Microsoft Teams, which reached 145 million daily users in April 2021 from 13 million daily active users in July 2019, continues to increase its user base. One of the most important factors contributing to the growth of Microsoft Teams is its deep integration with other Office 365 applications. However, despite its increasing use, the application is not without its shortcomings.
You cannot start multiple instances of Microsoft Teams using different accounts. This restriction can be a hassle for you if you work with different organizations or share your computer with your family. Here’s what you can do to use different Microsoft Teams accounts on your computer.
Method 1: Start Personal and Professional Microsoft Teams Account at the Same Time
If you want to sign in to your personal account and professional (organization) account in Microsoft Teams, you can. At the end of 2020, Microsoft rolled out a new feature in Teams that allows users to sign in to personal accounts.
However, if you want to run multiple professional accounts or multiple personal accounts at the same time, you should use Method 2 described later in the article. Here’s how to switch between your personal and professional account in Teams:
Note: Microsoft Teams only allows signing in to one personal account and one professional account at the same time.
Stage 1: Launch the Microsoft Teams app on your computer.
Step 2: Sign in to your professional account in the app.
Stage 3: Select your profile picture when the chat interface starts.
Step 4: Select Add Personal Account from the options.
Step 5: In the new dialog, enter your personal account details (email and password) and log in.
Step 6: Teams should start your personal account as a different app on your desktop and you can pin it to your taskbar.
Note: The Professional Teams app has a different icon than the personal Teams app, so you should be able to tell the difference.
Method 2: Start Different Microsoft Teams Accounts
To have different Microsoft Teams Account, whether professional or personal, running on your computer at the same time, you can sign in to a different account in your browser or install the Microsoft Teams progressive web app (PWA) as described in the detailed steps below:
Sign in to Microsoft Teams in a Browser
The first way to run multiple Microsoft Teams accounts on your Windows 10 PC is to use your browser. This means you sign in to one account in the desktop app and sign in to another account using a browser. Here’s how to do this:
Stage 1: Launch the Microsoft Teams app on your computer.
Step 2: Sign in to the first Microsoft Teams account in the app.
Stage 3: Start your web browser and type the web address for Microsoft Teams.
Step 4: Sign in to your alternate account in Microsoft Teams for web browser.
You can now hold multiple meetings at the same time using different accounts. You can also chat on one account and have meetings on the other.
Install Microsoft Teams PWA on Windows 10
Another option is to install Microsoft Teams as a PWA. What this means is that you installed Teams as a web app on your Windows 10. To do this, you must have a chrome-based web browser.
Note: Examples of chrome-based web browsers: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera.
Here’s how to install Microsoft Teams PWA on your Windows 10 PC:
Stage 1: Launch the Microsoft Teams app on your computer.
Step 2: Sign in to the first Microsoft Teams account in the app.
Stage 3: Launch your web browser (Edge is used for illustration) and type the web address for Microsoft Teams.
Step 4: Sign in to your alternate account in Microsoft Teams for web browser.
Step 5: Click on the browser’s Settings menu.
Step 6: Select Applications.
Step 7: Select Install This Site as Application.
Step 8: Enter a name that allows you to easily identify the app, then click Install.
You now have Microsoft Teams PWA installed on your Windows 10 computer. Double-click the application icon to launch it. You can sign in using a different account than you have in the desktop app and browser. Meanwhile, you can also pin the web app to your taskbar for easy access.
Fix Microsoft Teams Sign In Error
With the methods described above, you can easily sign in to multiple Teams accounts using a single computer. However, if you run into problems signing in, read this article on fixing sign-in errors in Teams.
