Over the past few months, I’ve started to notice a trend around Microsoft’s announcements and for me, they all lead to a single path. From changes in the new Outlook for Windows, Planner and the new Microsoft Team client built in WebView2, they are all now Progressive Web Applications……but does this mean Microsoft are built a new Operating System?
What is a Progressive Web Application?
My thinking starts with Progressive Web Applications (or PWA for short) and we need to start to look at what these are before anything else.
Progressive Web Applications are built in common web technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript and WebAssemble. With these technologies it means PWAs can run on Windows, Mac, tablet and mobile as all these operating systems support web technologies. It usually means that the creator of the PWA can update their code once and the new features are delivered to all users. If I was building an application myself today, I would be looking to develop them in these technologies.
Microsoft and Progressive Web Applications
As Microsoft have released more innovations in cloud applications, we have seen the advances of Microsoft Teams and Office running in the cloud allowing them to run on both Windows and Mac but also on mobile devices fairly seamlessly.
Microsoft have been providing us with Progressive Web Applications for several years with Microsoft Office Online. Now that Microsoft Teams has been rebuilt into new WebView2 standards, Microsoft have actively told us that this client version is available for Web, Mac and Windows.
The new Outlook for Windows is an example of a PWA too where you can install the application on your machine, and it run very similarly to the Outlook we all love. At this moment in time it does not support offline mode but that is coming soon (roadmap here) and this is the number of feature at this moment in time. The application runs almost equal to the cloud version of Outlook if you were to run this from a browser. It’s amazing that we can now even run websites and applications in an Offline view.
Microsoft Exemplar PWAs
Another example is around the recent announcements of OneDrive. Navigating OneDrive in the browser comes with many features and Microsoft even announced more of these at their event in October 2023. The website that is OneDrive where you can filter, search, see what is shared with you (rather than just a folder structure in File Explorer) is becoming a Progressive Web Application and will soon offer Offline mode, allowing you to view this in the same way as you would do online/in a browser.
As a final example, at the recent Microsoft Ignite Conference (November 2023), Microsoft announced the new updates to Microsoft Planner allowing you to have a single view of all your tasks in one location which are either set by yourself or within a team/loop workshop. You guessed it, Microsoft announced that Planner is also a Progressive Web Application that you can view within Microsoft Teams.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=OneDrive&searchterms=168618
Teams as a Platform
If you’ve spent some time with me recently, you would have heard me talking a lot about Teams as a Platform (and Copilot of course) and how bringing all your applications into a single place that is Microsoft Teams can enable better adoption of what you integrate. I don’t just mean Viva Connections but anything that your organisations uses such as a website including your intranet, HR solutions, learning and development and anything else that is just a website. There is more that you can integrate with Microsoft Teams but it shows how good the application integration now is within Teams. When thinking about integrating with Teams, first keep it simple like a website that just opens as a Teams application down the left hand side before then looking at how you could use bots or channel feeds (or even Microsoft Copilot Studio).
Thinking with Teams as a platform ensures that wherever you open Microsoft Teams on Windows, Mac, Tablet or mobile, you have the same applications and experience, and this can only be great for our end users.
Teams as an Operating System
Microsoft have been competing with Google Chromebooks for some time and have never been able to get to the pricing that Google have because of the system requirements around Windows 10, Windows 11 or even Windows 11 SE. The entry price of these devices is competitive, but Google and their partners are just so good at that price.
As you have read above, Microsoft Teams and Progressive Web Applications are key to Microsoft’s future, allowing people to have seamless experiences both when connected to the internet and offline. But now imagine Microsoft Teams being the operating system to your laptop. You turn your device one it opens into Microsoft Teams with your applications down the left hand side including Outlook, OneDrive, Teams and even telephony. The office applications are available to you as an offline feature and you’ve intregrated other applications you use across the organisation. There’s the whole app model for Microsoft Teams so you can integrate your own applications or purchase third party. And lets not forget Copilot for Microsoft 365 all runs as a web only set of feature too bringing AI to Office and Teams.
Microsoft bringing out a light weight operating system would also be better from a cyber point of view. As Windows has grown in features, it has more vulnerabilities and even though Microsoft are quick to resolving issues and preforming critical fixes, a Teams OS would need less features to run as an offline web solution. Could Teams OS even be a mobile phone?!
Conclusion
I would love Microsoft to release a Teams OS. Allowing organisations and education to take advantage of older spec machines to support call centres or child in the classroom.
To: Microsoft, If I am right and you are bringing us a Teams OS – it is very much welcomed.