Search for messages and more in Microsoft Teams

Search your current location with Ctrl+F

Press Ctrl+F (cmd+F on macOS) to search messages within a particular chat or channel in Teams.

1. Choose the area you want to search—for example, a recent chat or the General channel within a team.

2. Press Ctrl+F followed by your search terms, and then press Enter. The search results will be displayed from within that chat or channel conversation.

3. Choose any one of the available results and Teams will scroll up to the location of that particular message.

Search for one-on-one or group chats

Type the person’s name in the search box. You’ll see their name and any group chats listed. Select their name to go to your one-on-one chat with them, or choose a group chat to pick up where you left off.

Search for group chats by the chat name (if it has one) or search by the name of the chat participants. 

Search for teams and channels

Search for a team or channel by its name in the search box. Select the suggested option in the list to directly navigate to the Team or channel. 

Search for messages

Start typing a keyword into the search box and press Enter. This displays a list of results that include the keyword.

Filter your results

After you’ve entered your search terms into the search box, use the Messages, People, or Files tabs above your results to refine your search. Another tier of filters will appear after you make your initial selection, providing a search option for more granular results.

For example, if you select Messages, you can then filter by who the message is from, where the message is, and more. 

Use search modifiers 

For richer search results in messages, use KQL (Keyword Query Language). The following are the modifiers that Teams supports: ​

• From:Person's name

• In:Channel or group chat name

• Subject:keyword from a channel message with a subject line

• Sent:Date

Search tips from the pros

• Use an asterisk * to get results for any words with a matching prefix. Type the first few letters of a word followed immediately by an asterisk. For example, type "serv*" into the search box, and you'll get results for all words that start with those four letters (server, service, and so on).

• Use quotation marks to search for an exact match on a word or phrase. Example: “annual budget”.

• The search box also supports certain spell corrections and nickname matches for people searches.

Filter your activity feed

From the Activity feed, select Filter to type a keyword. Select More options to show certain types of messages such as unread messages, @mentions, replies, and likes. 

To only look at your activity, select Feed at the top and then select My activity.

Find your saved messages

To save a message, select More options  > Save this message .

To see a list of your saved messages, select your profile picture at the upper-right of Teams, and then choose Saved. Or, use the shortcut command /saved in the search box.