By

Mike Moore

published about 1 hour ago

Native Apple Silicon support is finally coming to Microsoft Teams

(Image credit: Shutterstock / monticello)

Using Microsoft Teams on a Mac could finally be a lot more straightforward after the company confirmed native support for the platform is in the works.

A post (opens in new tab) on the official Microsoft 365 roadmap has revealed that the video conferencing service will soon come as a Universal Binary Mac, meaning it will run natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon based Mac devices.

Previously, Mac users have been forced to use non-native versions of the Microsoft Teams app, using Apple's Rosetta 2 translation tech to operate on machines with M1 chips, causing a drop-off in performance.

Microsoft Teams for Mac

The update is still listed as "in development" for the time being, but has an expected release date of September 2022, meaning users won't have too long to wait.

The news follows a beta for Microsoft Teams on Apple Silicon earlier this year as the company looked to iron out any issues or bugs before entering full development. 

Users have been clamoring for some time for a Mac-native Microsoft Teams app, so the fact it is listed as a Universal app should also help appeal to users with both x86 and Apple Silicon, particularly now the latter has seen the second-generation M2 chip released.

Microsoft has been attempting to widen the reach of Teams for some time now as it looks to boost user numbers even further.

The company recently revealed Teams applications are now available (opens in new tab) outside of the platform for the first time, with users able to run some programs from within its email service Outlook and Office.com.

At first, only a handful of Microsoft Teams apps will be available outside the regular client; some from Microsoft itself (e.g. Power BI) and some from third-party vendors like Zoho and Mural. However, the company has promised to double down on the program, with a raft of Teams apps migrating to other Microsoft spaces in the months to come.

• Check out our list of the best collaboration tools (opens in new tab) out there

Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.

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