Better visual delineation between `Reply` and `Start a new conversation`
It's very confusing to new users that there is a difference between replying to an existing conversation and starting a new one within a channel. This is a visual thing as much as anything else. The 'reply' buttons are not naturally attractive if you just want to start typing a message. There should be a logical gap between the bottom of a conversation and 'start a new conversation'. 'Start a new conversation' needs to be separated visually, as if it's a second order command rather than a first order...reply.
Stephen Ellis
shared this idea
We have been iterating on different designs and are starting to test internally. I don’t have a timeframe but will keep you posted.
361 comments
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Marcus Diddle
commented
Agreed, this needs changed. My organization is new to Teams, and as simple a concept as it seems, there are far too many people who are starting new conversations when they should be replying. My vote would be to hide the "Start New conversation" section altogether behind a "Compose" button that needs clicked first. Change the Reply button to the default, ready-to-be-typed-in text bar. Essentially make Replying the default behavior rather than Starting a new conversation.
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Rae Jobst
commented
For users new to Teams, they frequently start a new conversation rather than click reply.
Simply remove the need to click Reply - just have the field open and the visual prompt on where to type your reply is much clearer.
Looking forward to seeing this changed - thanks Microsoft for listening to the users on this.
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Adam Wrzeski
commented
Last update from MS was on December 4th, 2018, and based on @skprufo Twitter account, she's leaving to AWS :( --- who at MS is going to be leading the charge for updates on this topic? Our IT department just announced it's 2 months away from deploying company wide. And I would LOVE it if this would get resolved before then. It would save us some headaches.
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Justin
commented
Too many comments now to know if this has been suggested but here goes.
1) Starting a new conversation should invoke a small popup that has two fields. Subject and message body. This can result in one message with a blank line after the subject or a post with a reply. I suggest replacing the current text window with a button.
2) The thread reply should/could be the text box that results from clicking on Reply now.
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Brandon Gano
commented
Please change this. I can't count the number of times team members have missed things because someone accidentally started a new conversation instead of replying. It completely breaks an otherwise functional product.
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Robert Y
commented
This is such a pain! There are so many confusing conversations because users can't distinguish between the two easily. Please fix ASAP.
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Francis
commented
I couldn't agree more with these comments. If I am in a 'thread' with someone, I don't want to type, mouse click reply, type, mouse click reply, type... The default input field should be 'reply to last focussed conversation'. Then add separate start new conversation button.
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Jake
commented
I just want to agree with a lot of other people here. The current solution in the works is not a solution at all. The problem is that the "Type a new message" field is more readily accessible than the "reply" field. Changing the text or the appearance of the reply-button does nothing to solve the issue. The reply field needs to be always visible and the "new topic/conversation/whatever" field needs to be hidden away, so people don't use it unless they really want to start a new thread.
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Andrew Hung
commented
Users commonly accidentally create new threads instead of replying to an existing thread. This results in desync in conversations, and a clutter of threads.
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Jim
commented
Here's the solution in Microsoft Teams Help Menu:
Use Chat Threads:
Threading makes sure that your reply to a post stays grouped with the original post and its subsequent comments."If you started a new conversation instead of replying to a thread, the best thing to do is just delete your standalone message and reply to the thread (as if nothing happened)."
"delete...(as if nothing happend)." ~Teams
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Jim
commented
In our department everyone is always posting in the wrong 'reply'.
Please fix this. Conversations are all over the place and not grouped correctly. There's tons of posts just saying that they meant to post in the thread above the new conversation. -
Raul
commented
It's true. We are evaluating Office 365 and our test users are always creating new conversations when they should be answering instead. I don't know what is the best solution, but if there isn't at least let team owners move messages to a conversation.
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Pablo Estigarribia
commented
Looks like having a round colored big button for starting new conversations could be better idea than having the current behaviour, as everyone forgots to reply to the conversation today and starts a new one when trying to respond instead.
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csrowell
commented
Make it so you can't hit "Enter" to start a new conversation. Require a "Start New Conversation" button press (or Tabbing to the button and activating it.).
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Josh
commented
Is this dumpster fire of a UI getting fixed any time soon?
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Anonymous
commented
Consider one field with 2 buttons: Reply New Conversation
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Rich Houk
commented
In the mobile app, you have to tap a button to create a new conversation. This is the way it should work in the desktop app. Creating a conversation should require an action, not just having the text box at the bottom that is more applicable to the chat area.
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Panagiotis
commented
I would add a "+" red button on the right bottom or on the top left screen of the team and hide the bottom Editbox ( "Start a new conversation Type @ to mention someone" ) that starts a new conversation. And leave the other EditBoxes for the conversations as it is, below the conversation so the user will understand that is the place for the answer.
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Mike Larkin
commented
If this was an owner feature it would save me a ton of extra messages telling people to delete and click reply. This is extremely cumbersome and almost defeats the point of having an efficient platform. Maybe a quick solution is to implement a more colorful "reply" button to remind people to click it - OR when in the Team Channels, do not have a text box at the bottom - place a Button for [ Start a New conversation ] that enables the text box. Display a Text Label in the place of the text box that says [ Reply above Or Start a New Conversation ] - I think this would help out 90% of the time and clean up many threads.
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Christophe ARMAND
commented
Many users miss the point between "reply" and "start new discussion" (see https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/19224826-better-visual-delineation-between-reply-and-sta) – following discussion in a channel becomes a challenge!
As the author/initiator of a discussion "A", would be nice to have the ability to attach (re-parent) "A" to an existing discussion "B" (in the same channel) so that post "A" (and its potential replies) would become a reply to "B" (which was the initial intent)
Workaround for now: remove post "A", and repost it as a reply to "B"…