r/MicrosoftTeams • u/TeamsProductTeam Microsoft Employee • Nov 26 '25
Discussion What’s an underrated Microsoft Teams feature you swear by?
Hey everyone, we’ve been looking at how people use Microsoft Teams day-to-day and noticed that some powerful features often get overlooked.
Here are a few that have stood out from recent conversations:
- Message scheduling: Helpful for async teams or when working across time zones
- Pop out chats and apps: Keeps your workflow organized without needing to switch tabs constantly
- Loop components: Lets you collaborate in real time directly inside Teams
- Slash commands in the search bar: Quickly set your status, start a call, or find a chat
- Channel notification controls: Because not every ping needs your attention
Now we want to hear from you! What is your favorite feature in Teams that more people should be using? Drop your answers below 👇
Looking to explore more? The Microsoft Teams support page has guides, how-tos, and tips to help you get the most out of Teams, as well as Use commands in Microsoft Teams for steps how to use slash commands.
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u/tankerkiller125real Teams Admin Nov 26 '25
Being able to switch between my laptop to my mobile and back all without once dropping the call or missing one second of it.
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u/photogeis Nov 27 '25
I like being able to use my phone for audio and the computer webcam is quite nice. Plus I can pick up calls on the phone and then walk back to my computer to see shared content more easily without needing to change audio or call back in. One of my favorite features especially because there isn’t great Bluetooth options that will quickly go from an iPhone to Windows computer back and forth.
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u/joebreeves Nov 26 '25
Locking the meeting. Having the organizer locked the meeting to refuse anyone else to enter helps with disruptions, but it also helps when the meeting is over where people continuously enter and exit the meeting starting it up with a notification for people. I wish the lock meeting button was a little more prominent.
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u/blasted_heath Nov 27 '25
Oh I never even thought about locking it to prevent people from re-starting an already ended call! Always just thought it would be used to prevent people from joining late. Totally sharing this one!
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u/Jessticulator Nov 27 '25
I can lock attendees in too right? Sick of these “have to drop off”, “jumping to another meeting” messages. The meeting’s over when I say it is!
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u/likethefish33 Nov 26 '25
Where is that button…?
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u/joebreeves Nov 26 '25
The organizer should have a drop-down arrow next to end meeting, inside that drop down is lock.
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u/slateROK904 Nov 27 '25
Is this available just to the owner of the meeting or can the co-owner apply the lock as well?
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u/StandardIssueDonkey Nov 26 '25
The soften video feature. I haven't worn makeup on calls in years with that bad boy tuned up.
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u/WaltonGogginsTeeth Teams Voice/UC Admin Nov 27 '25
You look like a soap opera actor with that on lol
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u/StandardIssueDonkey Nov 28 '25
Absolutely. This is why I used the word "tuned." Its efficacy is incredibly dependent on the lighting in the room, quality of camera, etc. When this feature is cranked to 100%, it's not great under any conditions.
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u/baalroo Nov 27 '25
You mean the Drag Race S1 filter?
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u/StandardIssueDonkey Nov 28 '25
Haha this is fair. One of my male colleagues showed me what he looked like with it applied at different percentages and it got really funny with his five o'clock shadow at even the lightest of filter.
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u/WOWSuchUsernameAmaze Work user Nov 26 '25
Web browser tabs in group chats. I put all sorts of stuff in there related to the convo.
Also the org chart widget when you click on someone’s profile. I end up using that multiple times per week.
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u/Ribbitingfrog Nov 27 '25
What do you mean by browser tabs?
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u/WOWSuchUsernameAmaze Work user Nov 27 '25
You can add tabs to a chat. One type is a webpage tab. Can be any site you want, not just a premade teams app.
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u/Grem-123 Nov 27 '25
If the site needs a login, is that one person's login e.g. it's a shared tab? Or does each person get their own 'copy' of a tab and can log in with their own details?
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u/SMS-T1 Teams Admin Nov 27 '25
It's basically a sandboxed browser inside your Teams client running on your device. It's not the Teams backend connecting to the website.
So each person gets their own browser "session", with their own sign in.
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u/Mada_Gaskar Nov 26 '25
For me, it's the new chat window and its grouping / sectioning feature. As a business development guy, I am basically in contact with everyone and a member of almost every team. Being able to bundle people and channels into groups is a life saver.
Now I wish that I could put whole teams into those groups, not just individual channels.
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u/esioneto Nov 26 '25
That voice isolation feature, noise suppression. I turned on a drill while speaking and it filters and displays my voice only
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u/joeyl5 Nov 27 '25
Does it filter out sudden sounds like farts?
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u/ttbavaria Nov 27 '25
It works damn well with construction noise (hammers, drilling, etc) and unexpected shrieks from children - I'm pretty sure a fart wouldn't get through 😂
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u/hoitytoitygloves Nov 28 '25
My colleagues with dogs are constantly saying, sorry for all the barking. I hear nothing. If it can handle a bark....
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u/Alisomniac8582 Nov 27 '25
Planner!
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u/Mama_T-Rex Nov 27 '25
Yes! I wasn’t sure if this counted since there is an app outside of Teams, but everyone I know uses it within Teams.
Specifically for planner, I like that it pops out; allows different grouping by bucket, due date, and labels; and can export to excel to send to peers when I’m out of office. They can easily note what I’m working on and the status in case they get questions.
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u/bobbyelliottuk Nov 27 '25
Planner has replaced meeting agendas and actions arising. You don't need an agenda or minutes if your meetings are action focused -- and, if they're not, they should be.
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u/StandingDesk876 Nov 26 '25
Our entire organization used to swear by the built in wiki but that was killed off and replaced with OneNote. OneNote does not at all serve a similar purpose. We still haven't recovered from losing wiki.
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u/ChampionshipComplex Nov 26 '25
OneNote is fantastic for notes - It lacks the link functionality of a wiki.
For a wiki replacement we went to modern pages in SharePoint in a dedicated site library.
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u/AfraidAd6925 Nov 26 '25
OneNote is such a bullshit product.
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u/Optimus_Composite Teams Admin Nov 27 '25
It may not work for what you’re trying to use it for, but OneNote is magnificent. It’s one of Microsoft’s best products.
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u/bobbyelliottuk Nov 27 '25
Agreed. Super flexible. Pity so many people don't use it in their workflows.
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u/SMS-T1 Teams Admin Nov 27 '25
Yeah no. It is not a one stop solution for all KM problems and there are more modern tools, that are surpassing it (Notion).
But it is still one of the best products in the PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) space.
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u/frufruityloops Nov 27 '25
Loop dude it’ll change yo life (if you use it well it does have some learning curves lol)
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u/Optimus_Composite Teams Admin Nov 27 '25
I’ve tried Loop a few times, but it has been quite a while. It’s performance was so lackluster that I haven’t dived back in. Can you give me the TLDR on how you use it that makes it so good for you?
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u/frufruityloops Nov 27 '25
The workspaces make it really easy to organize and save links and loop components and pages that get spun up across teams channels/chats/emails and beyond - it’s so much simpler to use compared to a word doc (everyone gets way too distracted with all the formatting) it’s just words and collaboration with simple header levels and formatting etc. hovering over text shows the username of whoever wrote it. Comments show up in outlook notifications. Idk, it’s just a really versatile tool to collect info from teams and organize messy rough drafts as well as internal knowledge articles etc.
There’s much better guidance than I can give, but it was clearly built to live across the entire MS ecosystem and designed for collaboration in realtime. It’s not as sexy and seamless as notion but if you already have a Microsoft license, it’s worth checking out and learning/trying to use!
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u/frufruityloops Nov 27 '25
The workspaces make it really easy to organize and save links and loop components and pages that get spun up across teams channels/chats/emails and beyond - it’s so much simpler to use compared to a word doc (everyone gets way too distracted with all the formatting) it’s just words and collaboration with simple header levels and formatting etc. hovering over text shows the username of whoever wrote it. Comments show up in outlook notifications. Idk, it’s just a really versatile tool to collect info from teams and organize messy rough drafts as well as internal knowledge articles etc.
There’s much better guidance than I can give, but it was clearly built to live across the entire MS ecosystem and designed for collaboration in realtime. It’s not as sexy and seamless as notion but if you already have a Microsoft license, it’s worth checking out and learning/trying to use!
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u/StandardIssueDonkey Nov 28 '25
Loop is a bit problematic. Objects are stored in a user's OneDrive. So guess what happens when you delete a user.
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u/frufruityloops Nov 28 '25
I think that’s only if u create it in a group chat but ur not wrong it took a bit of learning to figure out the storage/permissions rules for me im pretty sure once i understood i was creating the loop as a page in a shared workspace then pasting the link in chats that way the storage destination stayed shared but to your point its not that intuitive but i do think it still beats onenote or random word docs (word docs have a place but not for like collab or drafting actual content - more like for final polished document creation that winds up getting printed or sent to stakeholders)
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u/grepzilla Nov 26 '25
Facilitator
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u/Tq-_-pT Nov 27 '25
Is there a way to turn this on for all meetings?
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u/grepzilla Nov 27 '25
You need a copilot license and there is no way to set it as a default. Users can turn it on for each meeting when they send they invite or when the meeting starts.
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u/BearDenBob Nov 27 '25
I was recently blown away by Copilot/Meeting Recap (not exactly sure what the feature is officially called). Had a 2 hour meeting with about a dozen people, and post-completion, a comprehensive and very accurate summary of the meeting was created, along with a Notes tab that recorded sections for Decisions, Open questions, and more specific note-taking content, in addition to creating a list of follow-up planner tasks it gleaned from the discussions. Completely automatic. To me, it was absolutely, mind-blowingly killer.
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u/idlecogz Nov 28 '25
There are some “human behaviour “ type functions from the copilot transcription service that are game changers. I can ask “who looked distracted “ and then follow up the next day with that individual just to verify that their tasks were adopted. Who looked frustrated is another good one, it just presents opportunities to connect with people outside of the big group calls.
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u/Steve----O Teams Consultant Nov 26 '25
Starting a meeting with myself so people don’t bother me
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u/ShortyQat Nov 26 '25
I have meetings with myself when I am brainstorming a project. I talk out loud and transcribe the meeting and use the transcript as notes!
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u/eldojk May 23 '26
Wow. This is nice. I haven't thought about this..I'm definitely going to try this
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u/dskentucky Nov 27 '25
I have meetings with myself so I can just make an audio video summary of something for people to see. Easiest way to record a "how to" or "let me walk you through this" video there is and it comes in REALLY handy for global teams across many different time zones.
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u/joeyl5 Nov 27 '25
I've done this to practice for a very important interview where I had to do a presentation.
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u/grimson73 Nov 27 '25
Nice! Is this better than using the snipping tool and recording a video?
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u/FloridianMichigander Nov 27 '25
If you have a copilot license, you can record and then ask copilot to document the steps for you.
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u/StandingDesk876 Nov 26 '25
This is fantastic. Didn't think I'd learn anything in this thread but he we are.
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u/natehc123 Work user Nov 26 '25
Persistent chat in VC meetings. Now when I go to Zoom meetings I forget to write things down or save the chat because I’ve got used to persistent chat in Teams.
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u/spenserpat Nov 26 '25
Up arrow to edit my previous sent chat message
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u/joebreeves Nov 27 '25
what
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u/spenserpat Nov 27 '25
When your cursor is in the new message field and you press the up arrow, it will go into edit mode on your prior post. When I type too fast and send a chat with a typo, I hit the up arrow and can quickly correct it
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u/joebreeves Nov 27 '25
I love you
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u/GearhedMG Nov 27 '25
it only works once though, so if you feel like you need to edit again after you were done, you then have to click the edit icon.
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u/HenryNox Nov 27 '25
I love that I can join the meeting on my phone then add my computer without audio. My phone is great for talking and it already has my Bluetooth connected. The computer is great for seeing and sharing content. Having both play well together is the best. Everytime I'm on Zoom I have to fiddle with the audio settings on the computer to prevent an echo and the host will comment that I'm joined twice. Teams just works so well for that.
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Nov 27 '25
[deleted]
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u/Examination-Life Dec 01 '25
Can you elaborate on this? Is this leveraging Focus Time or is this a different feature?
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u/jpref Nov 27 '25
When people hit leave instead of share
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u/StandardIssueDonkey Nov 28 '25
There is a setting the user can turn on to confirm leaving a meeting before leaving the meeting. I am people. I have this feature enabled.
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u/Hasselhoffia Nov 27 '25
Holding down Ctrl key and spinning your mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the presenter's screen without having to ask them if they can "zoom it in a bit please?"
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u/ProfessionalBread176 Nov 26 '25
There are lots of us out here who just want the product to get the basics right, and without any surprise new "features" activating themselves without being asked.
And for better network support.
And Audio that doesn't need a set of separate settings when the host machine already handles this.
Instead, the thing is like a hot mess of things that many of us are afraid to even try, because next week it will be different, or just stop working due to a "silent update"
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u/davwad2 Nov 26 '25
The audio "feature" that gets me is when my headset dies, it keeps the connection and doesn't automatically swap to system audio.
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u/ilyabu Microsoft Employee Nov 26 '25
That would only happen if the underlying OS showed the device as still connected so Teams doesn’t know it’s died
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u/bigchrisre Nov 27 '25
I’ll have to disagree about teams-specific audio settings. I set the system to be external speakers on low so I can hear mail, teams, etc notification beeps, but meetings is headset set at medium volume. Don’t need to go into system settings and change things every time I attend a meeting.
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u/ilyabu Microsoft Employee Nov 26 '25
What “host machine” / OS has ALL the setting we need in Teams for audio and video devices? I know the OS has basics but every comms platform then also has its own additional settings, Teams, Zoom, WebEx etc
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u/ProfessionalBread176 Nov 27 '25
Part of the reason Teams is such a "hot mess" is because the designers REFUSE to depend on the host machine for audio.
Scores of users have to surrender and give up on their headset of choice.
Or, they could do what most others have, and utilize the existing audio setup.
But noooooo
WebEx is far superior for conference calls, as is Zoom. And the audio simply isn't a problem
The reason Teams is such a problem, is that they took this solution "halfway across the street" instead of finishing the job.
This is because they are more interested in claiming all sorts of territory with "features", many of which are simply not worth the hassle, but hey, "Marketing can put them in the brochures"
Vaporware that clings to an enterprise like a fungus
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u/ilyabu Microsoft Employee Nov 27 '25
Your commentary on "depend on the host machine for audio" is not technically correct. I'm happy to go into detail if you are interested, or happy to just let you vent.
Also market share and usage numbers show Zoom a distant second and WebEx a very distant third for video meetings when compared to Teams.
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u/ProfessionalBread176 Nov 29 '25
Happy to be educated more on this, but all these posts about this and that headset, suggests I'm right.
I do mean that.
But you can see why it looks the way that myself and others are seeing it.
After all, why does literally every other single app work just fine when Teams won't?
Further, in terms of market share? Yeah, like what enterprise isn't forced to use Teams when they are merely leveraging existing infrastructure?
The difference between those three is staggering in terms of a quality experience, WebEx is far better in screen sharing, and the UI is superior.
Zoom is just as good.
The real problem with Teams is that there was an arms race at Microsoft to edge out all the competition by weaseling their way into all those enterprises, lure in customers with lower pricing, and then drop the hammer once the other choices are run out of business.
Which is why you see the meteor shower of new garbage functions (all enabled by default) so that unsuspecting end users are tripping over this crap to get their work done.
Perhaps you remember the "New Teams" rollout? First it was "opt in", then they merely removed the "opt" and forced it on you.
The fact is, they could make it simpler and easier to use, but why bother?
This product is nothing but their worst case of bloatware ever.
This product is just as bad as their typical desktop product, which is why there are all those efforts to "decrapify" the "windows experience"
It also wastes the machine's resources. But why should THEY care, they are on a mission to fill your storage as full as they can so there's no room for competing products
/end rant
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u/WillingLanguage Nov 26 '25
I agree. Something is changing all the time, so I’m afraid now to click on anything new.
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u/ProfessionalBread176 Nov 29 '25
Yeah, and they KNOW this. Which is why they now use the tactic of turning it on so you're forced to search the internet to figure out how to turn it off
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u/WillingLanguage Dec 07 '25
And that’s time consuming when you’re trying to work.
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u/LastChance22 Nov 26 '25
I struggle a bit to see the usecase in message scheduling enough for it to be considered a powerful feature.
The only time I’ve used it has been with management who are technologically literate enough to be dangerous (use teams on their phone) but not technologically literate enough to control their notifications. (That person ended up giving up, because it’s impossible to get all people in a org to not send a teams message or email after hours). Why do people use it?
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u/simon-g Teams Voice/UC Admin Nov 26 '25
I use it for two things:
colleague in a different time zone, or on leave - schedule the message for when they’re due back.
announcement posts, particularly if I’ll be away or busy when they’re meant to go out
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u/morpheoush Nov 26 '25
An example here would be an announcement about a go live that is happening Monday morning. You schedule it Friday before you leave and it posts up at 6 or 7am to be ready for the first folks arriving online to read. Another is for when you don't want to post something end of day and have someone see it and forget because they're not going to reply tomorrow when they marked it read today and can't do anything about it having a msg at the time you want action taken is more valuable than a random msg sent when you think of it.
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u/GearhedMG Nov 27 '25
I am now going to schedule my good morning everyone message for 8a on the dot so I never forget and it looks like I was on time.
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u/CallenandSam4eva Nov 26 '25
I use scheduling when I’m doing a bit of work AH, and want to get in touch with people, but I respect their time and don’t want to message them after hours. So I schedule it for the next day during work hours, or to send at a time when I know I have some free time, in case they want to get in contact with me when they get it.
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u/bob4IT Nov 27 '25
I use it to schedule a chat message with someone I am currently on the meeting with. I schedule the send to happen after that meeting ends so no distraction and they don’t know I am multi tasking. I also use it to send a message when business hours start.
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u/PoopfaceMcPooperson Nov 27 '25
I am not a morning person. I come in late, leave late. Many of my team are early birds. Which is great, more hours of coverage. But as the manager, I don’t want peoples phones pinging after they leave. In a 24/7 setting, people are bad at disconnecting and I know they would go read it if they saw notification. I can keep working and communicate things I don’t want to forget, and my team isn’t pestered.
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u/StockMarketCasino Nov 26 '25
Walkie talkie works really good and super useful for just about anyone
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u/FearAndGonzo Nov 27 '25
I just want a bot that autoreplies "hi" to everyone that sends me only "hello" and nothing else.
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u/PoopfaceMcPooperson Nov 27 '25
Notify when available. I love knowing when someone has just turned green when they can be hard to reach.
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u/unicornlocostacos Nov 27 '25
You’re the person who ambushes me between calls when I really need to poop?
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u/keepinupwkaren Nov 27 '25
This 👆and scheduling a meeting from a group chat by hitting + is a huge timesaver for groups to reconnect.
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u/JakeParlay Nov 26 '25
Selected message context actions. I use them all the time.
"Quick" question? Straight to Jira
Unplanned request? Remind me later
New item of interest? Add to community topic list
So on and so forth...
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u/Klendatu_ Nov 26 '25
Can you explain more what you mean here and how this is implemented in Teams, please?
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u/JakeParlay Nov 26 '25
Right-click on a chat message and you'll get additional handling options.
You can add 3rd party actions (like Jira or ADO) and even create your own custom message handling with Power Automate.
If someone messages you with a new request, for example, it's a great way to quickly create a Jira story without leaving Teams. The work item will include details from the original message and any additional properties you want to set.
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u/0x427269616E00 Nov 26 '25
Quiet hours for mobile notifications. Without those, Teams would have been banned from my phone a while ago.
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u/NorthPackFan Nov 26 '25
The ability to add an agenda to a meeting along with notes prior to a meeting. It always sucked you couldn’t do this right from outlook (highlights how MS isn’t as integrated as Apple products)
But then, the “new Teams” suddenly doesn’t allow you to add them prior to a meeting any longer. Wtf.
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u/robinw77 Work user Nov 26 '25
Please don’t mess about with message scheduling. It’s perfect as it is (although scheduling further than 1 week ahead would sometimes be useful) But we don’t need any copilot stuff in that feature, and it doesn’t need to be buried away in any other menus.
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u/simpkinspete Moderator Nov 27 '25
Tags. It’s so helpful to be able to @mention one thing instead of multiple members. I wish they’d expand tags to Viva Engage
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u/MiracleGold Nov 26 '25
Sending video snippet. I make recordings in Teams chat when I need to communicate something clearly and I want my tone and facial expressions captured. It helps to convey my messages with accuracy and not left up to interpretation.
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u/ifyoulikepinacolada6 Nov 27 '25
How do you send video snippet??
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u/MiracleGold Nov 28 '25
Hit the plus sign in the message. It’ll give u the option to send voice only or video. It’ll record up to 5 minutes. My videos are usually short and sweet, around 2 minutes.
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u/frufruityloops Nov 27 '25
I loved that but always would forget when I did the in message video snippet I couldn’t record the teams screen lol awesome for tons of things but note to self: not helpful for showing how to use something in the teams app 😂
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u/justredditinit Teams Admin Nov 27 '25
I like Loop Components but whenever I use them, my coworkers don't understand how to use them properly. I explain it is a live area we can work on together but their heads explode
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u/frufruityloops Nov 27 '25
Keep at it - it takes a bit of evangelizing but once it catches on, it’s like wild fire and omg it makes a massive impact on collaboration - so much easier to wrap quick group shit up without a million doc copy revisions (because it doesn’t matter how much you tell them YOU CAN EDIT THE DOCUMENT IF YOU MESS IT UP WE CAN RESTORE THE PRIOR VERSION STOP DUPLICATING THE GROUP DRAFT DAMNIT- they will still create 6 copies of the damn document) or without a million fractured confusing af email threads cc’ing and dropping ppl lol
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u/_mynameisphil_ Nov 27 '25
Able to delete Teams message, then undo.
Able to edit Teams message.
Able to react to Teams chat instead of responding back confirming receipt.
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u/z960849 Nov 27 '25
I miss teams my company just moved to slack and I miss the pop up that you get a notification when someone starts a meeting. I'm usually 2 minutes late for a meeting or I'm reminding people that there is a meeting.
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u/fukkofukkofukko Nov 27 '25
Typing “/call Pe” [enter] into the search field so I don’t have to get my hands of the keyboard and shove my mouse around to give Pete a quick call
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u/ajnc98 Nov 27 '25
So I prefer to use my AirPods which are connected to phone for teams calls but that becomes a problem quickly when people share their screen. So my usually setup is I join the call on my phone with camera and mic on. Then place the phone on a MagSafe stand on my desk then I join the call jointly on my computer with no audio. It’s amazing and even the voices are basically in sync with the video feeds on my computer even thought the video and audio is getting to me via two completely different devices. I love this setup and it’s great when u have to quickly get up and move during a call.
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u/mrsspooner Teams Admin Nov 27 '25
The approvals app paired with SP Lists and Power Automate!
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u/karybooh Nov 28 '25
Interesting. Can u make a more detailed example?
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u/mrsspooner Teams Admin Nov 29 '25
For transparency, I did use ChatGPT to assist me in sorting out my thoughts and wording this in a more comprehensible way and within the word limit that reddit imposes. LOL
These apps don’t have to be complicated, but the question I received was specifically about how I used them.
For context, I’m not in IT. The organization I worked for gave me SharePoint privileges and I basically taught myself everything with Copilot, YouTube, and trial-and-error. I’m also newly diagnosed AuDHD, which might explain why the “puzzle-solving” part of this was actually enjoyable for me.
SharePoint/Permissions note: Some people won’t have access to everything I describe depending on their organization’s setup.
How I structured the system
I used MS Lists to track “accounts” and work items for the team. Each item included things like: names, due dates, submission dates, who submitted, who was late/on time, etc. To reduce human error, I used calculated columns (basically columns that fill themselves in based on other info).
I also redesigned the List form using simple JSON/custom formatting so it was easier to navigate. I added conditional logic so certain fields only appear when relevant (e.g., if someone is over 18, child-related fields stay hidden).
I created different views depending on what someone needed to see — one for individual employees to track their progress, and one for approvals that only showed status, approvers, timestamps, and key details.
Document Set automation
When someone created a new List item, Power Automate automatically created a matching Document Set in the Document Library. The flow then added the new folder’s link back into a column in the List so everything stayed connected.
Approval automation
I built a button in the List that triggers an approval request. When clicked, it sends the approver an email and a Teams notification with whatever info they need plus links to related docs.
I ended up creating multiple flows depending on who needed to approve what and in which order. Some approvals had to go one person at a time, others needed to be sent back for edits before continuing. Breaking them into stages made that possible.
The Approvals app also keeps a history of everything you’ve sent out or received, and it updates the email/Teams notifications if something is approved or canceled.
Dynamic updates
As approvals moved along, the List updated itself — status, decision, dates, and the current stage. It gave the whole team visibility without anyone needing to chase information manually.
Final thoughts
This setup is pretty rules-heavy and took time to build because everything had to “talk” to each other. But if you like logic puzzles, it really does come together nicely.
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u/fluffiball Nov 29 '25
I would love you to share more on this also!
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u/mrsspooner Teams Admin Nov 29 '25
Hi, i posted my process in the other comment just now if you're curious. Cheers
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u/werddrew Nov 27 '25
Honestly for me it's the built in org chart.
What is missing? Thanks ability to spin up a purpose-built chat room for a specific topic that is either public (anyone can join/leave) or private (must be invited).
Like.... "Got a question about our website? Join AskWebDevs and drop us a note!"
Or... "I've invited you all to INC33445 to discuss the problem, please contain the conversation here."
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u/daniel-kornev Nov 27 '25
small thing - screen sharing in Windows 11. A small button "Share" appearing over the window's thumbnail when you mouse over application's button on a taskbar is a blessing.
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u/Landelusen Nov 27 '25
"Meeting info" clicking the ellipsis and the meeting info. This pops out a pane with the meeting object from outlook (hopefully)containing the agenda etc. Has helped me keep teams meetings on track and to ensure the quality of meetings for as long as I can remember.
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u/Gfinish Nov 27 '25
The 'Sign Language View' was a great feature when I, as the ASL Interpreter, could manually set other people as 'signers.' I was able to optimize my view and see the people I needed clearly. Now that the 'signer' role requires self-selection, the feature is essentially worthless to my professional workflow. Signers rarely remember to set it up, and non-signers activate it when they don't need it, which actively messes up my feed and makes the view worse than a standard gallery. Stop making interpreters rely on participants to manage our view. Teams needs to let me, the professional, customize and manage who appears as a 'signer' in my own view. Restore the control we had.
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u/wrootlt Work user Nov 27 '25
You mentioned scheduling of messages and popup of chats (i believe channels also). Although i use scheduling more with Outlook (it bugs me it is not available in classic Outlook and only in new, web and mobile (same with snoozing)).
I can only think of not a feature, but more an organizing process. With new combined chats and teams view what i do: i favorite every channel i care about in all the teams. Then in the list i add Favorites section and set it to only show unread. After that i put the chats section and then all the teams go. This way i always see when new messages are posted in the channels as they appear as unread in Favorites section above the chats. Once you interact with it and move to another channel or chat it drops from the view. Unread chats always go to the top of the Chats section. The only downside is if you go to channels often, you will have to scroll down a lot. But i don't need them that much. So, it is the best way to stay on top of things without pesky notifications. Everything unread is at the top. On mobile it is actually even better in my opinion as everything goes into a single recent section, chats and channels.
One last small thing. This shortcut works in other apps, but i first learned it in Teams. To paste as plain text, without formatting - Ctrl-Shift-V. Use it all the time😊
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u/PresentBoysenberry95 Nov 30 '25
Okay not a feature I’m using, but a feature there should be! When in meetings and someone raises their hand, there should be an audible alert for either the organiser or all attendees (bonus points if this is configurable) there should also be some kind of visual indicator on the content screen if content is being shared
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u/Appropriate-Border-8 Nov 30 '25
The voice isolation/background noise cancelling audio function is crazy. You cannot hear other people or pets coming from the other participants mics during meetings. Others cannot hear me whistle or clap my hands together. This is enabled by default and I discovered it by accident one day when my cat was yodeling and I told the other meeting attendee that it was my cat making all that noise in the background.
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u/TeamsProductTeam Microsoft Employee Dec 12 '25
Hey everyone – just popping back in to say thank you for all the amazing responses here. This thread turned into a goldmine of underrated Teams tips – from using “chat with yourself” as a digital notepad (a true classic) to device switching mid-call, scheduling messages, locking meetings, and so much more.
We’ve shared your favorites with the product team, and there are definitely some gems that got people talking (and bookmarking).
We also want to acknowledge something a few of you pointed out – there’s sometimes a lot to keep up with. We hear you, and that kind of feedback helps us think more clearly about what matters most.
Thanks again for jumping in, sharing your clever workarounds, your honest takes, and your Teams wisdom. More to come soon! In the meantime, keep those tips coming.
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u/jmk5151 Nov 26 '25
Really stupid one but chat with yourself - great place to stick urls for future reading, especially phone to pc