Microsoft Teams Supports Targeted (First) Release Similar to SharePoint, OneDrive and some features in Exchange Online

Microsoft Teams uses modern Lifecycle management to keep an update of the client up to date. So, there is no manual action from IT Admins on this. You can check the divinity of your Teams client usage through CQD to better understand.

In terms of feature release, Microsoft follows two methods to release the updates,

1. Standard Release.
2. Targeted (First) Release.

Standard Release - This is the default release method organization-wide. This release has fully tested features by the Features Team and Microsoft 365 Team, including Microsoft employees.

Targeted Release -

Targeted release allows IT Admins & Power Users to access pre-release features before they become available to everyone worldwide through standard release. Using the Targeted release option, you can validate the features and share the feedback with Microsoft and create training documents etc.

Microsoft Release Management -

Microsoft is using a 5-stage product update rolling update process. In the first stage, Microsoft’s Feature Team will test and validate the changes. In the next 2 & 3  stages, Microsoft 365 Feature Team and the entire Microsoft Team will get to test and use these new updates. In the 4th & 5th stages, a targeted release will take place, and after validating and improving quality based on feedback from each stage, the final worldwide release will happen.

Microsoft Teams Update Cycle -

Microsoft Teams Desktop client & Web app updates typically start on the 4th Monday of each month and are rolled out gradually to customers throughout the remainder of the week. If a critical update is required, Teams will bypass this schedule and release the update as soon as it’s available.

Starting April'2023 (MC510331), Microsoft also supports Targeted Release updates for Microsoft Teams in addition to OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange Online features.

IT Admins have full control to configure this option to choose who is allowed to access early access features. There are 3 options available for Global Admin to configure the targeted release,

1. Standard release for everyone - This is the default and recommended for the entire organization. 
2. Targeted release for everyone - It's not recommended for organizations having more than 300 users. You should use the Test subscription to validate.
3. Target release for selected users - It's a recommended option for organizations to access early features for a specific group of IT Admins & Power Users to validate, share feedback, prepare user training documents, go through security & compliance reviews etc.

Once the user is assigned to the Targeted release, replication will take 24 hours, and then the user will start using the early access features.

The targeted release provides early feature access to all the Microsoft 365 apps if you want to control early access only to Microsoft Teams, you can configure the Teams Update Policy and assign the policy to a specific group of users.

Microsoft Teams Update Policy -

Login to Microsoft Teams Admin Center, navigate to Teams, select "Teams Update Policy" and choose the existing Global policy if you want to allow everyone in the company to access earlier features or Create a New Policy.

In the policy under "Allow public preview" select "Enabled".

The changes take 24 hours for replication. Once replicated, you and the users will see the "Public Preview" option under Profile Settings ---> About --->Public preview. Upon selection, the Teams client will switch to Public Preview mode to access early features.