Microsoft Teams allows team members in dispersed locations to communicate, share information, and work together in a common space. Video conferencing, one-to-one and team chats, document collaboration, conversation threads, and more make Microsoft Teams your one-stop shop for your communication and collaboration needs.
Here's a breakdown of the communication tools within Teams.
Chat
While Conversation Threads are public Posts in Channels, Chats are just between you and someone else (or a small group of added people). They are similar to the instant messaging feature in Skype for Business.
Learn more about Chat in Microsoft Teams.
@mentions
If you want to get someone's attention in a Channel Conversation thread or a chat, @mention them. Just type @ before their name and select them from the menu that displays. Your teammate will receive a notification with a link to go directly to the point where they were mentioned in the conversation.
Learn more about using @mentions to get someone's attention in Microsoft Teams.
Notifications
Manage email notifications
Under the Email heading, select the drop-down menu next to Missed activity emails, choose how frequently you receive emails for a missed activity in Microsoft Teams, or turn them off entirely.
Manage the appearance and sound of notifications
You have two options for managing the appearance and sound of your Teams notifications.
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To see a preview of the message you are being notified of, toggle Show message preview to off or on.
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To turn off or turn on notification sounds, toggle Play sound for notifications to off or on.
Manage notifications from Activity
Go to Activity on the left side of Teams, hover over the notification that you want to change, and then select More options ...
From here, mark a notification as read or unread, and on channel notifications, you can adjust what kind of activity you get notified about for that specific channel.
Customize channel notifications
- To be notified about all your shown channels, select All activity.
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To be notified only when you are @mentioned or when you receive replies to your messages in channels, select Mentions & replies.
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For the most control over your channel notifications, select Custom.
Custom notifications
From here, choose what notifications you receive.
Banner and feed will send notifications to your device and to Activity at the top left of the Teams app. Feed will skip sending notifications to your desktop and will only show up in your activity feed.
Want fewer notifications from a channel? You can turn them off from here as well.
Below are the different types of settings you'll find in channel notifications:
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All new posts will notify you each time someone starts a new conversation in the channel
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Include all replies will notify you any time someone replies to a conversation
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Channel mentions will notify you whenever someone @mentions the channel
FYI, Reset to default will turn on notifications for each item and will notify you in your activity feed and send desktop banner notifications.
To further customize your notification settings, see Manage notifications in Teams.
Customize all other notifications
Choose the Edit button next to the category to customize how you receive notifications for that category.
Categories include Chat, Meetings, People, and Other.
Only get notifications in the app
Select Edit next to Chat, then choose Only show in feed for a specific category. All notifications for that type of activity will be sent to Activity, which you can find at the top left corner of Teams.
Note: The app will still flash on the desktop taskbar when notifications arrive, but no pop-up will show on your desktop.
Get notified in the app and on desktop
Select Banner and feed to receive notifications as both a desktop notification and as an alert in Activity.
Note: In Windows, notification banners will show in the bottom right of your screen. In macOS, they show in the top right.
Turn off notifications for specific conversations
In a channel conversation, go to the top right corner of the original message and select More options ... > Turn off notifications.
As with muting a chat, turning off notifications to a channel conversation will stop updates for that specific conversation.
Note: You'll still receive notifications if someone directly @mentions you.
