The "new" label on the icon was meant to be in place until the classic Teams was fully phased out. Now that the new Teams client is out there globally, in late June, Microsoft announced they would be removing the NEW label on the Teams icon. As of today, this has been implemented and devices will see this happening over time.
Below is the full announcement from Microsoft regarding this change:
This MC post is a reminder about the upcoming end of support for classic Microsoft Teams and also provides an update on plans to remove the NEW label from the new Teams applications.
How this will affect your organization
Starting July 1, 2024, classic Teams will become unsupported. Users still running classic Teams will experience in-app messages informing them that the client is no longer supported. These messages are dismissible but will reappear periodically.
NEW label removal from Teams app icon
Starting mid-July to late July 2024, we are removing the NEW label from the current new Teams application. The Teams application will be named Microsoft Teams with no additional labels and this change will occur for all platforms and users. We will not change the classic Teams application, which will continue to be called Microsoft Teams classic.
- Starting October 23, 2024, the classic Teams desktop app on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and Mac OS Sierra (10.12) will reach end of availability. After that date, users will not be able to access the classic Teams desktop app on these operating systems. Users will experience non-dismissible in-app messages informing them about end of availability, with an option to use the new Teams web app on supported browsers as an alternative.
- Starting July 1, 2025, classic Teams desktop app will reach end of availability for all users. The new Teams web app will be available on supported browsers as an alternative.
- Learn more: End of availability for classic Teams client
What you need to do to prepare
Please review the list below and suggested mitigations to avoid any work interruptions for your users. (More details are available in our new Teams checklist)
Note: Please refer to our checklist for more information on new Teams requirements: Deployment checklist for new Teams client - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
Learn more: End of availability for classic Teams client