercial users.
In October 2024, Microsoft announced a new chat and channel experience in Teams. After months of extensive testing, the new features are ready for the outside world. The renewed Teams experience is now generally available for commercial users. The functionalities are being rolled out to customers in Government Clouds and other clouds.
Chat and channel experience
“The new experience is designed to be simple by default, so everyone can stay informed about what’s important,” says Noga Ronen, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Microsoft Teams, in a blog post. The update focuses on two key points: keeping track of the workflow and reducing fragmentation in communication. Users can now more easily manage their conversations and respond faster to important messages, both in private chats and channels.
The new experience offers various tools to optimize the user interface. For example, messages can be filtered by mentions (@mentions), unread messages, or channels. This makes it easier to quickly stay informed about the most important communication without missing important messages. Users can also organize their conversations in sections, for example by project or topic, and adjust the order of their conversations for a clearer workspace.
Better organization
With the update, users can manage their Teams and channel list more flexibly. It’s possible to display channels in a list view, making it easier to follow the latest messages. Sections can also be collapsed or expanded, depending on the user’s needs, which simplifies navigation.
On mobile devices, the new experience offers additional settings to adjust the layout to the user’s preferences. This makes it easier to work efficiently on smaller screens, with notification settings that can be adjusted for better control over communication, among other features.
The new chat and channel experience is now available for most Teams users and will be further rolled out in the coming weeks.