How to use Microsoft Teams group chat.

Inside of Microsoft Teams, there are two main chat areas. The first is the “Chat” tab. This is where you will have one-to-one chat. This will work just like you are used to with Skype. The second area is the “Teams” tab. This is closer to the group chat that we had in Skype, but has much more functionality. Inside of the “Teams” sections, there are two different types of groups. There are teams and channels. Channels are always a subset of a team. Think of teams as a department and channels as a project or specific discussion. Each team will have at minimum one channel called General, but more can be added by anyone. Users are assigned to specific teams and can then favorite any of the channels under that team. Any member of the team can view the channel discussions, but if you want to receive ANY notifications from that channel you must favorite it by clicking on the star next to the name.

The way Microsoft Teams is currently setup, you will not receive a notification if there is a comment made within one of the team’s channels. The option to adjust this behavior is planned for a future release. When commenting within a channel, you have a few options to ensure that notifications are sent, all of which use the @ feature. First, you can mention the team using @team, which will notify everyone in the team. Secondly, you can mention the channel using @channel, which will notify everyone in the team that has also favorited the channel. Lastly, you can mention a particular user using @name (ex. @Kevin Ruschman) which will notify only that person. Whether you use any of these mentions on not, everyone in the team will see the comment, this only dictates who will receive a notification.

Lastly, when responding to a comment in a channel, it is best to use the Reply feature as opposed to entering a new comment. This will automatically notify the person who made the first comment, and helps keep discussion organized and easier to follow.

Notification Expectations

  • If someone sent you a direct chat you will receive a toast notification (this is the little window that pops up at the bottom of your screen.) If you miss the notification, the Teams icon will simply flash. In addition, in the app, you will also receive a chat notification.
  • If someone posts a new conversation in a channel, you will only see the channel bolded in the app.
  • If someone replies to a message that you post in a channel (using the reply button and not creating a new thread), you will receive a toast notification and the Teams icon in your taskbar will flash and show a digit indicating the number of messages. In addition, you will receive an alert in the app and the channel will be bolded.
  • If someone “@’s” you or “@’s” the team, you will receive a toast notification and the Teams icon in your taskbar will flash and show a digit indicating the number of messages. In addition, you will receive a notification in the app.
  • If someone “@’s” the channel, (as long as you have made that channel a favorite by clicking the star next to the channel name) you will receive a toast notification and the Teams icon in your taskbar will flash and show a digit indicating the number of messages. In addition, you will receive a notification in the app.