Chat with others in Microsoft Teams

Start a chat with another person

1. Select New message at the top of your list of chats and channels.

2. Enter a person’s name.

3. Compose your message in the box at the bottom of the chat.

4. To open formatting options, select Format  to the right of your message.

5. When your message is ready, select Send  or press Enter to start the chat.

You can also start a one-on-one chat from someone's profile card. Open it by choosing their picture in a channel or finding their name using the Search box.

Start a chat with yourself

You can start a chat with yourself in Teams. Compose your message just as you would in a regular one-on-one chat. Use your chat space for drafts, to send messages and files to yourself, or to get to know chat features a little better. You can drag your chat with yourself to the top of the Favorites section for easy reference.

Start and name a group chat

A group chat includes multiple people in a conversation. Create a group chat the same way you start a one-on-one chat. 

1. Select New message  at the top of your list of chats and channels.

2. Select the down arrow to the far right of To to reveal the Group name section.

3. Type a group name. 

4. Type the names of the people you’d like to add in the To section. 

This starts a new conversation. Everyone who has access to the group chat can send messages.

You can include up to 250 people in a group chat. 

Add people to the conversation

1. To add people to a group chat, select View and add participants  > Add people.

2. Type the names of the people you'd like to chat with. If it is an existing group chat, you can also choose how much of the chat history to include.

3. Select Add to add them to the conversation.

See who's in a group chat

To see who’s in a group chat, select View and add participants  in the top right corner. This will show a list of everyone’s names.

Chat with Microsoft support

Contact - Microsoft Support​​​​​​​

Start a chat with another person 

1. Tap Chat > New message .

2. In the To field, enter a person’s name.

3. Type your message in the compose box.

   1. To open formatting, tap More messaging options Teams  > Format  .

4. Tap Send to start the chat.

Start a chat with yourself 

You can create a chat with yourself to save notes, reminders, or links. 

1. Tap Chat.

2. Tap New message .

3. Enter your own name in the To field.

4. Type and send your message.

To keep this chat easy to find, drag it to the top of your Favorites list.

Start and name a group chat  

Create a group chat to message multiple people at once.

1. Tap Chat > New message .

2. Type the names of the people you’d like to add in the To field.

3. Type a message and tap Send.

4. At the top of the chat, tap the participant’s names.

5. Tap Group chat name.

6. Enter a name for the chat, then tap Save.

Everyone who has access to the group chat can send messages.

Add people to a chat

Add more people to an existing group chat. 

1. Open the group chat.

2. Tap the participant names at the top.

3. Tap Add people.

4. Enter the names of the people to add.

5. Choose how much chat history to include.

6. Tap Done.

See who's in a group chat  

To see who’s in a group chat, open the group chat and tap the participant’s names at the top of the screen. You’ll see a list of everyone in the chat.

Catch up on all your directed conversations in one place

Catch up helps you quickly review and respond to the conversations that need your attention i.e badged, all in one place, so that you can get to zero badge count on your app from one single surface. 

Instead of switching between chats and channels, Catch up brings everything that matters into a single, unified view so you can stay on top of your work while on the go.

Catch up includes new conversations across:

• Conversations with personal mentions, wherever they appear

• 1:1 chats

• Group and meeting chats (unless muted)

• Followed threads

Each conversation appears on its own swipeable card, showing the full context so you don’t lose your place. You can read, respond, react without navigating away from the view, and mute/unfollow if you're not interested in that conversation from the header directly.

To open Catch up:

• Tap Catch up at the top of your list of chats. The number of cards left indicate the numbers of conversations that need your attention to get to zero badge count in your Teams app. 

• Swipe right to mark the conversation as read. Swipe left to mark keep it unread. You can also use the Keep unread and Mark as read buttons at the bottom of the screen. These read states reflect across mobile and desktop so that you can take action on the conversations kept unread from desktop as well. 

• To undo one of these actions, select Undo at the top of the screen to bring back the previous card.

• Select the dropdown arrow next to the chat or channel name to Mute/Unfollow or Go to a conversation.

• Select Sort by in the upper right corner of your screen to change the order your cards. Select from @Mentions first to see conversations with your name @mentioned first, or Recent to see the cards in order of most recent on top.

When you’ve reviewed everything, you’ll see a clear message saying You’re all caught up. If new items arrive later, a dot badge lets you know there’s more to review.