How can we make Microsoft Teams better?

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Compact mode

I really like Teams. I do. But the current chat layout is not suited for professional chats. It's way to space consuming. It looks like something imported from MSN with smiley's that take half of the screen. I would say that Slack have nailed it because they focused on the ability keeping a tight window with lots of chat text visible. In Teams the window is full and starts scrolling after like 10 sentences.

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Thomas Nimstad shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

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  • B commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I am truly surprised this isn't the #1 priority now and is only in the "Being planned" phase.
    It's like someone took my tv remote control and replaced it with one of those really ridiculously large ones.
    I am looking my teams right now and only like 7 lines of actual text are on the screen. Soooo much wasted space and I can't even collapse the "Your Teams" window how is that not possible?

  • z commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I simply want to make the window width smaller than 1080 pixels!!! Meanwhile a full inch on the right is totally unused. Idiotic.

  • Anthony commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    A while ago I shared a new idea that I think would be a simple solution for this - The Android app has a brilliant interface that covers about 80% of my teams usage very well on a ~4-6 inch screen with roughly the same dimensions as the Skype IM windows I use. Why not just make that already built Android interface an option on the desktop build and maybe relabel it as "compact Mode"? It would be minimal dev time and would make a number of users very happy.

    My Submission
    https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/37582114-bring-the-android-ui-to-windows-and-mac-desktop

  • David commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    The conversation tab inside the actual teams is useless for conversations. The chat is better (more like messanger, less like an action feed), but still really bad and does not relate directly to an actual team, just to a group of people.

    I pushed to use Slack but too many people were already using Whatsapp for internal communications. Now I'm pushing to use teams to try to function in a more professional environment and I still cannot escape whatsapp.

    People are leaving Slack for the ideal of Office365 and integration but the reality is far more fragmented.

    Honestly, if you took Whatsapp web, removed the phone anchor, added domain account access and allowed some sorting and separation between channels and generic chat would fill most of my communication needs with my staff and project management. I keep trying to use Teams and feel like that uncomfortable feeling of newness will go away but it never does, it never gets comfortable, where Slack was comfortable in 5 minutes.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    "As we look to 2019, we will be pursuing plans to continue to make the product more and more space efficient. We see this as a guiding design principle, as well as a backlog of requests from UserVoice that we catalogue, discuss, debate, brainstorm and problem solve."

    The very first reaction I had to the migration from Skype to MS Teams was "how do I reduce the amount of unnecessary whitespace"

    This is a basic necessity for any sort competitive, modern application, and it appears like this has not been made a priority, judging by the sheer amount of conversation and the complete lack of this option in the latest version of MSTeams.

  • Anon commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    There's a reason AOL and MySpace died. Those don't look, and act, in a way that suits the professional user. Instead of taking social/silly tools and trying to move them towards professionalism, go the other direction and try starting with a professional product and adding lighter features or make them more accessible. The interface looks like what my employees do on break, not like work. I don't want random whitespace and huge icon encouragement to "Add a Team Member!" and chats that are designed for the depth of twitter. If you want me to use the tool in a professional setting, either provide me an environment that suits that workflow, OR let me customize it so that I don't deal with the extraneous stuff. Productivity and work is about focus and about the WORK, not about the software's attempts to help me with my work and guide me and invite me through every little action- with NO WAY TO CUSTOMIZE THAT OUT OF MY %$@#! WAY. Teams, you're trying too hard to get me to like you. Assume that we're all professionals and can navigate an Office app already. The constant attempt to try to make an interface welcoming to someone new is alienating ALL of the people who already know how to navigate a menu and now have 4 click-throughs where one should do. That's not productive, at all. Yes, I have plenty of real estate on my screen. Yes, appropriate use of white space makes a GUI better. But I also have 3 screens full of work to do and the capability to multitask, process information, AND remember directions. I don't WANT my hand held- I want to do my job. It's like a term paper written in big type to try to disguise it has no substance. To see comments like this, about simple things, from 2016- that just shows there's no point in commenting at all. It's not going to change, because at this point the assessment has to move from "oversight/you care" to "intentional/you really don't".

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    It's not just a compact version that the chat needs, it's also the possibility to extend the text area to use all the space available. On 16/9 screens, the text barely use 50% of the screen.

  • Ove commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Please hurry up with a more compact version or option customize it more ourselves.
    Why not resizeable separators/areas or similar?
    Right now it is using way to much screen real estate in my professional setup.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This is horrible, you all have known for 2+ years that Teams chats takes up way too much space, yet you still haven't done anything about it and now you are pushing people off of Skype ... learn from Skype and make the chat similar; it's own application that doesn't bother anybody off to the side of the screen.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    It should be possible to efficiently work in other productivity tools and communicate using Teams at the same time on one screen without having to switch back and forth. Not possible at the moment and it could therefore be argued that using Teams could reduce productivity (although surely other benefits weighs up to some extent)

  • Chris commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    It's crazy that here we are years later and I still have to have a dedicated monitor just to use teams because I can't shrink the dang thing down....

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