Despite claimed feature parity with Classic Teams, upgrading to the new Microsoft Teams might cost you some of your favorite features

Here’s what you’ll gain, and what you’ll lose, when ‘upgrading’ to the new Microsoft Teams.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

What you need to know

Microsoft willend support for the classic version of Microsoft Teamson July 1, 2024. The tech giant will move away from Classic Teams in favor of thenew Teams app. The move to the new version of Teams should result in better performance, all while using less memory on your system. There are, however, some features that will be removed when you upgrade from Classic Teams to the new Teams app.

You’ll see quite a few changes when upgrading from Classic Teams to the new version of Teams. Some of those changes are from entirely new features, but others represent changes to preexisting functionality. Microsoft breaks down all of the changes in asupport document, which includes the chart below:

Many of the changes are improvements or refinements of the Classic Teams experience, but there areas in which the new version of Teams is worse than Classic Teams. Specifically, there are some features that are completely removed when upgrading from Classic Teams to the new Teams.

The following features were avaialble in Classic Teams but are not available in the new version of Teams:

Some options that have been removed have been replaced with arguably better options. For example, you can no longer add a third-party cloud storage service to the OneDrive app in Teams. Instead, you can install a third-party storage app directly from the Teams apps store.

Is new always better?

The new version of Microsoft Teams is better in several areas, such as performance and memory usage, but it’s not universally better than Classic Teams. Some features and experiences have changed so much that they might as well be classified as new capabilities. Other features have been removed entirely. For those unaffected by removals, the new Teams is only a positive. But for those who rely on features from Classic Teams, the “upgrade” may not be viewed as an upgrade at all.

“I just tried switching to the new one again - assuming it had finally reached feature parity with the old one. WRONG - it STILL doesn’t have contact groups. In fact it doesn’t have a contacts list AT ALL,” said DaveDansey in the comments section of arecent post of ours about Teams.

Get the Windows Central Newsletter

All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.

“I never use the “Chat” view in the old one. It’s a jumbled mess of a list of chats sorted by “most recent”. It’s plain horrible.”

Microsoft replaced accessing contacts from the Chat section of Teams with the new People app. The new experience has some of the same functionality but isn’t a 1:1 replacement.

Have you used the new Teams app? Do you view it as an upgrade to Classic Teams? If it is better, do you think it has improved across the board or is it a mixed bag? Let us know in the comments below.

Sean Endicott is a tech journalist at Windows Central, specializing in Windows, Microsoft software, AI, and PCs. He’s covered major launches, from Windows 10 and 11 to the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. Sean’s journey began with the Lumia 740, leading to strong ties with app developers. Outside writing, he coaches American football, utilizing Microsoft services to manage his team. He studied broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University and is active on X @SeanEndicott_ and Threads @sean_endicott_.