Teams for Microsoft 365 Family Status and Questions

[Mike Glenn]

Background: I've been global admin for a 365 Business Basic tenant since early 2020, so already have Teams. I've also had Microsoft 365 Family (formerly Office 365 Home) for years. Back in 2019, I created a free Teams instance using my personal Microsoft account.

We've been hearing about Teams Family for months. Now it's October and I still don't see any difference. When logged into my personal Microsoft account, Teams still doesn't appear in the Office app or Office.com or Live.com all apps list.  The only thing I've noticed is greater promotion of free Teams for everyone (not just 365 Family subscribers). 

This begs the question: Is there or will there be any difference between free Teams and Teams for 365 Family? Should I just keep using the free Teams instance I created more than a year ago and just expect to see a Teams shortcut appear inside MS 365 Family at some point?

[#2]

It's dead in here...  I guess techcommunity isn't a good place to ask this question.

[#3]

@Mike Glenn   -- I have a similar concern.

I think I saw an article on a non-Microsoft site that said "Teams for M365 Family" is still in the pipeline.

(Sorry, I did not keep the source link.)

But it seems like Microsoft should post a more definitive plan.

side-note:  I am fairly new to M365 Family.  So far I am disappointed in a couple of support cases, and in general having a "support option", to get answers to questions, etc.

Seems like M365 Family is just mixed in with the "free" outlook.com, etc.

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[#4]

@Mike-Moon-Crater  thanks for commenting. I was starting to wonder if my account was shadow-banned on this site!   But 365 Family is almost certainly a tiny blip in the revenue stream compared to 365 Business, so I understand why Business gets the lion's share of attention and features.

Good news: Teams for personal use and account switching were recently released on Android! On my phone and tablet, I can now switch easily between to work and personal accounts. These updates haven't reached desktop Teams yet, but that's supposedly coming before the end of the year.

Testing the Android version also answered my questions. Teams for Family creates a completely new tenant and has a more consumer-oriented feature set. On the other hand, free Teams is essentially Teams for Business with Admin Center and lots of other features locked until you upgrade.

Big picture: It appears Microsoft understands the need to devote more resources to 365 Family/Personal. They were already promoting the idea of better work/life integration when the pandemic-driven work-from-home movement and success of Zoom came along and lit a fire under online collaboration initiatives like Teams.

There were a couple of pre-COVID gestures towards increasing the value of 365 Family/Personal. For example, I (and I'm sure others) had been asking for Outllook.com premium (no ads, increased storage, etc.) to be bundled with 365 Family/Personal subscriptions. That finally happened quite a few years ago now. In addition to a consumer-oriented Teams, I'm hoping Microsoft will also bring a simplified version of Lists and even greatly simplified SharePoint to 365 Family.

[#5]

@Mike Glenn  -- Some information from Nov. 19, 2020 in this article--

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/11/19/bringing-personal-features-in-microsof...

Based on limited experimenting, this is for any Microsoft "consumer" live.com account,.

Seems like it is not specific to Microsoft 365 Family.

It only worked for me using the web  -- the app on Windows 10 did not work.
 Maybe need a few more days...

The article does say  "preview".

These observations are based on very limited, initial experiments.

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[#6 · Accepted solution]

@Mike-Moon-Crater -- 

Started out using the web version,    at   teams.live.com     

Within that web page,  used the --download desktop app-- function.

It installed Teams app version 1.3.00.32283  (on Nov. 20, 2020)

This version of Teams on Windows 10 is working OK with my "personal" Teams account/"org".

--

One of my Microsoft "Live" accounts already had a "Teams test system" (from 2018).

The web address for that system was  teams.microsoft.com

When that account uses the new version of Teams app on W10,  at startup Teams shows a menu to enable me to choose either the old Team/org   or  the "Personal".  

OK/Good.

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[#7]

@Mike-Moon-Crater, thanks for the updates on your experience so far. Being able to compare notes is helpful.

After switching from teams.microsoft.com to teams.live.com and updating Teams desktop client from ver. 1.3.00.30866 to 1.3.00.32283, I'm still unable to login to Teams Personal in the desktop client. Like you, I can also access Teams Free tenant created a couple years ago. And Teams 365 Family is not available anywhere yet as far as we know—or could be seen as indistinguishable from Personal at this point.

Microsoft Teams Editions (current availability for me)

Status	Edition	Availability
🟢	365 Business	All platforms
🟢	Business (Free)	All platforms
🟡	Personal (Free)	Android, Web
🟥	365 Family	N/A

[#8]

@Mike Glenn -- OK,...now I am curious what "symptoms" you see, if any, when using web teams.live.com and/or Teams app on W10.

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[#9]

@Mike-Moon-Crater, by "symptoms" do you mean bugs or features or something else? 

[#10]

@Mike Glenn -- When you said:  I'm still unable to login to Teams Personal in the desktop client. ,...

What did you see?    Error message ?    Maybe you did not see the option to logon to the Personal account?    Or something else?    
You said the desktop client.

Did it work correctly using the web?    teams.live.com 

I will attach a screenshot showing the selection process for the "teams personal" and the "teams free" accounts.

Thanks.

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[#11]

@Mike-Moon-Crater, okay got it. 

Desktop: For me, Teams desktop 1.3.00.32283 is still showing the legacy account menu where you can only sign-in or out of a work or personal Microsoft account along with the drop-down menu showing organizations available under that account. Signing in with my MS account only displays the Teams free tenants I created in 2018. My desktop Teams still doesn't have the dialog offering Personal as a choice as shown in your screenshot. Apparently they're still A/B testing at this point.

Browser: On the other hand, teams.live.com does take me to the new Personal experience. I need to learn more about the promising looking "Accounts & orgs" menu option. Currently, my new personal tenant is the only thing available in that menu. Meanwhile, teams.microsoft.com still gets me to the Teams Free and Business editions, depending on the login used.

[#12]

@Mike Glenn --  Thanks for the information.   I have no specific tips or hints at this point.

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Perhaps it is not unusual,...but it seems like a rather confusing "puzzle" at this point.

I also used a regular "consumer" (?) Microsoft account to create a Teams org in 2018.

Is that a "trail for the business-level"   or   "free for consumers"  or ... ?

And now that MS is offering the "personal" Teams, how to clearly describe each of those?

And, for now, my M365 Family account is essentially working like a (not M365) consumer-level MS account, ...in terms of using "personal Teams".  (nothing specific to M365-Family).

--

Thanks.

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