Microsoft Teams will soon allow users to set preferences for opening Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files from Teams and other Microsoft 365 apps. This feature, starting with Teams for Windows desktop and classic Outlook, is expected to roll out between late February and mid-March 2025. No admin action is required.
Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Users will be able to set their preference for how their cloud-hosted Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint files should open when they select links for these files from Teams. The new setting (open in a browser, desktop app, or directly in Teams) will extend to links selected in other Microsoft365 apps, starting with classic Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, for greater consistency across apps.
This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 471000.
When this will happen:
Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025.
General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025.
How this will affect your organization:
After this rollout, user can set the file open preference in Teams by following instructions in Open file links directly in Microsoft 365 desktop apps from Teams and classic Outlook - Microsoft Support. Users will be still able to set separate file open preferences for Teams only.
File open preference will apply to Word, Excel and PowerPoint links selected from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams for Windows desktop, and classic Outlook.
This change will be available by default.
What you need to do to prepare:
This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before or after the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.