How to Enter in Teams chat

Microsoft Teams has a number of time-saving features and scheduling Microsoft Teams meetings directly from a chat is one of our personal favorites. There are a number of easy ways you can schedule Microsoft Teams meetings, scheduling in Outlook for example, but doing it this way is guaranteed to make your life a little easier and save you precious time.

Why Schedule Meetings from Microsoft Teams Chat?

Meetings can be a bit of a necessary evil – we’ve all been involved in meetings that could have just as easily been an email – but sometimes they truly are necessary. When you’re chatting (formerly instant messaging) with someone and realize your communication could be a lot more effective face to face, it’s so handy to have a simple way to schedule a meeting with that person.

How to Schedule Microsoft Teams Meetings

Scheduling Microsoft Teams meetings is intuitive and simple. When you are chatting one-on-one and realize you need to have a meeting, you can easily schedule one with the user you are chatting with by clicking on the calendar icon:

This will open up the Microsoft Teams meetings dialogue with the current user already selected and the next available slot for both users also selected. Sometimes little things like that make all the difference to the user experience:

Then you just need to fill in all the Microsoft Teams meeting information and add anyone else that you think needs to be involved.

Limitations of Scheduling Microsoft Teams Meetings from Chat

Currently, scheduling Microsoft Teams meetings directly from chat only works if you are messaging one-on-one. It won’t work if you are having conversations in a Microsoft Teams Channel although you can use the ‘Meet Now’ option if you want to meet now.

Hopefully, this functionality will be expanded in the future to channel-based conversations so you can schedule team meetings as well as one-on-ones. If Microsoft Teams and Outlook were to join forces, the possibilities for incorporating Microsoft Teams meetings are endless and the whole process could potentially be replaced in Teams, reducing the need to go to Outlook completely.

We hope this post helps you to cut down on the time you currently spend scheduling meetings, making the process smoother and more efficient.

If you are looking for more tips on how you can work more efficiently in Microsoft Teams, you may be interested in our previous posts:

• Microsoft Teams: Bookmarking or Saving Messages
• How to Schedule Microsoft Teams meetings in Outlook
• Microsoft Teams Activity Feed: Your New Best Friend

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Chat is at the center of everything you do in Microsoft Teams. From individual chats with just one other person, to group chats and conversations in channels—chat has you covered.

The following are the first things to know:

1. Chats can be one-on-one or in a group

Sometimes, you’ll want to talk one-on-one with someone. Other times, you’ll want to have a small group chat. In Chat, you can do either.

You start one-on-one and group chats the same way: by selecting New chat

at the top of your chat list. Once in a chat, you’ll be able to send messages that include files, links, emoji, stickers, and GIFs—whatever you need to get your point across.

The following are more details about each kind of chat:

One-on-one chat

Once you’ve selected New chat

and entered the person’s name, compose your message in the text box and then select Send

 or press Enter. This starts the chat.

Chat with yourself

For times when you want to draft messages, send files from one device to another, or get to know features a little better, you can start a chat with yourself. Everything you do in a regular chat you can also do in a chat with yourself. You’ll see it pinned to the top of your chat list by default.  

If you unpin the chat with yourself and want to find it again, select New chat

 and enter your name into the To field. 

Group chat

Use a group chat when you need to talk to a small group of people. Start one the same way you start a one-on-one chat: select New chat

at the top of your chat list. Select the down arrow to the far right of the To field and type a name for the chat in the Group name field. Next, type the names of the people you’d like to add in the To field.

Once the chat has begun (whether group or one-on-one), just choose it in the chat list to resume the conversation and send more messages.

2. Press Shift+Enter to start a new line

If you keep pressing Enter to start a new line, which sends the message before you’re ready, try the following:

When you want to start a new paragraph, press Shift+Enter to insert the line break. If you’ve opened your formatting options (see step 3 for details), just press Enter to start a new line of text, then select Send

 to send it.

3. Select Format to see all your formatting options

There are many formatting options for messages.

To open your formatting options, select Format

 beneath the box where you type your message. In this expanded view, select the text that you want to format, then choose an option like B, I, or U to bold, italicize, or underline the text. There are also options for highlighting, font size, font color, lists, and more.

Beneath the box you'll also find delivery options, attach files, emoji, giphy, stickers, schedule a meeting, and more. Select More options

to find more apps.

4. Chat happens in channels, too

When you go to any channel in Teams the very first tab is Posts. Think of this as one big group chat. Everyone who has access to the channel can see messages in Posts.

Based on your organization and culture, you'll need to decide which messages are suitable for the Posts tab in a particular channel.

Another important thing to know is that replies to a channel message stay attached to the original message. This way, the whole thread of the conversation can be easily followed by anyone reading it. This is what's great about threaded conversations.

To reply to a channel message, be sure to use the Reply link underneath the message.

5. There are several ways to search for and find messages

Depending on what you remember about the sender of the message or the characteristics of the message, a different way of searching might make more sense.

Find a chat based on a person’s name

Enter the person’s name in the command box at the top of Teams. You’ll see their name and any group chats they're a part of with you listed. Select their name to go to your one-on-one chat with them or select a group chat to resume that one.

Find a message that has a keyword that you remember

Start typing a keyword into the command box at the top of Teams and press Enter. You’ll see a list of results that include the keyword.

Filter to show certain types of messages

From the Activity feed, select Filter 

 and then More options

 to show certain types of messages including unread messages, @mentions, replies, and reactions.

For a more specific search, go to the Feed menu, select the drop-down arrow, and then choose My Activity.

Find your saved messages

To save a message, hover over it, select More options

, and then select Save message

.

To see a list of your saved messages, select your profile picture at the top of Teams, then choose Saved. Or, type /saved in the command box at the top of Teams.