Microsoft Corp. is reportedly preparing to launch a new version of its Teams messaging app that features significant performance and power-efficiency improvements.

The Verge reported the plan today, citing people with the matter. The new version of Teams is expected to make its debut next month. 

For the past several years, Microsoft has reportedly been working on a major update to the Teams client for desktop computers and laptops. It’s believed the update will reduce the amount of memory the application requires by 50%. Furthermore, users can reportedly expect a reduction in processor usage as well as lower power consumption on laptops.

The Teams interface is powered partly by code written in the HTML, JavaScript and CSS languages. That code is turned into functioning interface elements using a technology called Electron. According to today’s report, the upcoming version of Teams will switch from Electron to a newer technology called Edge Webview2.

Both Electron and Edge Webview2 are based on the open-source Chromium browser engine. Chromium, the basis of Google LLC’s Chrome browser, provides extensive features for processing HTML, JavaScript and CSS code because the three languages power most web pages. 

Another reported change in the upcoming Teams release is that it uses React. Originally developed by Meta Platforms Inc., React is a library that enables software teams to create application interfaces in the JavaScript programming language.

React is widely used in the development community because it speeds up certain programming tasks associated with interface design. Moreover, the library can help improve performance. React reduces the number of computations involved in processing user interactions with an application’s interface, which speeds up processing.

Some of the improvements that Microsoft will roll out are reportedly already available in the version of Teams built into Windows 11. That version, which made its debut in 2021, is geared towards consumers and offers a more limited feature set. `

Microsoft reportedly refers to the upcoming update as Teams 2.0 or 2.1 internally. The company has recently begun testing the release with employees. According to today’s report, the update will become available to Teams users in preview late next month with a toggle option for reverting to the previous version of the client. 

Microsoft disclosed last January that Teams had 270 million monthly active users, up from 250 million in July 2021. The company also detailed at the time that adoption of third-party Teams apps had increased by a factor of ten over the preceding two years. Third-party apps enable users to access external cloud services and files without leaving the Teams interface.

Image: Microsoft