August 22, 2025
| By When we set out to build the new Meet tab in Microsoft Teams Free, our goal was simple: create a seamless hub for meetings that felt intuitive, powerful, and personal. But getting there wasn’t just about internal design reviews or telemetry, it was about listening to our users. And no group was more instrumental in shaping the final experience than our Teams Insiders.
Listening Early, Iterating Fast
The Meet tab began as a concept to unify meeting creation, scheduling, and joining into a single, accessible space. From the earliest builds, Teams Insiders were invited to test the experience and share feedback. Their insights helped us identify friction points that weren’t obvious from telemetry alone:
- Confusion around meeting links: Users weren’t sure what to do after copying a link, or why the default link behaved differently than expected.
- App bar placement: Nearly 2/3 of Insiders preferred a single Meet app over separate Calendar and Meet tabs, guiding our decision to consolidate the experience.
- Icon clarity: While most users liked the camera icon, 11% suggested alternatives that helped us refine visual cues for accessibility and recognition.
Real Usage, Real Impact
We didn’t just ask for opinions. Instead, we studied how Insiders used the Meet tab in real scenarios. A survey of 211 participants revealed that users connected with an average of two different types of groups and used Teams Free meetings for a variety of purposes, from family catchups to freelance collaborations. This diversity helped us ensure the Meet tab worked for everyone, not just traditional business users.
Polishing the Experience
Insider feedback led to several key improvements before general release:
- Persistent meeting links: We added clearer controls and naming options to help users manage recurring meetings.
- Improved onboarding: The Meet tab now includes contextual tips and streamlined flows for first-time users.
- Telemetry-driven refinements: We tracked metrics like meeting minutes, link creation, and join rates to validate usability improvements.
A Community That Builds with Us
The Teams Insider program isn’t just a preview; it is a partnership. With hundreds of thousands of daily users and a dedicated Teams Insider Community, we were able to catch bugs early, refine features quickly, and ship a Meet tab that truly reflects user needs.
To every Insider who used the feature, who sent feedback, joined a call, or shared a suggestion: Thank you! The Meet tab is better because of you.
Want to help shape what’s next? Join the Teams Insider Program and be part of the journey.
You share, we listen.
We are always grateful to receive your feedback and suggestions to make Teams better.
- Report bugs and glitches by sending us relevant feedback using the in-app form. Please include diagnostic logs and screenshots to help us to investigate your issue. Learn more how to send feedback or suggest a feature in Teams Free
- If you have suggestions for new features or changes to the existing ones, you can vote and submit ideas on Microsoft Teams Free Feedback Portal.
- In Teams Insider Community you can share feedback and engage directly with the product team. You can also join regular calls to hear about upcoming improvements and more. Learn more and join Teams Insider Community
