From The Verge: Microsoft is preparing to remove its built-in Microsoft Teams client in Windows 11 nearly two years after the integration was first announced. The Chat functionality will be replaced with the more flexible free version of Microsoft Teams that’s also available as an app for Windows 10. Microsoft announced the changes in a new Windows 11 test build this week.
“Starting with his build, Chat is now Microsoft Teams – Free,” says Brandon LeBlanc, senior program manager at Microsoft, in a blog post. “Microsoft Teams – Free is pinned by default to the taskbar and can be unpinned like other apps on the taskbar.” We asked Microsoft to comment on why Chat is being removed, but the company hasn’t responded in time for publication.
The original Teams integration in Windows 11, named Chat, was deeply woven into the operating system. Enabled by default, the Chat app was pinned to the taskbar and you’d have to dig into Settings to remove it. Chat offers consumers a way to use Microsoft Teams to contact friends and family. It was weirdly limited to just consumers though, making it useless for the vast majority of Microsoft Teams users that use the work version of the app. Windows 11 users could also end up with two confusing versions of Teams installed to handle work calls and personal ones.
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