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
The team has not made a decision on whether to move forward with this feature. We will update when we have new status to share.
422 comments
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Anonymous
commented
please do not merge them. this will create so much chaos. it is very nice the way it is.
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Andrea Cassioli
commented
This is a must to be productive.
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Dave
commented
I disagree that they are the same function, but it is is giant PITA to have multiple active chats on 2 different tabs. IF you can't combine the two together, a UI tweak to make it easier to monitor chats between the two tabs would be awesome. Maybe an activities tab that was useful for more than finding when you've been called out on a group chat you ignore (just so I can make the notification go away)?
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Nathan
commented
Completely agree on combining Chat and Team threads into one tab. This is a major gap WRT to Slack. It's very inefficient and annoying to have to frequently toggle back and forth.
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Nathan Evans
commented
The request above is an actual solution. And I probably agree with the solution though I'd probably indicate if it is a team or chat (I'm in Product/UX myself). But really the following problems need to be solved.
1. Missing a chat because it was done on a thread that's buried in teams.
2. Notifications for teams messages not clearly showing incoming chats, items that need a quick response, etc. I spend most of my day in chat and have ended up moving away from actually using the teams portion because of this. We now just create a large chat to support those.
3. Because of 1, people don't post to those teams. This creates more chat threads that really could be consolidated. -
DRoam
commented
I don't like how my conversations with a given person or group are split between chats, Teams channels, and calls. When I want to communicate with someone (or multiple "someones"), the first thing I care about is WHO I want to communicate with. I don't care initially whether it's a chat, a "Teams" chat, or a video call.
I would like just a single "conversations" screen with a list of each individual person and each group (team) that I've communicated with. The history for each individual/group should show chats as well as calls. From the specific individual or group, I can then either sent a chat message or start a video call.
This is one thing Skype for Business had going for it -- simplicity. It did a couple of things (chat and video calls), and it did them well. If Teams is going to kill and replace SFB, then it needs to be able to work that way if that's all you need.
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Anonymous
commented
I think this would be a great efficiency feature, combining to areas of activity into one more dynamic place.
Perhaps with the new items (unread etc) appearing at the top, then favourites, and then the rest of the chats and teams. Could be so much more slick. I think this would be a brilliant step.
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Anonymous
commented
Alex - please bump this. My company never leaves chat to check channels ever, so communication is actually worse at times. Both should be visible from the same pane of glass. Slack does this well and I've never had this issue until switching to teams.
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Михаил
commented
Or maybe make some Shortcut button, to switch between Chats and Teams, same problem here - this is problematic to jump between this 2, there are many "midlemans" in the MS Teams right now, which makes it hard to use, devil in details.
Why even dont make it Slack-like, chat and threads in channels? Because otherwise you force us to Use chats, and go back to Teams to create thread about theme after this, its not right -
Jonathan McHatton
commented
I highly agree with merging the Teams and Chat tabs. At the very least, users should be given the option to do this if they so chose.
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Anonymous
commented
Please, please, please do not do this. My company runs webex teams and the combined teams/chat tab is absolutely horrendous. Doing this would be a step backwards.
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Gon
commented
I do not agree. Chat with individuals is different from discussion with the whole team (which could be multidiscipline and international) or discusing a specific project (channel). WhatsApp like interface is ok if group and contact fits in the screen. If you are a member of multiple teams it is better to have them separate from your individual contacts imho.
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Anonymous
commented
Not sure I agree with this one as there is a difference between structured project based chat and adhoc unstructured one to one/ group chats
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Andrey Khomyakov
commented
So close to 4yrs to just review the feature and decide if it is going to be worked on or just rejected? MS, you are so agile! Can you teach the rest of us, oh the greatest!
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Andrey Khomyakov
commented
Not only I think there should be an option to have Chats and Teams be on the same tab, but more so, there should be a keyboard shortcut to open a channel search.
This is how I used to change channels/chats in Slack: Apple+K, type in channel name (or any part of it), select the right channel (or name for DMs) from the result, hit enter.
I rarely had to touch the mouse in Slack. Teams seems to heavily rely on the mouse, which makes it so much slower to use.... -
Adam S
commented
The Team "forum" tab is for company-wide announcements only and is likely best for enterprise users. I don't think it is contemplated for smaller workgroup "team" chats or discussions. In our 10 person firm, we do not use the team forum other than for posting items like yearly holiday schedule or employment manual. Most of our firm wide communications otherwise go through our Entire Team chat "channel". In a large company like microsoft, I suspect they post important announcements from the top level in the Team forum, but most of the communications are done on the local level in the chats. The usefulness of the Teams tab for my small firm is simply management of the team itself. It is frustrating that I can't schedule meetings in private chats and only on the Team Channel. Recommendation: Create an option to delete the Team tab and manage the team in options and then move meeting scheduling rights to the chats.
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Adam S
commented
The Team "forum" tab is for company-wide announcements only and is likely best for enterprise users. I don't think it is contemplated for smaller workgroup "team" chats or discussions. In our 10 person firm, we do not use the team forum other than for posting items like yearly holiday schedule or employment manual. Most of our firm wide communications otherwise go through our a Full Team chat. In a large company like microsoft, I suspect they post important announcements from the top level in the Team forum, but most of the communications are done on the local level in the chats. The usefulness of the Teams tab for my small firm is simply management of the team itself. It is frustrating that I can't schedule meetings in private chats and only on the Team Channel. Recommendation: Create an option to delete the Team tab and manage the team in options and then move meeting scheduling rights to the chats. The concept of using the Teams channel as a sharepoint entry way is not needed since you already have file tab on the chats, where you can similarly share the same information.
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Anonymous
commented
This would be great! Our team does not like the 'forum'-like approach, we come from slack, and would like a chat inside our channel instead of a forum.
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Anonymous
commented
don't agree. they should be 2 icons, they are different things. if you do combine make it optional.
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Anonymous
commented
Agree!! just like whatsapp.
and people will be more aware of the things happen in the groups!Please make it a feature soon. or at least an option!