Links/attachments in chat
If you attach an item to a chat it will be saved in the files section of the channel. But if you are chatting about a document and you want to reference it you do not want to save it to the channel as it is already in another folder of the SP Site. To create a copy in the channel does not make sense as you are creating duplicates. a link would be the solution.

This feature is still in the works. No additional details are available at this time.
-Warren
57 comments
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John Best commented
I would look to a feature like OUTLOOK has with their attachments.
The attach icon displays a list of all the recent files with the cloud or local indicator. Upon selecting the file it prompts to post a link or a copy... This would certainly be a great improvement.
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Lisa S. commented
There is a way to do this, but it's a ridiculous amount of extra work. You have to go into SharePoint or OneDrive, create a shareable link to the file with the correct permissions, copy the link, come back into teams, start typing into the chat message field, and either paste the ridiculously long URL into the message or insert a link on a word. For the latter, the insert link option is buried, so you have to highlight the word you want to make it into the link, click format text, click insert link, and paste the link there. Creating a link to a file in a chat should be super easy. It should be right there in the toolbar below the chat message field, maybe in place of the attach file icon (after all, is it best practice to create a duplicate of a file already stored in SharePoint and have it reside in a bucket folder in OneDrive?). It should allow you to click one icon, browse to the file in SharePoint, and create the shareable link and set the permission (view only or view/edit) for the people in the chat in just a few steps.
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Lisa S. commented
Agreed! In my mind, "attaching" files in a chat when the files are already stored in SharePoint or OneDrive somewhere should be done as a shareable link (shortcut) to the current location by default with a prompt to select edit or view permissions for the people in the chat. As it is today, you end up with multiple copies of the same file in multiple locations, which creates a maintenance nightmare and defeats the purpose of multi-user collaboration involving a single version of a file.
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Chris Johnston commented
Checking in. We're running into an issue where users are uploading copies of their files instead of links, and wondering why they arent seeing edits back in their main documents
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Agnes commented
Hi... has there been any progress of the solution to this request?
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Gerald Bauer commented
Erm...This feature is already finished: https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/16938673-reuse-existing-file-in-chat
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Anonymous commented
In chat I am missing an easy way to crate a link to a file.
Linking to file should be simple where the link-text is the filename.
Today you first need to "copy link to file" and then press CTRL-K (for link) - and paste the link in URL, but you manual have to put in the filename. It is not possible to copy it from the link as it contains %20 for spaces.
It would be even better if the link is technically implemented as an object with uniq ID so any update to filename or url will be reflected
(I wunder why this is not standard now-a-days - I can remember it was standard in IBM-OS2 in the last century:-)) -
Anonymous commented
update?
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Richard Adam Boettcher commented
Internally, our company is comparing MS Teams with Slack to be able to easily link share-point sites/one-drive/channels and mention files within the MS suite of products and remove cross documentation duplication would be great!
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Richard Adam Boettcher commented
Status?
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Mateusz commented
Can anyone update the status? Currently we have "Working on it" for last 8 mothns.
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Anonymous commented
Any progress? Its the one major we still use Asana instead of Teams
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Robin Dieker MSFT commented
Hey Warren,
any update on this? Please contact me via my V-Dash.All the best
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Anonymous commented
I'm trying to roll out Teams across our workplace and have just stumbled upon this issue after noticing that a shared file didn't link in a chat group. Rather annoying. Any update?
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David commented
Any updates? Six months later and lots of silly gifs all over the place.
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Turd Ferguson commented
There needs to be the ability to turn this feature off and/or filter certain file types from being 'saved' to the Files section when posting in chat; I constantly have to clear out all the silly gifs and memes and things that people link - and telling them not to do that isn't the answer - we need the technology to work for us not the other way around.
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Anonymous commented
It should be possible to link to files in other SharePoint sites within the same tenant. If you fore example have site for document that are relevant for all in the firm, but a team want to link to it so they easily can discuss the contents. Now it will make a copy in the channel, therefore the team might be missing when the document is updated.
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Monte Achenbach commented
At a minimum, if Teams is supposed to be a collaboration tool, Sharepoint should be an attachment option in Chat. Now you have only OneDrive (personal files) and Upload from Computer as options? Not seamless or intuitive...
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BIQAS commented
That's a shame 2 years and still working on it!!!!
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Anonymous commented
I agree. Why are we making ‘copies’ of files in ‘teams’ if we’re trying to collaborate? I have a file in a sub folder generated and saved on a sharepoint site and when I attach the file, it makes a copy and stores it on the root directory....???? What a mess. Surely I must be doing something wrong...