Quicker way to find contact and start conversation
Starting new conversation with colleague via teams (4-6 seconds, 7+ steps):
1. Mouse click on pinned MS Teams on taskbar
2. Wait for 1-2 seconds for MS Teams window to open
3. Mouse click on "Search"
4. Enter contact name
5. Mouse click or down+enter to open chat
6. Mouse click/focus message field
7.Type + enter, message sent
Compared to Skype for business (1-3 seconds, 4 steps):
1. Double click on taskbar Skype icon - window opens instantly
2. Start typing contact name ("Search" is focused automatically)
3. Press enter (first match chat window is opened, message field is focused)
4.Type + enter, message sent
I would like for more colleagues to start using MS Teams for chatting because it is better in so many ways compared to "Skype for business", but we keep falling back to Skype because its more convenient for quick use.

7 comments
-
Anonymous commented
Why there isn't simple area where all contacts are visible at once without need to search first? It's ridiculous
-
Miguel Isidoro commented
One addditional detail: it would be nice that without search, a list of contacts would appear in the Contacts tab in Teams with an indication saying if user has Teams or Skype for Business. Currently, no Contacts appear.
Then with search, we could narrow down and search for specific users.
Also creating groups of contacts will be interesting... But the main focus should be to allow users to quicky start conversions and calls.In my company, there is a strong resistance to Teams adoption due this type of little details and the impression that Teams has inherited many of the Skype for Business problems.
Meanwhile, users use Slack, which I would like to avoid.
-
Miguel Isidoro commented
One additional comment: Skype For Business allows to search all contacts in our personal contacts and if they also have Skype For Business to start a conversation or call. When I search for my contacts in Teams, I get no results. Is this feature planned for Teams? The idea would be to quickly find our contacts that also have Teams and quickly start a conversation or call with them,
-
Leonardo commented
Just to reiterate what was already said. Please take a look at the Slack "direct to" feature. MS Teams feels just glacially slow when you want to quickly get in and out of a lot of chats/teams.
-
James Knorpp commented
I have used Hipchat/Stride and other team communication tools and they all have a simple method to see all the contacts in an organization. Teams is meant to be for business so there HAS to be a way to see all the members of an organization as a directory. I actually opened a ticket with Microsoft since I assumed this should be there and it is not.
It makes no sense that the only way to start a conversation with a new person is to start a chat and then search for them. This is a basic function of Stride, slack, and any number of other group communication utilities and not having this is a deal breaker for us. As we are also an MSP this means we cannot in good conscience recommend Teams to any of our clients either.
It seems ludicrous that all functionality improvements are pushing towards the SfB integration yet they are neglecting the primary purpose of allowing you to communicate with other members of your organization in the easiest method possible.
-
Anonymous commented
a clear view of all the contacts that works in my company , and not just the contacts i have been in contact before, like skype for example, you can see all the contacts , even those who you not yet been in contact with.
-
Tyler Benton commented
Slack came up with by far the best way to switch between direct messages, and channel messages and that's to press command+K to bring up the quick switcher
Switching to a message someone sent (0.5-1 seconds, 2 steps)
1. Press Command+K (this brings up the quick switcher that has any unread messages show up in there)
2. Press enter and it will go to the first unread message that was sent to youOption 2 switching to someone that hasn't sent you a message (1-3 seconds, 3 steps)
1. Press Command+K
2. Type in the user/channel
3. Press Enter