A First Look at MS Teams 2.0 – Best Practices for KUDO Users

With 280 million daily active users as of 2023 – 60% of whom are based in the United States – MS Teams is one of the world’s most trusted video-conferencing apps. And now, in the ramp up to the release of Windows 11, a new version of MS Teams, Microsoft Teams 2.0, is becoming available to early adopters.

While the new MS Teams 2.0 seems poised to take collaboration and productivity to new heights, anyone who is familiar with software release lifecycle knows that iterations often involve some limitations and the need for fixes. So we have asked ourselves: what are the implications for KUDO users if you choose to upgrade now?

Microsoft’s leadership in the business world – where the focus on productivity and growth is at its highest – is unquestionable. There are over 1 million companies in the world that use Microsoft Teams for communication, including 91 out of 100 Fortune companies.

The same values of growth and productivity are at the core of what we do at KUDO, combining human and AI power into multilingual solutions that enable people to communicate effortlessly in any language – wherever they are. As a result of this shared vision, ourpartnership with Microsoft Teams has been pivotal for organizations across the globe to break down language barriers and enable better communication.

Thanks to a native integration between the two systems, KUDO can seamlessly support any type of meeting set on MS Teams for up to 32 languages per meeting, directly booking interpreters from our community of 12000+ vetted professionals. The release of KUDO’s patented AI Speech Translator marked an even more decisive step in increasing meeting accessibility. Clients can now access AI-powered interpretation and captions in all the languages currently available within the solution, increasing global reach and participation rate.

MS Teams 2.0 marks a major shift for Microsoft users: it will be possible to join meetings two times faster than with the current version, using 50% less memory, and will put in place a more stringent content security policy to protect businesses from cyber-attacks. However, while there’s much to look forward to with MS Teams 2.0, there’s an important caveat for users who leverage third-party applications: in its first release, MS Teams 2.0 will initially not support third-party apps. This means that the early release of the software will not include third-party applications like the KUDO integration.

Clearly, the decision to upgrade depends on your company’s specific needs and goals. However, if your team relies heavily on KUDO, it would be wise to hold off on updating to MS Teams 2.0 until these capabilities are re-integrated. We recommend that our users keep an eye out for Microsoft’s updates regarding third-party integrations, and we strongly recommend that you join our monthly client-exclusive webinars, where we share all relevant updates about product changes and integrations.

“Caution” Does Not Mean “Forever”

Despite the initial hiccups with third-party apps, Microsoft always places high value in the customization and integration capabilities that third-party apps offer. So, we’re optimistic that Microsoft will bring back third-party app integration in future updates, as they have in the past. After all, technology is always evolving, so “caution” does not mean “forever”.

From our discussions with the MS Teams product team, it is expected that an update will be released by the end of the year. Follow the official New MS Teams website directly or sign up to our newsletter to stay up-to-date.