More than two years after Apple announced the transition from Intel to Apple Silicon for Mac, Microsoft Teams is finally updated to run natively on those Macs. The company announced the rollout in a blog post, saying it was “committed to innovation and committed to the Mac.”
Somewhat shockingly, even with a two-year delay, Microsoft says this update will be rolling out “in increments” to customers over the next few months. So even if Microsoft Teams is running on an Apple Silicon Mac, you won’t necessarily be getting this update anytime soon.
However, once the update hits your Microsoft Teams app, the company says you can expect a “significant performance boost” as well as efficiency improvements. Microsoft wrote the following in a blog post published today:
We are rolling out a production universal binary version of Teams, indicating that it will run natively on the entire Mac lineup, including those with Apple silicon. For Mac users, this indicates a significant increase in performance, ensuring efficient use of device resources and an optimized Teams experience even when using multiple high-resolution monitors during calls or meetings.
Microsoft is committed to innovation and to the Mac, so we’re excited to bring this to our Mac users. All Mac users will be automatically upgraded to their most recent update to Teams. The generally available (GA) version of the native Teams app on Mac with Apple Silicon will be rolling out to customers gradually over the next few months.
Microsoft began beta testing a version of Teams optimized for Apple Silicon in April. As a reminder, Macs powered by Apple Silicon can run three different types of applications:
- iPhone and iPad apps on Mac via the Mac App Store
- Apps that run through Rosetta 2 translation, which allows users to run apps designed for Intel Macs on Apple Silicon, with apps sometimes running better in Rosetta with M1 than with Intel, according to Apple
- Universal apps are apps designed for Apple Silicon and Intel processors and can be downloaded from the Mac App Store or from the web.
Once fully released, this new version of Microsoft Teams will be a “universal” binary, indicating that the same version can run natively on Apple Silicon-powered Macs as well as Intel machines. You may have to wait a few months before it reaches your devices.
