Slowly but surely, popular apps are updating to run on Macs with Apple Silicon chipsets, without the need for Apple’s slower compatibility layer. Now, Microsoft Teams has officially joined the party.
Microsoft revealed in a blog post today, “we are rolling out a production grade universal binary version of Teams, which means it will run natively on the entire Mac lineup, including those with Apple silicon. For Mac users, this means a significant boost in performance, ensuring efficient use of device resources and an optimized Teams experience even when using multiple high-resolution monitors during calls or meetings.”
The latest Mac computers with Apple’s own Silicon chipsets, like the new M2 MacBook Air or 24-inch iMac, are still compatible with software created for older Intel-based Macs using the ‘Rosetta 2’ compatibility layer. However, software running in Rosetta 2 is slower and consumes more battery than native software, which is partially why Teams on Mac has not been a great experience.
Most of Apple’s Mac computers now use M1 or M2 chipsets, starting with the introduction of the M1-powered MacBook Air and Mac Mini in 2020, so there aren’t many popular applications left that are still limited to the Rosetta compatibility layer. Recently, OneDrive was updated for Apple Silicon in February, Adobe made a native version of After Effects in April, Discord was upgraded in March, and ExpressVPN was just updated yesterday.
Thankfully, Microsoft only has a few applications and services yet that aren’t updated for Apple Silicon. The main holdout at this point seems to be Skype, which has fallen behind over the past few years as Microsoft focuses on Teams.
