TL;DR:
From December 2022 you may see an ‘Out of date’ banner in Microsoft Teams if you have not been keeping it up to date, and maybe even a blocking page requesting an update to the latest version of Teams. Due December 2022.
Details:
Microsoft: “Since Microsoft Teams is governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy, the Teams desktop client needs to be up to date. The Teams client is updated approximately once per month. The client automatically installs updates when they become available to that client. Because we stagger the availability of updates worldwide, some clients in your organization might receive new updates before others.
It’s expected that users remain on the most up-to-date version of the desktop client. Users need to update regularly for users to remain supported on Teams. The regular updates by users ensure that they have the latest capabilities, performance enhancements, security, and service reliability.”
Why bother?
- Your Teams desktop client may miss important security and quality updates
- The reliability of your Teams desktop client may suffer without recent bug fixes
- Your Teams desktop client may not be compatible with the Modern Lifecycle Policy, resulting in unpredictable behaviour and missing functionality.
- Finally, you don’t really have a choice: client versions with release dates that are more than 90 days older than the current version’s release date will be blocked because the above is incompatible with the service.
Availability:
- December 2022
- On January 9th, 2023, users on Teams 1.4 or earlier build will encounter a blocking page requesting an update to the latest version of Teams
- In the future, users of out-of-date clients will continue to see warning banners and later be blocked to ensure they meet security and compliance obligations as highlighted in the servicing agreement
Source, related links, and references:
MC477839.
Microsoft Teams update process | Microsoft Learn.
Update history for Teams App Version (Desktop & Mac) (listed by date) – Office release notes | Microsoft Learn.
Modern Lifecycle Policy – Microsoft Lifecycle | Microsoft Learn.
Page originally published:
17th December 2022 and kept up to date.
