Make "Teams" and "Chat" the same Tab
There is no reason that Teams and Chat should be different top level categories in the left navigation. They are the same thing, perform exactly the same function, and making two different items simply confuses the navigation and makes badge notifications and discoverability much more difficult to use.
Please combine Chats into the Teams tab so that you can browse all conversations in one place rather than needing to navigate to different tabs to see different conversations.
Chats and channels perform essentially the same function, which is talk to some people and collaborate. Forcing the user to check two different lists to see if somebody is messaging them is a really bad experience, it is like having two different chat apps.
This is one usability issues that makes Teams less usable for collaboration than both Slack and Skype.
Samuel Sze
shared this idea
This feature is still being reviewed by the feature team. No decision has been made yet. I’ll keep you posted.
-Warren
234 comments
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Anonymous
commented
At minimum, the option to leave these configurable is a must.
We currently use chat for "private" messages and see the danger of having all of the communication within one tab becoming unruly for larger setups where people might be a part of multiple teams. Also, less observant users thinking they are in "chat" but posting to the main channel could pose problems.
Again, if this were to be implemented it needs to be configurable for either the user or the organization.
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Adam Cloud
commented
Don't want this change either. It should be an option at the administration level to make the decision for the organization.
We use Chat for private chats and Teams for public conversations.
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Koen
commented
I see a lot of downvotes in the comments, but I found this page in search in favor of this. I really like the panel layout in slack where you see channel and direct messages in one view, and being able to mark favorites for the ones to keep visisble.
How about a compromise? Make a distinct tab which would allow me to pin channels and chats together I use a lot together. For all I care it could even be a separate app, so it wont populate the tabs for the people that dont want it.
In our organisation we use team chats to keep each other posted, but direct messages for 1 on 1 work without bothering the rest. Especially when working remotely. I'm currently losing it because I have to keep switching between tabs, and to make it worse, the teams are collapsed by default, so I don't have an overview of the chats I care about and constantly use.
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Anonymous
commented
I can't second this enough. The context switch necessary to go from being in "chats" mode to "channels mode" is very distracting.
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Anonymous
commented
How big of a change would this really be? What does that say about your architecture?
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Bill R
commented
I personally don't see the benefit. Teams and Chat are fundamentally different things. Heck the chat you do in Teams is different than Chat. IF this feature was ever put in place, it needs to have the option to keep them separate.
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Roy Tinker
commented
The primary problem to me is that Teams channels work more like old-school forums and less like chat rooms.
If a new type of "Chat" channel could be created (formatted like Slack channels), then Chats/Teams tabs could be merged.
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Anonymous
commented
I just got out of a customer meeting. they asked for this feature... again.
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Becky
commented
Is there a uservoice uservoice? I need a down vote option for this...
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Charles Bitter
commented
Make this a personal preference. Some of us love one tab. some don't. Making it an option would give Teams a feature Slack does not have.
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Liz Robinson
commented
No! Chat is private and Conversations are public. We need both. It's hard enough for larger teams to keep up with all the conversation as it is. They definitely do not want to see a ton of chats that don't concern them as well.
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Sean Burke
commented
I definitely DON'T want this idea. In our organization, we have compliance requirements that drive different retention policies across the Chat and Teams section. Keeping them separate makes it possible to delineate these areas clearly for our colleagues.
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Malte Landwehr
commented
How can I -1 vote this? Horrible idea. Please do not do it.
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Chris Field
commented
No thanks!
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Arsen Abayan
commented
Please don't force it, at least it shoud be optional
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Anonymous
commented
it should be implemented to save display space, and icon can allow end-user to distinguish People and Team.
after this implement, on the top right corner, there should have a switch {All, People, Team}
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Sam Hall
commented
As a team leader, this is a terrible idea (I'd have thought that the reasons are obvious, I mean the clue is in the name of the product). A successful team collaboration tool should offer private IM features as an exception to the normal channels of communication. Blurring the distinction between the two features is not conducive to open and collaborative discourse. I would have to abandon using Teams as a team collaboration tool if this were implemented and I'd suggest you rename it to something less misleading if you did implement this.
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JohnMark Sill
commented
At least make it optional... Please... It would save me so many clicks!
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Anonymous
commented
I prefer to keep them separate, I use them for very different things.
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Anonymous
commented
I tend to not agree with this request. Teams and Chat are not the same because Chat does not have a subject.
I would rather rename "Teams" on the left sidebar to "Conversations" as it can be quite complicated explaining to some new users the difference between a new chat and a new conversation. Clearly they are not the same - chat you can not have a subject and roll-up the conversation.