Microsoft Teams’ new chat and channels experience, launched in May 2025, delivers up to 40% faster chat revisits and 17% quicker switches into chats. Built with optimized GraphQL, React, and performance gates, it ensures seamless, snappy collaboration for millions daily. Unique :
Microsoft Teams Unveils a Faster Chat and Channels Experience
Microsoft Teams just rolled out a major update to its chat and channels experience, focusing heavily on performance. Millions rely on Teams daily, so speed and smoothness are mission-critical. The new design promises a snappier, more efficient collaboration platform.
What’s New: A Ground-Up Redesign
The Teams team rebuilt the left rail from scratch, addressing long-standing performance bottlenecks. By redesigning the GraphQL schema, they now fetch all necessary data in a single request. This reduces CPU load and speeds up rendering.
“We rebuilt the left rail from the ground up to reduce rendering to a single pass, freeing up the main thread.” – Microsoft Teams Engineering Team
They also introduced the Relay GraphQL client, which helps product teams build scalable features with built-in guardrails. Thin React components now focus purely on rendering, making the UI more modular and easier to update.
Major Performance Boosts: Faster Chat Switching and Revisits
Switching into the Chat area is now 17% faster at the 95th percentile, a huge win given users perform this action hundreds of millions of times daily. The update fixed legacy data-fetching patterns that caused staggered rendering and unnecessary overhead.
Even more impressive, chat revisits—switching back to a recently opened chat—are now up to 40% faster. This was achieved by eliminating nested state updates that blocked the main thread and caused multiple renders.
“Chat revisits became up to 40% faster by removing nested state updates that interrupted the render cycle.” – Microsoft Teams Engineering Team
They also tackled layout shifts caused by delayed state updates, ensuring UI elements like pinned messages stay put for a smoother experience.
Key Learnings for Developers
- Avoid nested state updates during large render cycles to prevent main thread blocking.
- Rendering should not depend on effects; this often signals deeper design issues.
- Don’t sync props to state via effects, as it leads to unnecessary re-renders.
Keeping Performance Consistent: Multi-Layered Defense
Building speed is just the start. Microsoft uses performance gates, telemetry monitoring, and profiling sessions to keep Teams running smoothly.
Performance gates run tests on every code check-in, catching regressions early. Telemetry alerts teams if latency spikes after updates. Regular profiling digs deep into traces, especially on low-end devices, to find new optimization chances.
Why This Matters to Tech Enthusiasts
Microsoft’s approach shows how modern apps can balance rich features with blazing speed. By rethinking data fetching and rendering, Teams delivers a seamless experience without hogging resources.
For developers, the lessons here are gold: smart data handling, lean UI components, and rigorous testing keep apps responsive at scale.
Final Thoughts
The new Teams chat and channels update is a game-changer for productivity and collaboration. As Microsoft continues refining performance, users can expect a faster, smoother experience that keeps pace with their busy workflows.
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