How to stop Microsoft Teams from slowing down your Mac

Microsoft Teams is very widespread in companies today. Unfortunately, on a Mac, the application seriously slows down the performance of the machine. There are solutions.

Is Microsoft Teams slowing down your Mac excessively? You are not alone in this case. The app is so badly designed that Mac M1 users see their machine become almost unusable. Logging out of Teams solves the problem, but if you absolutely need it for work, there are alternatives.

Currently, the majority of Microsoft Teams performance complaints are related to the Mac app. That being said, some people have also reported issues with the Windows app, citing a severe negative impact on the battery life and performance of the machine. Some users have reported that the app becomes unresponsive when trying to unmute to answer questions during a meeting.

These complaints come from both owners of machines with Intel chips and M1 chips. No matter how simple your machine is, unoptimized applications can slow it down. Here’s what you can do to avoid performance issues on your Mac caused by Microsoft Teams.

Teams App Installer for Microsoft Edge

One way to prevent your Teams PC from being overwhelmed is to install the service as a Microsoft Edge app. This version of Teams has all the features you need without any performance issues. Download Microsoft Edge on your computer; Once installed, open Teams and sign in to your account. Click on the icon with three small dots in the upper right corner of the window and select Applications > Install this site as an application. Click the blue “Install”button in the window that appears and select “Allow”. The (enhanced) version of Teams will now be installed on your computer.

Use Microsoft Teams from a web browser

If you don’t want to use Teams as a Microsoft Edge app, you can still use the service directly from the web browser of your choice. Just go to the Teams website and sign in. Microsoft offers a full compatibility document to find out which features are supported in which browsers. Browsers like Safari and Firefox are unfortunately missing some important features, while Chrome and Edge are compatible with most of the app’s features.