On a recent engagement, there was a need for me to be involved in multiple teams conversations and collaboration activities with three different organisations, all using Microsoft Teams.
If you’ve tried this yourself you’ll find that trying to open two instances of the desktop app (holding down CTRL) doesn’t work, however, if you only need a second separate instance of Teams you could get away with using the desktop app to access one Microsoft Teams organisation and then use the web version to access another Microsoft Teams instance.
It’s a bit clunky though. Especially if the environment you are using to access this is configured with Single sign-on (SSO) it will log the browser version also with the same Microsoft Teams used on the desktop app, the way around is to open an InPrivate browser.
The good news is with the Chromium version of Microsoft Edge (available for free download here) you now have the benefit of creating both apps and multiple profiles which are ideal when needing to operate with different Office tenants.
The App Method – Ideal when only a maximum of two instances are required (one including the desktop version of Teams).
Open Microsoft Edge and navigate to https://teams.microsoft.com and login to the second instance.
On the drop-down menu, click apps and click install this site as an app and provide a unique name.
This will add into the app list, but what if you wanted a shortcut on your desktop or Start Menu.
Easy just go back to the Apps menu in Edge and select Manage Apps, a list of your apps will be shown. Right-Click the newly created Microsoft Teams apps and click “Pin to”.
Choose whether you want to Pin the app to either the desktop or start menu or both.
The shortcut should now appear and hey presto you now have a separate instance running alongside the desktop Microsoft Teams app.
The Profile Method – Three or more instances required (one including the desktop version of Teams)
Select your Profile, click add a profile.
Select Add and click confirm. At this point, you also have the option to create a new Microsoft account or workplace/school account if you require the sync capabilities.
If you wish to create a profile name, go back to the profile icon, manage profile settings, It will use a default name of Profile *. Click the ellipsis
Provide a name and choose an icon.
Once in the new profile, navigate to https://teams.microsoft.com and login to the second instance.
On the drop down menu, click apps and click ‘install this site as an app’ and provide a name for the second Microsoft Teams you wish to access.
You can now create as many profiles as you need which in return will then allow you to run multiple instances of Microsoft Teams.
Follow the previous steps to create a third profile and so on and by the end of it you’ll then have the ability to login to multiple Microsoft Teams tenants.
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