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Feature Differences Between New and Classic Teams

John Goulden

May 21 2024

5 min read

While this has been coming for a while, and Microsoft has not been shy about promoting the new Teams software, the final date of support for the older, classic Teams is July 1, 2024.

No, the sky won’t be falling and the classic version will not stop working on that date, but Microsoft will no longer provide updates or support for the older version after that date. The sky will start falling on July 1, 2025, the end of availability date, and precisely when the older client will stop working. Note that Microsoft will automatically attempt to uninstall the older version at the end of the availability period if you still have it installed.

So you haven’t been living under a rock and have seen the handwriting on the wall. Maybe you’ve already made the switch to the new version, or you’re putting off the switch as long as possible. Either way, even though Microsoft has long touted the feature parity between the two versions of Teams, there are some differences to be aware of. Some features are simply gone, other changes are informative in nature, and others just require a change in workflow.

Classic Teams	New Teams
Allow users to follow another user’s presence, then notify them of availability	Select a user’s avatar or profile photo anywhere in new Teams to quickly get an overview of their online status, next available calendar slot in Outlook, work hours, local time, or work location either remote or in office.
Contacts in chat	You no longer can access Contacts from Chat. Instead, use the new People app. Pin it to your left navigation pane by selecting the (…) menu, right-click People, and then select Pin.
Windows notifications	Teams notifications are now fully served from Teams and all notifications preferences are handled within Teams Settings.
Ability to save messages and files in Teams	The Save feature is no longer available. However, classic Teams users can download their saved messages and files to a local folder that they can open in new Teams. Learn more: Mark a message as saved in Microsoft Teams
Teams Theme Setting	Consistent with other Office applications, Teams Theme setting follows the OS Theme by default. Users can change this default in Teams Settings > Appearance and Accessibility. When a user signs out of Teams, any change to the default Theme won’t be saved.
Look up an organizational chart while in a 1:1 chat	Select a user’s avatar or profile photo anywhere in Teams and navigate to the organizational chart within the profile card.
Settings dialog	Teams Settings is now an app accessed from the More options menu (…) in the title bar.
General appearance changes	Colors, tooltip styles, and general appearance have been updated.
Post level notifications within a channel	Users can no longer opt in or opt out of receiving notifications at a channel post level.
Search box commands	The following commands are no longer available in the new Teams search box: /activity, /files, /goto, /help, /join, /keys, /mentions, /org, /saved, /testcall, /unread, /whatsnew, /who, /pop.
Adding a Wiki to a channel tab	You no longer see a Wiki app. Instead, select the Notes app.
Adding third party cloud storage service from Files app and Files tab in channels	You no longer see the “Add cloud storage” in the OneDrive app on Teams’ left navigation bar or within the Files tab in Teams channels. Now you can add the third party storage app directly from the Teams App Store.
Adding a document library (DocLib) app to a tab in channels	Use the Sharepoint app instead. Then add the document library from there as a tab to the channel. Existing document libraries automatically convert to a SharePoint document library on first use.
Activity tab in chat	No longer available.
Look up LinkedIn while in a 1:1 chat	Select a user’s avatar or profile photo anywhere in Teams and navigate to the LinkedIn tab within the profile card.
Edit team name and change team picture from Edit team view.	Team owners can edit team name and change team picture in the team Settings tab by selecting More options (…) > Manage team.
Ability to choose EDU themed team avatar from a list in the Edit team view In Microsoft Teams for Education	No longer available.
Files app on Teams left navigation pane	The OneDrive app replaces the Files app on the left navigation pane.
Ability to use tags in the “Add member” dialog.	There’s now an advanced flow for tags.
About links in the More options menu (…)	About links are now in the Settings app under the About Teams category.
Help in the app bar	The Help entrypoint, including Help links and Give Feedback is now located under the More options menu (…) in the title bar.
Ability to sign out from the notification area at the far right of the taskbar (system tray).	No longer available.
Adaptive Card-based tabs in personal app tabs.	No longer available.
Whiteboard Tab automatically displayed in meeting tabs.	Using Recap tab from the calendar allows you to access the Whiteboard file shared in the meeting in the content section.
Third-party and custom sign-in solutions using RunAs or undocumented hooks.	No longer available.
App name is Microsoft Teams classic, except for Windows 11, where it’s Microsoft Teams classic (work or school).	Microsoft Teams (work or school) app name is changing to Microsoft Teams.
Presenter mode (standout) during PowerPoint Live sharing.	Presenter mode is no longer available. To use presenter modes, start a screen sharing session and choose one of the three available modes.

Finally, if you want to keep track of the known issues that exist in the new Teams, you can do so here.

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About the Author

John Goulden

John is a Senior Network Consultant and Project Engineer with over 20 years of experience, helping clients brave the shark-infested waters of IT. With a diverse background in virtualization, networking, wireless, security, cloud solutions, backup, and storage, he is skilled in deploying solutions that meet the needs of clients. He holds certifications from Microsoft, SonicWALL, StorageCraft and other industry leading companies.