Here are some tips and tricks to help you ensure the answer is “yes”.
1. @Mentions Can Filter Messages
If you get a constant barrage of messages, it can be a challenge to keep up with every conversation. A great way to track communication and updates is to use @mentions to filter activity.
How to filter by mentions:
Click on activity. Click the filter button. Choose @mentions.
And you’re good to go!
2. @Mentions Can Help Send Messages
Mentions can be useful in more than one way. Apart from helping you filter messages, you can also use them to send direct ones.
Here’s how it works:
Go to the search bar and @mention the person you want to message. Press Enter. Type your message. Press Enter again.
It’s a straightforward way that saves you time and allows you to retain your focus without moving from one window to another.
3. Need Help Translating Something? Teams Can Help
Microsoft Teams allows for in-line chat translation, helping you and your foreign co-workers and clients stay connected.
To use the translation feature, you have to:
Go to the message with the text you want to translate. Click on the ellipses. Click Translate. Look through the supported languages. Select the one you need.
4. Mark as Unread So You Can Read It Later
If you’re in management, you need to pay attention to many people doing many different tasks. It’s more than likely that you’ll read a message, but before you reply, another one will pop up to steal your focus away, and you might end up forgetting the previous one. To prevent that from happening, play it safe, and mark messages as unread, so you don’t forget to come back to them.
How to do that:
Click the ellipses on the message you wish to mark. On the pop-up window that appears, press ‘Mark as unread. '
Do this, and distractions or not, you’ll remember to come back to the message.
5. Connect New Teams With Old Ones
Every time you create a new team, you create a new group, as well. You have to be careful not to forget that if you plan to add a new team to an already existing group. Unless you connect the new team to the existing group, Microsoft Teams will designate a new one for you, leading to unnecessary overcrowding.
How to create a team for an already existing group:
Click Join or Create a team. Select Create team. Choose Create from. . . , and pick Microsoft 365 Group. Press the group you want, and that’s it.
It’s a simple process that can help you keep a tidy space and track all teams under all your groups much easier.
6. Teams Has Bookmarks─Use Them
Internet-users are accustomed to bookmarking pages while browsing, but did you know Teams lets you bookmark content, too? You can easily bookmark attachments or messages and come back to them when needed. It saves you the hassle of having to look through all your chats to find an important piece of information. For example,
How to bookmark:
Go to the chat that contains the information. Click on the ellipses at the top of the message. Select to save the message.
To go to saved bookmarks later: Type ‘’/saved’’ in the search bar.
It’s as simple as that.
7. Drag and Drop Teams to Organize Them the Way You Want
Projects your teams are working on tend to have different deadlines and priorities, so it’s useful to have the option to rank them. Microsoft Teams allows you to drag and drop teams in the order you want them to come up based on your preferences.
Follow these steps:
Click and drag the team you wish to move. The screen will turn grey. Move the teams in whichever order you want.
You can place them in line of priority, based on deadlines, and even in alphabetical one if that will help your work.
8. Pin an App to Keep It Visible
When you actively use an app on Teams, its icon appears on the navigation pane. But the icon disappears when you move away. Why not have it stay there, and be easily accessible?
How to do it:
Right-click on the app’s icon. Select Pin.
If you have to find your apps first, you have to go to the More button (the ellipses on the left side of Teams). There you’ll see all of your apps. If you wish to unpin an app, do the same thing but select Unpin. It’s as simple as that.
9. Get People’s Attention With Urgent Chat Message
If you find that you need to contact someone ASAP, you can send an urgent chat message. That ensures the person’s attention and brings you closer to getting a response. The urgent message notifies whoever you sent it to that they have a new message every two minutes for the following 20 minutes after you initially sent it. If you choose to use this feature, be sure to use it only if it’s indeed urgent.
How to do it:
Go to Set Delivery Options (the exclamation point below the compose box). Select the Urgent option.
You can undo this by going to reselect the delivery options and set them to standard again.
10. Get an Email Address for a Channel
Did you know you can send an email to a Teams’ channel? All you have to do is get an email address for it, and that’s a simple process.
How to do it:
Go to the channel for which you wish to get an address. Click More options. Press Get email address.
Do that, and you’ll be able to email a team or a channel. You can set permissions and establish limitations based on your preferences.
Make Teams Work for You
Microsoft Teams offers a variety of features that allow you to make the most of it. Don’t hesitate to use them.
Meanwhile, if you don’t care for Teams, Slack might be a better alternative for your needs.
