A hint that Microsoft will provide controls to allow customers to roll out the new Teams client at their own rate is in the PowerShell Get-CsTeamsUpdateManagementPolicy cmdlet. This reveals a UseNewTeamsClient setting. Microsoft added the setting in version 4.9.1 of the MicrosoftTeams PowerShell module in November 2022. The values accepted by the Set-CsTeamsUpdateManagementPolicy cmdlet are:
MicrosoftChoice: Microsoft controls the use of the new client. This is likely how Microsoft will force customers to eventually move from the old to the new client.
UserChoice: Individual users can choose to use the new client.
AdminDisabled: The organization disables the new client for users assigned the policy.
The interpretations of the options are mine and are not formally confirmed by Microsoft. The point is that it will be possible for organizations to control when users get the new client and which users get the new client.
Building a New Teams Architecture
Microsoft has been working on the new Teams client architecture for a long time. Some hints came in my May 2021 discussion with Rish Tandon (the then VP for Teams Engineering). At the time, Rish acknowledged that client performance wasn’t where Microsoft wanted it to be. A further hint came when Microsoft revealed the Teams consumer client for Windows 11. The consumer client uses the new Teams client architecture based on ReactJS and the WebView2 Edge component.
Of course, the Teams consumer client is a pale shadow of its enterprise counterpart when it comes to features and functionality, as people will discover when they move from Teams Free (classic) to the new Teams (free) version. There are no channels to deal with (regular, private, or shared), the number of users is limited, there’s no Phone system or Teams room devices, and so on. Acknowledging these limitations, the Teams consumer client (2.0 in the architecture) proved a useful step to proving the concepts and components used in the next generation of the Teams enterprise client (2.1).
Microsoft’s recent press briefings have emphasized benchmarks like a 50% reduction in memory, less demand for CPU, and a consequent extended battery life for laptops. Cynics might say that all of this comes from removing the overhead imposed by Electron. Certainly there’s some truth in that assertion but the overall engineering effort required to move the Teams desktop and browser clients to the new architecture spans more than simply swapping code libraries.
When Production Software Arrives
After running the public preview for the new version of the Teams client for several months, Microsoft will make the client generally available (GA). At that point, a recent change will affect when organizations see the GA software.
Microsoft 365 message center notification MC510331 (February 2, Microsoft 365 roadmap item 117577) announced that Teams will support targeted release for commercial cloud customers. In other words, if your tenant opts in to use targeted release for some or all users, you’ll be amongst the first to get the new Teams client. Release preferences are in the Org settings section of the Microsoft 365 admin center (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Release options for a Microsoft 365 tenant
Those who choose to remain with the standard release will receive the software later. Given the size of the Microsoft 365 infrastructure, the difference between first and last tenants receiving the new client could be several months.
A Big Moment Approaches for Teams
People have complained about the performance and memory consumption of the Teams client for years. Despite much tweaking and filling in performance gaps since 2016, it’s obvious that the road has run out for the original Teams client. Launching a new Teams client is an important point for Microsoft. They only have 280 million monthly active users to please. No pressure then!
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I asked Microsoft about the site you pointed to. Their response is that it’s an internal method to distribute Teams builds. You won’t be able to install the new release unless you’re on an authorized list (Microsoft employee or TAP participant).
You need to double-click on the “config-prod-XXXXXXXXXXXX.js” request and then right-click and select “Unlock for Editing” and then go to SyntaxView or TextView. Copy everything from Pastebin and then paste it into the SyntaxView or TestView. Please make sure to remove everything from SyntaxView/TextView first before pasting the entire text from Pastebin.
An easiest way to get “config-prod-XXXXXXXXXXXX.js” to show up in Fiddler is use Incognito Mode on your browser and then go to https://teams.microsoft.com/v2
On Fiddler, please make sure that “Enable rules” and “Unmatched requests passthrough” are both selected.
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To confirm Teams 2.1 will be rolled out as such?
Currently – Microsoft/Tap (presumably).
End of March – Public Preview controlled through Teams Admin Center update policies.
Future – Targeted Release users in the tenant.
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Teams 2.1 could be found here?
https://github.com/ItzLevvie/MicrosoftTeams-msinternal/blob/master/defconfig2
I asked Microsoft about the site you pointed to. Their response is that it’s an internal method to distribute Teams builds. You won’t be able to install the new release unless you’re on an authorized list (Microsoft employee or TAP participant).
Installing isn’t the problem, and even logging in isn’t, but logging in all the way is:
https://i.imgur.com/yAt6aGK.png
It’s certainly interesting seeing all those WebView2 processes in memory relating to Teams though.
It can be bypassed though so whatever “authorization” they’re doing clearly isn’t working.
1) Open Telerik Fiddler Classic on your PC
2) Go to https://teams.microsoft.com/v2 in Google Chrome or your browser of choice.
3) Find https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/teams-modular-packages/hashed-assets/config-prod-d3abb3d5b68294df.js in Fiddler where d3abb3d5b68294df might be different for you but you can search for “config-prod” in Fiddler and you should get it.
4) Go back to Fiddler and click on the AutoResponder tab.
5) Click “Enable rules” & “Unmatched requests passthrough”
6) Find config-prod-d3abb3d5b68294df.js in Fiddler and then double-click on it
7) Right-click on config-prod-d3abb3d5b68294df.js and then select “Unlock for Editing”
8) Find “disableExperience:[{buildType:[“local”],value:!1},{value:!0}]” and then replace it with “disableExperience:[{buildType:[“local”],value:!1},{value:!1}]”
9) Drag https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/teams-modular-packages/hashed-assets/config-prod-d3abb3d5b68294df.js to AutoResponder and you’re good to go.
10) You can open https://teams.microsoft.com/v2 and it’ll work + the Teams 2.1 client will also work too.
I downloaded https://staticsint.teams.cdn.office.net/production-windows-x64/23074.3100.1942.6340/MSTeams-x64.msix from https://github.com/ItzLevvie/MicrosoftTeams-msinternal/blob/master/defconfig2#L18 as proof.
Picture @ https://i.imgur.com/UrkkQoQ.png
I pointed this all out to the folks at Microsoft but they said that they wanted to continue doing what they’re doing…
@coral, I tried your instructions but it didn’t work, after the JS trick when I reload the page a get an error “Oops, app failed to init!”
@nickmaleao: I pasted the whole file on https://pastebin.com/raw/yHtucF30 which should make this a bit more easier.
You need to double-click on the “config-prod-XXXXXXXXXXXX.js” request and then right-click and select “Unlock for Editing” and then go to SyntaxView or TextView. Copy everything from Pastebin and then paste it into the SyntaxView or TestView. Please make sure to remove everything from SyntaxView/TextView first before pasting the entire text from Pastebin.
An easiest way to get “config-prod-XXXXXXXXXXXX.js” to show up in Fiddler is use Incognito Mode on your browser and then go to https://teams.microsoft.com/v2
On Fiddler, please make sure that “Enable rules” and “Unmatched requests passthrough” are both selected.
To confirm Teams 2.1 will be rolled out as such?
Currently – Microsoft/Tap (presumably).
End of March – Public Preview controlled through Teams Admin Center update policies.
Future – Targeted Release users in the tenant.
I couldn’t comment about dates but the deployment technique you outline is plausible.