What's Changed or Missing in the Preview Release of Microsoft Teams

With any preview release of software, the product is often not yet fully functional. I look at preview mode like half-baked brownies: the recipe calls for you to bake them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes for them to be edible, but instead you bake them at 200 degrees for 20 minutes, producing something that resembles brownies, but they’re not fully baked or ready to consume.

The preview of the new Microsoft Teams is no different; it is missing some features that were in classic Teams, and not everything announced has been fully implemented. With this in mind, it is important to balance what you’re gaining versus what you’re losing when deciding whether to deploy the preview of Microsoft Teams or wait for general availability, which is scheduled to be released by the end of 2023.

In my article on exploring the preview release of Microsoft Teams, I went through all the improvements and announcements of what the new Teams is going to include: the performance improvements, smaller footprint, end-user feature enhancements, and IT Pro enhancements. It all sounds enticing, and maybe you even feel it is necessary to deploy it sooner than later. However, I want everyone to be aware of some of the missing or changed features and functionality that we had in the classic Teams that aren’t yet in the preview release of Teams.

Missing or Changed Features in Teams and Channels

• Creating a new team is not possible from within the new Teams desktop app at this time; when you select the + sign, you can join a team but not create a new one.
• The Wiki and Files tabs are missing from within the channels of a team in the preview of the new Teams desktop app.
• The option to add or remove members to a team channel is currently not available in the new Teams desktop app.
• Users are currently unable to display the descriptions of Teams channels in the Teams preview.
• Collapse all replies in a channel conversation is not available.
• The ability to View hidden channels now opens as a new pane to the left instead of as a drop down.
• The @ChannelName mention to send a message to everyone is not currently available in a channel, so you’ll have to list each person individually to notify all members of a group or channel.
• Channel notification configurations are missing from the Settings option in the new Teams preview.
• The Notify when available option used to notify you when someone comes online in Teams is not available in the Teams preview.
• Teams navigation buttons, back and forward, displaying lists of windows last visited, is unavailable.

Missing or Changed Features in Teams Chat

• The Organization tab for users in a chat window is not currently available.
• The Activity tab for your own chats, listing activities you participate in, is not yet available.
• The Mark as unread option for specific messages or conversations (for easier access at a later time) is not available.
• The ability to use CTRL-F to search messages in 1:1 chat and channels not yet working.
• Now that I have identified the classic Teams features that are currently experiencing issues in new Teams preview, I’ll take a look at some of the known issues with the new features being rolled out.

Known Issues for Microsoft New Teams

Known limitations in Teams apps:

• Custom app icons are broken in the left pane
• You can’t install/uninstall any app in new Teams, only use apps installed in classic Teams
• Advanced capabilities like pinning, re-ordering, uninstalling are not available yet

Limited options on Channels properties, including:

• Adding a new tab to a channel is currently unavailable
• Webhooks are not supported

Known meeting issues include:

• When a user raises their hand in gallery view, two hands are displayed (bottom left, top right)
• Users cannot join or be assigned to a breakout room as participants
• When closing a meeting using the ‘X’ in top right corner, you won’t be prompted to verify you want to leave the meeting
• Some meeting details don’t show up, including forwards, “show as”, and meeting categories
• Some attendees see poor screen resolution when using screen sharing

General functionality limitations:

• Occasional unresponsiveness and unexpected crashes occur for some users
• Context menu displayed when right-clicking the Microsoft Teams icon from the task bar is not yet available
• Hovering over a channel mention displays ‘Unknown user’ instead of the channel name
• After deleting a message in a channel, it remains in the conversation until the user leaves and returns to the channel conversation
• The removal of the blue-themed top pane may cause a visual impact for those used to it in classic Teams
• New Channels posts are displayed from the most recent at top to older posts below it. However, in the chat interface it is the opposite with the most recent being displayed at the bottom
• The Copy Link option used to share files in channels doesn’t automatically copy the link, requiring you to manually it
• Using the Enter key when sending a message after replying to it is not functioning, requiring you to use the CTRL-Enter to send the reply
• The More actions option used to create a task or poll from a message conversation is greyed out in personalized chats
• In multi-tenant, multi-account configurations, new tenant invitations may not appear or get updated for up to 24 hours

For a complete, detailed list of current known issues with the new Teams desktop app, please visit Microsoft’s website discussing known issues with Microsoft new Teams preview.

I believe it is important to read both of my articles as well as take a peek at the supporting Microsoft websites to help you decide if you should deploy new Microsoft Teams Preview or wait until, or closer to, general availability to take advantage of these new Teams features, thereby reducing any risk to your organization. In the meantime, keep an eye on the known issues with Microsoft new Teams preview, as I’m sure Microsoft will be updating that information as they resolve the issues and add the missing features over the upcoming months.