If you’re one of the slowly diminishing number of internet users still relying on Internet Explorer 11 to surf the web, you’re about to lose access to a key Microsoft service. Today, Microsoft Teams stops supporting the aging browser.
The announcement that support for IE11 would end was made back in August, at which point Microsoft urged users to switch over to the Edge browser—available on every Windows 10 system whether you like it or not. Microsoft Teams won’t simply stop working tomorrow, though. Microsoft describes IE11 users having a “degraded experience or will be unable to connect to Microsoft 365 apps and services.” I suspect die-hard IE11 fans will see if they can cope with the degraded expeirience tomorrow before deciding to switch browsers.
There’s actually two more end of support dates coming up in 2021 for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams users. The first is March 9, which is when Microsoft Edge Legacy comes to its end of life. Legacy refers to the version of Edge Microsoft maintained before it switched to being a Chromium-based web browser. Switch from legacy Edge to new Edge isn’t going to be as painful as the switch from IE11 to Edge, so it’s certainly something users can easily do now and get it out of the way.
The second date to keep in mind is Aug. 17, 2021, which is when all 365 apps stop working with IE11. Again, this may end up being a degraded experience situation, but if you rely on Microsoft 365 for work, it’s definitely time to consider making the move to Edge, or any other modern browser for that matter.
