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
336 comments
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James
commented
This is what makes slack such a better product and teams clunky for me.
Completely disagree with the distinction between chats and teams being an email thread replacement (comment below). The reason email will never die is because of the one stop shop flexibility of being able to add whoever you want to a thread.
Chats are chats, whether it's a team chat or not
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Anonymous
commented
This is a NO NO for me. Chat is a chat and Teams are a thread-documenting email substitute. No way they are the same thing.
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Vít Rapčan
commented
I imagine a possibility to keep Teams and Chat list in one section, type distinguishable by a graphical element like pictogram, shape or border color.
It would be nice to integrate also the demand "Move chat to team" too. Sometimes, a small idea discussed in Chat evolve to a project. A possibility to make Team from the Chat on "one click" preserving members, chat history in discussion, files and so would be an advantage.
Finaly, searching in one place all over the Teams and Chat is a must.
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Fernando
commented
This feature is needed . Slack makes it so seamless. MS should definitely launch this feature
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Jaime Olivares
commented
Any update after more than 2 years?
It is obvious that a lot of people wants this. Also many disagreeing. So you can make it configurable.
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Wes
commented
I completely disagree. Teams and Chat should absolutely be separate.
I go to Chat when I'm looking to chat with individuals or small side groups that I specifically name. I go to Teams when I'm looking to send messages or collaborate with all users in that team (and any future members of that team).
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Michael
commented
I wouldn't mind a split column view so I can see a column of the Teams and a separate column with the Chats. Ultimately, I just hate having to switch back and forth between the Teams and Chat tabs in order to see message/thread updates. This is my worst part of my experience with MS Teams at this time.
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BS
commented
I strongly disagree - I want to be able to have ad hoc chats with folks or groups of folks outside of defined Teams
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RV
commented
They just need to allow more options with chats like they do with channels. allow the group creator to set a chat to private and require permission to add ppl, as well as limitations on how much history can be shared with those added people. Chats are vulnerable to eyes seeing things they shouldn't if added haphazardly
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Anonymous
commented
I would prefer these remain completely separate. Both my Teams and Chat lists are already full, I don't want to increase clutter by combining them.
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Ricky Chan
commented
Disagree. Chat and Team are completely different. Please do not change this.
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Craig
commented
Teams is a created group.
I use chat for conversations with those that are not "team" members.
Please DO NOT change this - or make it a user level option. -
C. Clavo
commented
We're setting up a wiki for a project adn to discuss about what's in the wiki we have to switch back and forth between Teams tab and chat tab, is so weird. Either add a wiki to chats, or add chats to wiki please! Or join everything together!
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Seth Anagnostis
commented
My colleagues and I just switched from Slack to Teams and this is by far the most annoying feature of Teams. We constantly lose track of Team messages since people spend most of their time on individual chat, and you always have to remember to set channel by channel notification settings to make sure you even have a chance of not forgetting. There are big time cultural implications here - people chat more, for example, on non work channels when they are readily visible vs. when they have to remember to switch tabs and then scroll to it. Slack gets this one right.
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Anonymous
commented
Having to switch back and forth from Teams to Chat is really annoying and really inefficient.
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Anonymous
commented
Make it a configurable option so that it is a user preference vs. making everyone use it how everyone else thinks it should work. I would definitely enable this feature myself as I am constantly having to check both areas.
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Anonymous
commented
Don't want this as a standard option. Definitely two different functions for me and my users.
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Anonymous
commented
An option could exist, but please do not force this. They do different things.
Teams is to spread a message to an entire team channel while chat is to speak to individual people or groups (e.g. groups with people from different teams...) -
Anonymous
commented
No, please do not do this! Teams and chats has to stay separated. It is way better than have all in one place like Skype and its groups.
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Caleb H
commented
Hard disagree, coming from slack that is one of the things that I loved about Teams. That they are separated.