Using Microsoft Teams on a Mac could finally get a lot easier after the company confirmed that native support for the platform is on the way.
An article (opens in a new tab) on the official Microsoft 365 roadmap has revealed that the video conferencing service will soon be available as a Universal Mac binary, meaning it will run natively on Mac-based devices. at Intel and Apple Silicon.
Previously, Mac users were forced to use non-native versions of the Microsoft Teams app, using Apple's Rosetta 2 translation technology to run on machines with M1 chips, resulting in lower performance.
Microsoft Teams for Mac
The update is still listed as "in development" at the moment, but its release date is scheduled for September 2022, which means users won't have to wait too long.
The news follows a beta launch of Microsoft Teams in Apple Silicon earlier this year, as the company looked to iron out any issues or bugs before entering full development.
Users have been clamoring for a native Microsoft Teams app for Mac for some time, so including it as a universal app should also help attract users with x86 and Apple Silicon, especially now that the latter has seen the launch. of the second-generation M2 chip.
Microsoft has been trying to expand the reach of Teams for some time now as it looks to further increase the number of users.
The company recently revealed that the Teams apps are now available (opens in a new tab) outside of the platform for the first time, and users can run select programs from their Outlook and Office.com email service.
At first, only a handful of Microsoft Teams apps will be available outside of the regular client; some from Microsoft (for example, Power BI) and some from third-party providers like Zoho and Mural. However, the company promised to double down on the program, with a number of Teams apps migrating to other Microsoft spaces in the coming months.
