According to a roadmap update, you’ll soon be able to download Microsoft Teams through the Microsoft Store embedded in Windows. Yes, you read that correctly. Until now, Microsoft’s work communications app was not available in its own store; it had to be downloaded via the web or installed alongside the rest of Office 365.
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Microsoft has finally added Teams to its own online store
According to the roadmap, Teams will be accessible in the store for both Windows 10 and 11 early next month. The version for Windows 10 will be compatible with personal, work, and school accounts, whereas the version for Windows 11 will only be functional with work and school accounts. Windows 11 already includes a version of Teams that is intended to be used for communicating with friends and family using a personal account, rather than as a Slack replacement.
Microsoft promised Teams for its store when it redesigned the Microsoft Store last year. That’s also when it was announced that you’d be able to install Android apps on Windows 11 through the Amazon app store — a capability that’s ironically given you the ability to download Teams from an app store on your Windows machine for a few months as long as you were willing to use the mobile version.
It’s encouraging to see Microsoft attempting to make it easier for people who require it to install Teams on Windows. And, as a dual PC/Mac user, I’m glad to learn that it’s also testing an Apple Silicon-native version of Teams; maybe this will assist with the app’s incredibly slow launch timings on M1 Macs.
