Farewell to classic Microsoft Teams: What You Need to Know

To paraphrase Michael Caine - "not a lot of people know this".

Regrettably the consumer version of Teams is pretty poor compared with classic Teams (the consumer version is more a souped-up chat tool like multi-user whatsapp)

The biggest hassle is the pathetic limitation of 1 hour for meetings (there are others i.e. number of participants but limit is still large enough for most users).

The time limit is more or less removed (well actually increased to 30 hrs which is more than enough for most users) if user convening meeting has an MS365 subscription. It is for this reason, I was convening the VIP meetings which usually went on for more than 1 hr.

Even then the consumer version does not have the "screen sharing control" option which means small business users have to fork out for Teams business licences if they need this option. This means social organisations (non profit making type e.g. Mini Car Owners) have a poorer experience with Teams when a User wants to take control of the meeting to demonstrate items to all other participants).

Recording meetings is restricted too (although there are other ways to do this e.g. using OBS).

Overall, this is a very poor change. Shame on MS who seduced users to Teams with effectively the full Teams experience, then chopped their legs off!

I think MS is wrong by doing away with the classic MS Teams. IMO, they should keep the classic version and give those that need or want the newer version the option to upgrade. During the Covid Pandemic, the center where my wife goes did their group meetings online. I don't remember if it was Teams or something else. What I do remember is that it was very easy for her and the others to use. Once I set it up all she had to do was click on the shortcut and sign-in. Nothing complicated and it did everything they needed.

Winuser said:

I don't remember if it was Teams or something else.

Click to expand...

I just did a search for alternative programs and I think the center may have been using Zoom. What ever program it was, it was very easy to use.

I use teams at work and its pretty good, much better than it was a couple of years ago.

Google Meet is my preferred platform now.
Have used Teams and Zoom in the past, but Meet is just easier to instigate and works well.

cereberus said:

This means social organisations (non profit making type e.g. Mini Car Owners) have a poorer experience with Teams

Click to expand...

If they really are a non-profit (what we call a 501(c)(3) in the US), they should look into a non-profit license for 365. Microsoft gives out a lot of grants to these orgs, so they pay nothing. Even if you have to pay, the discount for non-profits is around 75% for the Business Premium tier, if you need all that.