Microsoft may have lost the plot with the latest Teams update

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Key notes

  • Microsoft has announced a new update to the collaborative platform Teams that is designed to help users get more out of their desktop space.
  • Although it's far from the most glaring user interface flaw in the chat-based collaboration tool or even the most pressing functionality gap, it's an improvement that Redmond will roll out in an upcoming update
  • However, the latest set of features added to the service has the potential to push businesses away from using it all together.

Microsoft Teams has received a number of new features in recent months. There’s a good reason for this: the company is aware that it needs to keep its products well-stocked if it wants to compete with the likes of Slack and Zoom, which have both seen their user bases skyrocket during the pandemic.

Teams has been growing rapidly in recent months as more people work from home due to coronavirus restrictions. 

The latest addition will be no game-changer, but it will certainly be welcome to users who are conscious about screen real estate.

Microsoft’s Teams collaboration platform is getting a new compact view mode, which should help users save space on their screen by condensing the teams and channels views.

Stacked-up messages

The new feature will be helpful if you’re the type who likes to have a lot of conversations going at once and want to be able to keep up with all of them while also not having to scroll through lots of blank space.

This omission might not seem like a big deal at first glance, but it does mean that users on other platforms will be missing out on an important feature, which could put off some people from switching to Teams from their current collaboration tool of choice.

It’s not really clear why the company made this decision, but the idea seems to be that you can now shrink Teams down and allow other apps to share screen space with it.

The update is ideal for those of you who like to run multiple apps at once, as it frees up screen space without cutting down on the number of messages on display. It’s not clear when this feature will be rolled out but it looks like it will be by the end of the month. 

The update will only apply to the desktop version of Teams and not mobile devices, at least for now. This means that those using smartphones or tablets with relatively small screens will not be able to see the new option when trying to join a meeting.

Should you encounter any other Microsoft Teams issues, refer to our fix guide for quick solutions.

What do you think of the new compact mode? Is it a win or a big loss? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.