Sometimes, your co-workers will get an update for Microsoft Teams before you, which can cause feature envy at best and productivity mismatches at worst. Microsoft has now published an article that tells you why this strange occurrence happens and what it means going forward.
Microsoft’s Explanation for the Teams Feature Desync
Microsoft explains everything on the Tech Community website. As it turns out, Microsoft constantly gets questions on why two people can have the same version of Teams as each other, but one will see features that the other doesn’t have.
This odd occurrence happens because Microsoft sends out updates in two waves. On the first wave, Microsoft begins slowly updating everyone’s copy of Teams, but all of the new features introduced in the update are locked away for the time being.
Microsoft then double-checks to ensure the new update doesn’t mess with anything. They use metrics and scorecards to see how the update affects people’s computers and fix any problems.
Once the update is rolled out, Microsoft begins slowly enabling the features on a few copies of Teams. The company then tracks how well the new features are performing and ensures that they’re not doing more harm than good. This is why, for instance, some people will get Yammer notifications on Teams while others are left without.
Once Microsoft is confident that the enabled features are performing well, they can begin turning the feature on for more people. This process continues until everyone has all the features enabled.
This tactic’s main benefit is that it prevents one bad update from souring everyone’s copies of Teams. If Microsoft spots something wrong with an update, it can roll it back, and most users won’t notice anything different.
This tactic’s downside is that different people in the same organization will have different features on their Teams. This makes it confusing when a Teams organizer wants to use a feature they can see, but nobody else in the meeting has yet.
The Problem With Microsoft’s Update Model
While this seems like a great way to ensure a bad update doesn’t ruin everyone’s day, company owners aren’t happy with Microsoft deciding which employee gets the new features and which has to go without for a few days. As Petri X says in the comment section:
… I cannot see those feature flags from anywhere (?), I cannot see on which rings we are, and I have no possibilities to see when certain feature rollout is starting to our end users. Are you planning to share any visibility to this, or is this just a cost we need to pay when using the cloud services?
As such, it’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft releases an update that allows organizations to put employees on the same version of Teams with the same levels of features enabled.
Will Microsoft Keep Teams in Sync With Teams?
If you’ve ever wondered why some people get features in Microsoft Teams before you, there’s a good chance you’ve got the update already. Unfortunately, you need to wait for Microsoft to get more diagnostics on the update before you can get it yourself.
Speaking of updates, Microsoft will soon roll out the ability to promote anonymous Teams users to presenter status. If your teammates get this feature while you’re stuck without it, now you know why.
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