Microsoft Groups will lastly develop into one. Now provided as a complicated mixture of two separate Home windows 11 apps for work and private use, Groups will merge into one unified app that allows you to swap between totally different accounts and entry.
Presently out there for testing by way of the newest Home windows 11 Insider construct, the brand new Groups app will begin to roll out in preview mode for business customers this coming April after which launch formally with Home windows 11 24H2 for all customers later this yr.
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Groups has lengthy been a mainstay conferencing and chat app for enterprise customers. With the discharge of Home windows 11, Microsoft positioned Groups as a one-stop communications app for private use. However that led to a clumsy state of affairs with two separate apps, one for private and one other for work or faculty, every with a special structure and options.
In a weblog put up on Wednesday, Microsoft mentioned the brand new Groups app is the results of suggestions from each private {and professional} customers who mentioned they’d choose a single app that enables them to modify between totally different accounts relatively than attempt to navigate two separate apps.
As soon as the brand new, unified Groups app has launched, you can view and entry totally different accounts by deciding on your profile image within the higher proper. You may additionally be capable to extra simply be a part of conferences in Groups. When becoming a member of a gathering, simply choose the account you want to use. You may even be a part of a gathering with out having to check in.
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Any notifications you obtain in Groups will point out which account they reference. Plus, notifications for private accounts will include extra particulars so as to reply to them instantly from the notification banner.
For now, the brand new unified preview app will likely be often called Microsoft Groups (work or faculty), although the title will mechanically change to easily Microsoft Groups in future releases. On the identical time, the standalone client model referred to as Microsoft Groups (free) will likely be faraway from Home windows.
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For the reason that app will likely be a preview launch initially, it’s going to differ in some methods from the present free Groups model and the work or faculty version. The present adjustments and any extra ones will stay till Groups is usually out there for all business customers in Might. For enterprise and IT directors, the method sounds pretty seamless. Customers will proceed to signal into Groups with their regular accounts, and no new app will should be put in.