Microsoft has announced that a new version of Teams 2.1 allows for multiple account and cross-tenant support.

Until now, the Microsoft Teams client would only let you log into one tenant at a time, causing what Ben Lee, MVO on the Microsoft Tech Community, describes as “Teams tenant trauma”.

The new client is currently in preview as Microsoft has not yet finished adding all the features that are available on the primary client.

After testing out Microsoft’s updated client, Lee commented: “Thankfully when Microsoft started re-architecting the new Microsoft Teams 2.1 client, this multi-account, multi-tenant issue was one that they sought to solve, and boy did they!

“Having used the new preview version of the client for a couple of months, I’m very pleased to report that the multiple account and cross-tenant support works flawlessly.

“Not just for the scenarios I outlined above where I need to work in multiple tenants, but even where I must work for different customers using completely alternative accounts.”

The lacking capability to remain logged into two tenants at once was also Microsoft Teams’ solution to the potential friction that could result between sharing, policies, identity management, and data locations.

The tenants act as boundaries between users and guest accounts and were intended to be the safe bridge through which file sharing, conversations, meetings, and other collaborative actions could take place.

Losing access to your home environment, however, is a big sacrifice as it means you cannot receive incoming calls, chat messages, and other notifications and alerts.

Data & Security

Teams 2.1 does not only solve these problems, but it also combats legitimate issues on the previous version relating to data integrity and security.

While there are workarounds to many of these obstacles, such as using different browser windows or tools like Firefox Containers or Portals to log in to multiple tenants, Microsoft wants to remove any friction entirely.

Teams 2.1 User Interface

The new Teams client has a drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner that displays all the accounts you are signed into, as well as the tenants to which that account has guest access.

There is an indicator showing if the accounts are okay or whether they need to be re-authenticated.

A bigger feature still is the “roll-up” alert which lets you know which account is experiencing activity. By clicking the alert, the client transfers you to the correct user and security context so that you can respond appropriately.

In a nutshell, the new client means you do not have to miss any more interactions within any of your tenants, as Lee explains: “No more missed incoming call notifications, no more incorrect presence statuses, no more being out of the loop, just living in the moment, in the correct context to do what I need.

“Have I mentioned yet that this all happens quickly? You can even swap between tenants on the fly while staying in an ongoing meeting or call. Try it; it’s a little bit magical!”

Teams 2.0

Teams 2.0 is also in public preview, which it has been since March 2023, and it won’t become the default version until much later in the year.

If you bundle together the collective updates on their way from both Teams 2.0 and Teams 2.1 then there are a lot of new features to talk about.

Some of the big updates promised in Teams 2.0 include a more intuitive and powerful platform, a faster and more streamlined experience, user interface improvements, reduced demand for computing resources, Copilot AI tools, enhanced loop components, avatars, phone enhancements, and more.

There is still a lot of missing functionality, such as calling features and breakout rooms, but most of this should be added before it becomes the default client in September 2023.

 

 



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