Demystifying Microsoft Teams Rooms (Windows) application releases

Summary:

Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows is a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) application and released through Windows store automatically whenever a new application update is available. Before Microsoft Teams, all features were released to customers via the Windows store. With Microsoft Teams being a modern online service, features that are specific to Teams meetings are released through Teams web app. Read more on Teams updates – Microsoft Teams.

The Teams Rooms UWP application and the Teams web app update themselves automatically whenever a new update is available through Windows Store or through the Teams web delivery service. Manual updates for the UWP app are supported for customers in environments where Microsoft Store isn’t available. For guidance on updating manually, see Manually update a Microsoft Teams Rooms device.

Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Teams Rooms products are governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy. It’s expected that users will remain on the most up-to-date version of the Teams Room client. Auto-updates ensure that users have the latest capabilities, performance enhancements, security, and service reliability. It’s not recommended to turn off Auto-updates for Windows store.

What’s included in Teams Room UWP app

Teams Rooms UWP app contains core room experiences on touch consoles, integration with audio and video peripherals, application lifecycle, and device lockdown. The application contains various clients to enable Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, and Third-party meetings experiences. In addition to specific clients, the application also includes device agents for communication with Teams admin center for device health and monitoring, reporting, and remote management.

The Teams Room UWP application updates quarterly after rigorous internal testing and validation through our Technology Adoption Program (TAP). App release through Windows store uses controlled rollout and scope is broadened only after confirming key performance indicators for the quality of release. This process can take up to 5 business days or more if sufficient quality data isn’t present, or due to the Windows application distribution and delivery mechanism. All Teams Rooms on Windows devices come pre-configured to automatically receive application updates through Windows store and manual intervention is not needed.

Teams web app

Most Teams meetings and calling functionality in Teams rooms is powered through the Microsoft Teams web app. The Teams web app is hosted within the Microsoft Teams client included with the Teams rooms UWP app.

To understand it better, you can think of the Teams client included in the Teams room application as a customized version of the Teams desktop client. A specific Teams desktop client version is pinned in the Teams room application. Teams desktop client provides app level functions, like user settings for Teams meetings, policies, theme, and other Teams apps. The Teams web app is hosted within it to provide all Teams meetings and calling functionality. All feature updates in Teams require a web app update.

Although the Teams web app updates are not new and has been used since Teams meetings were supported in Teams Rooms, it is more obvious now since most features are delivered through the Teams web app. Features delivered through Teams web app goes through rigorous internal testing and validation through our Technology Adoption Program (TAP). Customers can also sign up for public preview for Teams web app features and provide feedback.

Validating features and upcoming releases

All new features or updates to existing features are added to the Microsoft 365 Public roadmap to provide advance notice to customers. In addition, Microsoft 365 Message Center posts are available at least 30 days in advance of feature availability. These Message Center posts contain details of features and impact on user experience and are a great way to learn more about upcoming changes.

To enable Teams Rooms customers to validate upcoming features and provide feedback, Teams Rooms will soon be introducing a public preview program. This program is an extension to the Microsoft Teams desktop client public preview program and will work in a similar way. Learn more about Public preview in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs. Teams rooms public preview announcement and a detailed documentation for enrolling into Teams room public preview will also be made available at that time. If you’re not part of the Microsoft Teams Technology Adoption Program (TAP), it’s highly recommended to consider enrolling a few Teams Rooms on Windows devices to the public preview program so you can get an early preview of what’s coming as well as provide feedback to Microsoft.

You can find link to MTR release notes here.

Date: 2022-02-05 00:44:26Z
Link: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/demystifying-microsoft-teams-rooms-windows-application-releases/ba-p/3119033