Teams Tips

Connect with video - Use video to interact face-to-face and feel more connected. Messy desk? Closet door won’t shut? No problem. Your office will always look great with background effects. While in a call, select the ‘…’, then choose Show Background Effects or Blur My Background.*

Streamline discussions - Quickly turn a one-on-one or group chat into a call by selecting the Video call or Audio call buttons in the upper right corner of your chat screen.

Have a little fun - Add a personal touch with emojis, GIFs and stickers. From dancing penguins to birthday cakes, you’ll find the right dash of creativity to add to your group chats and one-to-one messages.

Stay organized - Plan projects and track tasks with apps like Planner, Asano, or Trello. To find an app, go to Apps on the left of the Teams window, then search for your favorite app or browse the app categories to find new ones.

Pin important chats - Never miss a request from your boss again! Pin important one-to-one or group chats to the top of your feed. Hover over the conversation in the chat feed panel, click the “…” and select Pin.

Share your notes - Take shared meeting notes in OneNote that anyone on the call can access. During the meeting, click the “…” and select Show meeting notes.

Attend virtual study hall - Need to focus? Turn down the noise in a Teams channel and get your work done in peace. Select the channel, click on the “…” and turn off notifications under Channel Notifications.

Discover where you’re @ - Find your personal messages and to-do’s quickly with @ mentions in the Activity feed. At the top of the feed, click the filter, hit the “…” and select @ Mentions.

Become a shortcut wiz - Use slash commands to quickly navigate Teams. In the search bar type “/” for a list of commands. Some favorite slash commands include:

•/Files – Shows the most recent files shared with you on Teams

•/GoTo – Lets you jump straight to a channel

•/Call – Initiates a call with someone else on Teams

•/Help – Delivers assistance via T-bot

Keep the conversation going - Assign a name to a group chat to easily continue the conversation and keep track of it over time. Click on the Pencil/compose icon to start a new chat. Then give it a name and add team members. Enter the name into the search bar to find the conversation any time.