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 · December 12, 2016 · Flag idea as inappropriate… · Admin →

planned ·

AdminAlex (Teams Engineering, Microsoft Teams) responded · July 03, 2019

We’re currently working on defining a compact mode experience. I will post more details when we have more to share.

~Alex

Show previous admin responses (20)

planned ·

AdminAlex (Teams Engineering, Microsoft Teams) responded · March 12, 2019

This suggestion is still planned. I don’t have further updates on timing, but will share as we have them. Thanks.

needs your feedback ·

AdminAlex (Teams Engineering, Microsoft Teams) responded · March 12, 2019

planned ·

Suphatra responded · December 15, 2018

Hi everyone, thank you for your patience since the last update.

We want to extend a huge thanks to all of you who have engaged with us on this topic of compact chat. Your input has been invaluable and helped inform our design and decision-making.

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.

This principle is also why we will not be making a sharp design turn towards a permanently heavy dense design. Our user base is a wide range of people — such as high school students, the visually impaired, open source developers, and your every day knowledge worker. Because of our broad reach, we must maintain a standard of usability that meets many visual needs.

Lastly, we are seriously considering a compact mode. This would be an option — a switch, you might say — that makes everything quite dense. We are entering a new phase of product development that makes this more possible than before. To that end, I’m changing the title of this request to “Compact Mode.” We’ll keep you abreast of these plans as we learn more ourselves.

Meanwhile, we really appreciate your patience, your feedback, and your support of Teams. Thank you for being part of #MicrosoftTeams!

Sincerely,
Suphatra

working on it ·

Warren responded · August 06, 2018

This feature is still in the works. I hope to have more info in the coming weeks.

-Warren

working on it ·

Warren responded · June 02, 2018

This feature request is still in the works. No additional details are available at this time.
-Warren

working on it ·

Warren responded · April 24, 2018

This feature request is still being worked upon. No additional updates are available at the moment.

-Warren

working on it ·

Warren responded · March 12, 2018

Great news everyone, we have made a first step towards a professional compact chat layout.

We have released density changes including updates to how message threads collapse. :)

There are more changes in the works to bring you a true professional compact layout.

Thank you all for the support and feedback!
-Warren

partially done ·

Warren responded · March 06, 2018

Great news everyone, we have made a first large step towards a professional compact chat layout.

We have released density changes including updates to how message threads collapse! :)

There are more changes in the works to bring you a true professional compact layout.

Thank you all for the support and feedback!
-Warren

working on it ·

Warren responded · February 12, 2018

We are still working on this. There won’t be one huge update, but instead we will release small updates over time which will help with the request.

There are two things in particular we are focusing on. One being an increase in density and two, a more compact mode.

“Density” would be a reduction of the overall white space you see on your screen.
“Compact” would be more about a reduction in overall size which is most beneficial to smaller screens and mobile devices.

I would be interested in seeing in the comments which piece feels more important to you all. The density or compact view?

If you could comment and let me know, it would be helpful information to provide to the feature team!

Thank you for all your suggestions and feedback!

-Warren

working on it ·

Warren responded · December 15, 2017

This is still being worked upon. I don’t have any additional update details to share at this time, but hopefully soon I will have some further details.
-Warren

working on it ·

Gino Buzzelli responded · September 22, 2017

Hi everyone,

I’m Gino and I’m the Product Manager that’s been hard at work to bring you a more compact chat design. First, I really want to thank you for your patience while we worked on this request. We spent months testing designs with users, reiterating concepts, and reading through your feedback, to make sure we could meet as many of your common needs as we could.

Secondly, I’m really happy to announce the changes that will be rolling out soon. We’ve made product-wide improvements to the UI that give you greater overall density. Here are some things you’ll see:
- Left rail more condensed vertically
- Gutters reduced
- Line heights reduced
- Emojis will be smaller
- Links for inline attachments

Please note that these changes will first ship on desktop, then later mobile. I’ll keep checking this forum to read your feedback as you experience the new design. We really value your thoughts and ideas. Thank you for supporting Teams!

Sincerely,
Gino

working on it ·

Suphatra responded · July 25, 2017

Hi everyone,

Quick update that we have made incremental changes and you should start to see those white margins becoming much thinner and chat getting more dense in the coming weeks. It will not be the fully dense mode, but it will be moderate changes so not to jar our full user base. These changes are being implemented across the board, so this is NOT a compact chat mode that is an optional setting, but permanent changes to the UI to increase density.

I’m keeping this item on the “working on it” status because we are going to continue making the product more dense overall. We’ll continue to update you as we make progress.

Big and special thanks to the hundreds of you who participated in the user research. It gave us really great information to make these permanent changes. THANK YOU!

Sincerely,
Suphatra

working on it ·

Suphatra responded · June 26, 2017

needs your feedback ·

Suphatra responded · June 06, 2017

Hi everyone! Thanks again for helping us improve the Microsoft Teams density. Your feedback is highly valued and we take it very seriously. To summarize, here’s what we’ve heard from you so far:

Not enough content visible without scrolling.
There is a lot of unused, wasted space.
Messages are not wide enough.
Emojis are too large.
Reply button takes up too much space.

We are working on changes that will be made in the coming weeks, and just need one last round of your input to help inform our design. Please click here to take the survey: https://microsoft.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1RJsc3gJjkn77mJ

Thanks again and if you have any questions on the survey, please reach out to Erin Arcuri (Erin.Arcuri@microsoft.com).

Cheers,
Suphatra

working on it ·

Suphatra responded · April 26, 2017

Hi everyone, thanks for your help on this item and all the feedback you’ve sent. Special thanks to the kind folks who participated in the Twitter Q&A and subsequent research studies.

We now have a design and are conducting 1:1 research testing with users. We need an even representation of demographics, so we can’t take all users. But if you are interested in possibly being someone for testing, please just email me directly (sparavi@microsoft.com) with your name, age, gender, location, industry, job title and experience with Teams (how long you’ve been using it, how often). I’ll forward that on to our research team who will intake you from there.

We’re getting closer to the finish line! Thank you for your patience and your support. Message me or tweet me if you need anything at all.

Sincerely,
Suphatra

needs your feedback ·

Suphatra responded · March 22, 2017

Hi everyone, reminder that we are hosting the user feedback round table on Twitter tomorrow (3/23) @ 10am Pacific Time.

To participate, just log into Twitter and follow the hashtag #CompactChat. You’ll be able to share your feedback directly with the designers and engineers who put together our framework.

If you have any questions, just ping me at twitter.com/skprufo and I can help you.

Suphatra

P.S. I would have put this live chat session in Teams, but we don’t have Guest Access (coming soon!), so for now — Twitter it is. Hope to see you there, and looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

working on it ·

Suphatra responded · March 20, 2017

Hi everyone,

We would love to hear your feedback. Please join us for a live round table on Twitter. See details below:

Attend a live chat with us on Twitter on 3/23 @ 10am Pacific Time. To participate, just sign into Twitter and follow the hashtag #CompactChat. When you want to contribute to the conversation, just tweet with that same hashtag. If you get confused, just tweet to me at @skprufo or Gino Buzzelli at @ginobuzz.

Thank you and looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this user idea!

Suphatra
Microsoft Teams

needs your feedback ·

Suphatra responded · March 13, 2017

Hi everyone, we’re working on this but we need more feedback.

We’d like to invite you to a feedback roundtable about this item. You’ll share your thoughts directly with the design team, and be shown some examples.

If you are interested, please sign up here: https://1drv.ms/xs/s!AryUNzh1ogZzif8pDcOcx2pW45I87w and in the “What feature set?” question, please write that you’re interested in the “Professional Compact Chat Layout” roundtable.

I hope to see many of you sign up and to hear you bring your voice to the design table.

Thank you for helping us make Teams better and better.

Sincerely,
Suphatra

working on it ·

Suphatra responded · February 08, 2017

Its happening. We’re working on this!

If you’re interested in participating in design and usability testing for this feature, just submit your info here and we’ll get loop you in: https://1drv.ms/xs/s!AryUNzh1ogZzif8pDcOcx2pW45I87w

Thanks,
Suphatra

under review ·

Suphatra responded · January 27, 2017

Hi everyone, this has been routed to the Design team. The suggestion is under review.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ping me via email or on Twitter @skprufo.

Suphatra
Microsoft Teams

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Anonymous commented · June 03, 2019 12:18 · Flag as inappropriate

Any updates, very wide vs. Skype we could keep things small.

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Hans Erik Jensen commented · June 03, 2019 10:51 · Flag as inappropriate

Unless I'm mistaken, /this/ submission is far-and-away the most "Voted" feature request for Teams in the uservoice (not to mentioned that there are a bunch of other submissions which basically echo this submission). Getting this implemented into the UX will be a monumental improvement!

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Anonymous commented · June 03, 2019 09:11 · Flag as inappropriate

1. The compact view in Skype4B was much better than teams. It takes up too much real estate.
2. Teams leaves the last chat in the reading pane.. what for?
3. When accessing a remote shared desktop cannot get to start button as the ribbon pops up before I can get there. Cannot access the entire left side of the screen for 1" .. lame.

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Anonymous commented · May 31, 2019 08:43 · Flag as inappropriate

We were just forced to use teams because Microsoft turned off Skype. All I can say is - Skype I want you back! Teams is way too much and not at all clear which chats are active etc. Wish for a mini look that takes us back to the core Skype view where we can chat, call and schedule meetings.

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David commented · May 31, 2019 07:28 · Flag as inappropriate

I did figure out you can zoom out "ctr -" which helps but this still needs to be fixed...

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Tim commented · May 31, 2019 01:43 · Flag as inappropriate

Our company has Office 365 and none of the staff will use Teams. They currently all use Slack because they find the chat interface cumbersome in its current bloated state. This is one of the core functions of Teams and it's a bafflingly poor implementation.

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Hans Erik Jensen commented · May 30, 2019 15:53 · Flag as inappropriate

Hi Forum Admin! Just checking in to see if you're able to share an update on this feature submission, and its place on the roadmap. Our group is migrating from Slack to Teams, and this is one aspect that would really smooth the transition for our users. Screen "real estate", especially on laptops and mobile devices, is at a premium so we're excited to know that improvements are in the works.

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CBurns commented · May 30, 2019 09:40 · Flag as inappropriate

I understand development takes time but as developers you should understand the concept of screen real estate. This is an application you are gearing towards business and as a business we need to get work done in an efficient manner. As MS is now trying to phase out Skype for business we as users would appreciate a more concentrated effort to resolve this issue before we are forced out of Skype

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Robert commented · May 30, 2019 06:55 · Flag as inappropriate

I would second that, but I am 1090 comments from the OP. Teams GUI TOTALY SUCKS. I just need a simple chat session that is about the conversation, NOT the "Here Look AT ME" attitude of MS Teams "APP" filling up the screen.

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Anonymous commented · May 30, 2019 02:47 · Flag as inappropriate

Totally agree, this is badly needed. I know MS is trying to position Teams to a more general population than Slack which historically targets developers. However at least please give us the option of having custom stylesheets or themes.

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Jared Wesley commented · May 29, 2019 08:06 · Flag as inappropriate

This seems to have gotten worse with the latest update as I used to be able to keep my Teams chat in my 90 degrees rotated monitor and be able to see the contacts as well as the chat messages however now I need to make the screen wider to see both thus cutting off part of the interface. Please revert to old, slightly more compact usage then work to improve further as requested here. At this point, I may buy a new monitor with a higher pixel density to fix the issue immediately. Current "chat" monitor is a Dell 24" 1920x1200 monitor and with 1200 lines I should be able to see everything.

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Annoyed commented · May 28, 2019 13:13 · Flag as inappropriate

Hurry up

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AnonymousE commented · May 28, 2019 10:22 · Flag as inappropriate

Maybe this also like tweetdeck

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Anonymous commented · May 27, 2019 21:46 · Flag as inappropriate

Hurry up

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Anonymous commented · May 26, 2019 14:22 · Flag as inappropriate

Hurry up

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Anonymous commented · May 24, 2019 18:34 · Flag as inappropriate

Hurry up

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Joel commented · May 24, 2019 07:28 · Flag as inappropriate

😴

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B commented · May 23, 2019 09:02 · 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?

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z commented · May 23, 2019 07:30 · 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.

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Anthony commented · May 23, 2019 07:28 · 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

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