Windows 11 Chat app has our readers split, but most seem open to trying it

Most of our polled readers will try the new Chat app on Windows 11, but a sizable group doesn't plan to use it at all.

Windows 11, build 22000.100 brought support for the new Chat experience powered by Microsoft Teams. While the feature is limited in its current form, we took its initial rollout as a chance to see if people are interested in using it. Over the weekend, we ran a poll on if people will use the Windows 11 Teams Chat app.

Based on the initial surge of votes, the majority of people are willing to try the Chat app, but a surprisingly large group of people don't plan to use it at all. At the time of publication, just under 33% of polled people will try out the Chat app on Windows 11. Over 29% of participants said that they won't use the app at all.

A contingent of loyal Teams users (16.7%) said that the Chat app will be their main app for communication. Just under 14% of voters said that they'll use it occasionally. Only 7.17% of voters said that they would rarely use it.

Comments responding to our poll piece raised some interesting points about the Chat app. "Ladydias" said, "We already use Teams with my friends and family and it works well enough, but the system of having to differentiate between a Team and a Chat is confusing for new users."

Reader "aXross" compared the Chat app with another Windows experience in the Taskbar:

This is a great feature actually, though sadly most of my family and friends may have a hard time to use another messaging services when most of my Families and Friends use Facebook Messenger and some Friends use Discord especially for gaming. This is why the failed Windows 10 People Bar had a really huge potential but missed due to lack of support from Microsoft and from major 3rd-party developers (maybe lack of partnering or push as well).

With Windows 11 months away from release, we can't fully judge the Chat app. Based on initial impressions, it seems that most people will at least give it a try.

We'll keep the poll open to see if it trends in another direction as more people see it. Perhaps the weekday warriors feel differently about the Chat app compared to the weekend voters.