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.
Thomas Nimstad
shared this idea
We are working on a design with more density in mind. Until this design is solidified we are putting this item back to Under Review.
1722 comments
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Nathan Castle
commented
This doesn't seem like a particularly challenging design task, so I would personally like to see more progress here. I don't understand how it takes four years to reduce margins and padding, when I can do it in a few hours with very little in the way of modern web skills.
For anyone interested, I've attached a user style you can use with Stylus, other extensions to customize Teams. Mostly it makes things compact, but it also makes things like image preview much better (IMO). Feel free to use it as a starting point, or share your own modified version.
The part that's difficult for me to do with CSS alone is putting threads in a sidebar (like Slack), which is IMHO a much better use of space.
Can't attach, but you get the gist... https://gist.github.com/nCastle1/cbebc4ac6a3a8e81b26b377a115f89fd
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celia
commented
The overuse of screen real estate is not the only issue here either. I loathe one of the recent updates that makes focus on contact favorites lists impossible *favotie group titles do not stay collapsed. and the chat view is crazy.
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Nancy C
commented
I'd like if separate chats could be popped out into separate windows that are able to be sized, maximized and minimized in similar to the way they appear in Skype for Business.
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Anonymous
commented
Any updates on this feature Microsoft?
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J
commented
It seems we'll be forced to use teams in the near future within my corporation as well.
I tried to look into it and the chat-function is probably the worst experience I could imagine on a desktop computer.
The chat does not use the full width of the screen when it's on a full screen window and the bubble-style display (that you're usually used to on a phone screen, where it's fine) does not translate at all to a normal laptop or monitor screen.
The chat bubbles being on different sides of the screen does not help, either. It's hard to read this on a normal screen because if you want to keep track of a conversation, your eyes have to skip from left to right when skipping through messages.
Sadly, this is a problem that would also be even more prevalent if the app would use the whole size of the window it is in.
That this request is being neglected for so long is a real shame and I dread the day I will have to use teams instead of rocket.chat for my daily communication.
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Chris
commented
We just switched from Slack to Teams and I am amazed at how little information and context of the discussion fits on the same screen space. Too much whitespace and wasted rows with 'reply' buttons that could be shown on hover. It's a lot harder to skim a discussion compared to Slack. I hope this is fixed soon.
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Anonymous
commented
Almost a year without an update to a top 5 feature request. What's the point of this then?
This is THE biggest hurdle to overcome with anyone moving from Slack, how is it not a priority? In a side by side comparison of Slack & Teams, Slack will display TWICE as much content as Teams.
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AM
commented
Also the same for calls, A compact interface so that teams can be tiled on a laptop screen with other apps I have open, without Teams wanting to use 3/4 of the space!
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Andrew
commented
I agree...a simple chat interface shouldn't take up the entire screen for 2-3 conversation items. Yammer has that, and it's fine staying in there. I wouldn't mind this expanded view for meeting conversations, but chat windows need to be easy to follow and need to stick to the conversations.
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Brandon Faunce
commented
Going from Slack -> Teams, the formatting of the conversations within Teams stands out as one of the most consistent daily annoyances that I just have not been able to get used to. If you need guidance as to how to implement minimalist conversation UI ... just look at Slack.
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Tim Berg
commented
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE we need this. Teams simply takes up practically the entire screen. This makes it extremely difficult to do things like chat and work on something at the same time.
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Anon
commented
With 1710 comments you would expect a company like Microsoft to finally respond. Our company for one will be moving away from Microsoft products since they obviously don't listen to the customers.
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Tim Hallett
commented
How has this not been done yet? Teams is so inefficient with space and this has been a top complaint for going on 5 years
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mpcmjpt
commented
My son uses teams on android tablet. It is way faster and usable than on the PC. The PC is not a fast one but not everyone can affort the latest ones.
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Anonymous
commented
So when will Microsoft Teams stop being a productivity killer?
I.e. remove all that white space and emoji ****. -
Anonymous
commented
Been holding off migrating to Teams until a compact GUI is launched, doesn't look like we will ever migrate! Please MS, just squish it up!
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Fredrik Forséll
commented
Have all the GUI designers fallen down a hole or what? Absolutely no progress since the beta stage.
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Anonymous
commented
Just do it!
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Sherry
commented
4 years in the backlog? Disgraceful.
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Ursala
commented
Do not bed your life on Teams fixing this bug ever. Teams: Designed for phone screen and not designed for laptop screen.