Microsoft continues to develop Teams as part of its “single pane of glass” vision, enabling business users to chat, share documents and join real time voice and video conferencing calls.
With over 300,000 organisations and 115 million daily users, if you’re one of them, you might want to brush up on some power user tips and get the most from the software. So here are five of our favourites to get you started.
1. Send and Filter Messages Using @mention
Microsoft Teams is all about helping you stay connected with your colleagues, which is why it includes an easy way to find them when you need to send a message.
Simply type the @ symbol into the search bar to find the name you are looking for and no matter what corner of the platform you’re currently in you will be able to message them directly.
You can also use @mentions to filter recent activity and prioritise messages intended for you. You can find @mentions by clicking the Filter button and selecting it from the drop-down menu while you’re in the Activity feed.
2. Conduct Polls
Asking for an opinion from clients and colleagues can be a breeze with Microsoft Teams. Simply click the Forms icon below the message box to create and send your poll. Type your question and the answer choices.
To allow multiple answers click on the Multiple answers toggle. There are also check boxes for Share results automatically after voting and Keep responses anonymous. Check you’re happy with it, click Send and watch the results roll in.
3. Email Forwarding to a Channel
Email usage may be on the wane but lots of us still use this communication method every day. That’s why Microsoft has made it easy for you to forward an email to any Microsoft Teams channel you like. To do this, look for the ellipsis next to the channel name and click on Get email address. Doing this creates an email address for the channel that you can now use to mail anything directly. It’s a handy way of making it even more accessible.
4. Avoid Being Disturbed
Sometimes you might just want to block out all distractions so you can give your full attention to the chat at hand, with no worry of being disturbed by alerts. To do this just select your profile picture (top right-hand corner) then select the Notifications tab to change the type and frequency of your alerts. This is handy for long conference calls and training sessions.
You can’t do everything at once, and sometimes you need to come back to a message later to give it your full attention.
5. Save a Message for Later
On days when you’re juggling multiple tasks, you may wish to return to a particular message later in order to give it your full attention. Just hover over the message in question and click the ellipsis (…), then click Save this message. To view saved messages type /Saved in the search box followed by Enter. They will appear in the left pane. From here you can also ‘unsave’ messages via the bookmark icon that appears in the top right of each message.
