Microsoft on Monday said that the Internet Explorer 11 users will either witness “degraded experience” or will face connectivity issues when connecting to Microsoft 365 apps and services beginning November, 2020. The company said that the Microsoft Teams web app will not support Internet Explorer 11 from November 30, 2020 with the remaining Microsoft 365 apps and services halting support to Internet Explorer 11 on August 17, 2021. Microsoft said that it believes that the users “will get the most out of Microsoft 365 when using the new Microsoft Edge.” It has to be noted that the new Microsoft Edge was unveiled in early 2020 after months of testing. The company built the new Edge browser on the Chromium open source engine similar to Google Chrome.
Internet Explorer 11 Not “Going Away”
Microsoft said that the “degraded experience” when attempting to connect to the Microsoft 365 apps and services on the Internet Explorer 11 includes “certain features” ceasing to work.
The company said that the users have been using Internet Explorer 11 since 2013 “when the online environment was much less sophisticated than the landscape today.” Microsoft said that the new browsers including the new Microsoft Edge have delivered “more innovative online experiences.”
“We believe that Microsoft 365 subscribers, in both consumer and commercial contexts, will be well served with this change through faster and more responsive web access to greater sets of features in everyday toolsets like Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and more,” Microsoft said in the release on Monday.
Crucially, Microsoft highlights that the development only affects the users accessing Microsoft 365 apps and services through the Internet Explorer 11 browser.
“We want to be clear that IE 11 [Internet Explorer 11] isn’t going away and that our customers’ own legacy IE 11 apps and investments will continue to work,” Microsoft said. “Customers have made business-critical investments in IE 11 legacy apps and we respect that those apps are still functioning.”
Microsoft said that the new Microsoft Edge with the Internet Explorer mode enables users to “experience” the “modern web” in one tab while accessing a “business-critical” legacy Internet Explorer 11 app in another tab.
Microsoft to Stop Security Updates to Legacy Edge Browser
The company also highlighted that the legacy version of the Microsoft Edge browser will no longer receive security updates beginning March 9, 2021. Microsoft highlighted that the new Windows 10 devices and future Windows updates will contain the new Microsoft Edge browser.
“Now that we’ve shipped the new Microsoft Edge, and upgraded most of our Windows 10 customers to the new browser, we’re ending support for the Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop app on March 9, 2021,” Microsoft said.
Further, Microsoft said that the apps and sites created for the legacy Microsoft Edge browser will function with the new Microsoft Edge.
