Today, we are announcing the support of Microsoft Teams for Targeted Release commercial cloud customers. With this support, users or tenants opted-in to Targeted Release will be the first production users to see the latest Microsoft Teams features and help shape the product by providing early feedback.
Note: This update will be rolling out over the next two weeks to all tenants.
Delivering a consistent, predictable, and fully supported experience
We heard your feedback to provide single control across Microsoft 365 products for early access to features and a consistent way for change management.
Targeted Release provides early access to high quality feature releases for OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Office for the web, Microsoft 365 admin center and some components of Exchange Online. With this update, all the customers in Targeted Release now get early access to Teams feature to prepare for changes. Customers can use the early access period to do compliance & security assessments, ensure internal helpdesk readiness, and validate new or modified features before they roll out to the rest of their organization.
This update also improves Teams feature predictability through announcements on the public Microsoft 365 roadmap and Message center. In addition, customers in Targeted Release get full support for any issues found in changes landing as part of Targeted Release.
To learn more about Targeted Release, visit Benefits of Targeted Release and read about recent Microsoft 365 change management improvements in this blog post: Simplifying change management of Microsoft 365.
Choosing the right early access program for Teams users
Targeted Release allows admins to manage how their organization receives updates across included Microsoft 365 services and now hybrid (client-services) workloads like Teams.
In the past, we aligned Teams pre-release channels with Office and Windows Insider programs so that Insiders find similar names and expectations for similar channels across Windows, Office, and Teams programs. We furthered this alignment by adding the ‘Follow Office Preview’ update policy setting in 2022 that allows Teams users who are in the Current Channel (Preview) for Microsoft 365 apps to automatically be in the Public Preview channel of Teams.
We will continue to look for more opportunities to further align Teams experiences with the rest of the Microsoft 365 products.
Here is how you can decide on the best early access option for Teams
- If you want consistent early access experiences across Microsoft 365 services, use Targeted Release
- If you want consistent early access experiences across Microsoft 365 apps, use Current Channel (Preview) and set the Teams Admin Center (or PowerShell) Public Preview policy to “Follow Office Preview”
- If you want early access only for Teams, use Teams Public Preview
- If you want in-depth engagement with the Teams product group under NDA (with associated program participation requirements), join Teams Private Preview (Technology Adoption Program). Note: this program is currently at capacity.
Note:
- If the user is in Targeted Release as well as Teams Public Preview then Targeted Release will take the precedence. Note that users will not be able to opt in/out of Public Preview from the client if ‘Teams update policy -> Allow Public Preview’ is set to ‘Enabled’ (how to setup Public Preview update policy).
- If a user is in Targeted Release as well as Teams Private Preview (Beta or TAP), then the user will stay in Private Preview.
Set up Targeted Release option in the M365 admin center
Targeted Release allows admins and change managers to control who gets the features first in their company. Global admins can go to the Microsoft 365 admin center and choose to give a selected set of individuals access to Targeted Release, or they can enroll the entire organization in Targeted Release. Note: for larger organizations Microsoft 365 recommends using select individuals versus entire organizations. Learn more about setting up the release option in the admin center here.
Note:
- After a Global admin adds or removes user from Targeted Release, it can take up to one week for changes to reflect for Teams. There are plans to optimize this. More information to come soon.
- Since Targeted Release is a single opt-in across Microsoft 365 services, adding or removing users from Targeted Release gives or removes early access to Teams as well as supported workloads like OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Office for the web, Microsoft 365 admin center and Exchange Online.
Checking if user or tenant is a part of Targeted Release
Global admins can login to Microsoft 365 admin center to confirm if their tenant or users are enrolled in Targeted Release as shown in the screenshot below:
What’s new in Teams for Targeted Release customers
Targeted Release customers will get early access to all the new and innovative Teams features before the rest of the world.
Here are the Teams features currently flighting through Targeted Release:
- Introducing the new Microsoft Teams app
- New channels experience in Teams
- Breakout rooms participant shuffle
- Spatial audio in Teams meetings
- Customizing captions in Teams meetings
- Together mode usability improvements in Teams meetings
To get the latest update on the features in Targeted Release, follow or subscribe to this Microsoft Tech Community page.
Supported Platform
Teams support for Targeted Release is available on Windows, Mac, Web and Surface Hub.
Share feedback
Got feedback on a feature? Let us know straight from Teams app.
In classic Teams, select Help > Give feedback and follow the prompts. This is on the bottom left of your client.
In new Teams, select Help > Give feedback in ellipsis (…) menu in the upper right of your app and follow the prompts.
Thank you for helping us shape the future of Teams by providing early feedback.