Introducing the new Microsoft Teams chat and channels experience

Today we announced a new chat and channels experience that will roll out to public preview in November.

Our customers are our greatest source of inspiration, and over the years we have evolved Teams with the goal of helping them achieve more. Today we are taking the next big step in our journey with a new chat and channels experience designed to help you collaborate more efficiently and effectively in the hybrid AI-infused workplace. It is simple by default, enabling everyone to stay on top of what matters, and powerful on-demand, allowing you to organize information and communicate your way. Let’s take a look:

Stay on top of your chats and channels, all in one place

The pace of work has increased exponentially, making it more challenging to keep up with the high volume of conversations, manage messages scattered across different locations, and find information. We’ve redesigned the chat and channels experience to simplify your digital workspace by bringing chats, teams, and channels into one place under Chat. Now, you can easily navigate and prioritize all your conversations without the hassle of switching contexts.

At launch, a self-service, guided onboarding flow within the product will help users discover the new experience and configure it to their preferences. Users who prefer to keep chat and channels separate can easily do so during the onboarding process or at any time later, without needing IT assistance.

Efficiently triage your messages

One of the biggest challenges in managing a high volume of conversations is focusing on the information that matters most to you now.  To help you effectively triage your messages, we’ve introduced new filters such as “Unread,” “Chat,” “Channels,” “Meetings,” and “Muted”. For example, with a single click on the “Unread” filter, you can now catch up in one convenient place on all your unread conversations across chats, channels and meetings. If you are looking for a specific type of conversation, like channels, select the relevant filter to further narrow your search and quickly locate the most relevant results.

“Unread” and “Channels” filters selected to efficiently triage messages.

@Mentions are used to call your attention to essential messages and ensure that these messages don’t slip through the cracks. The new @mention view gathers all messages directed at you into a single interactive list. Now, you can quicky access all conversations that include @mentions without having to search through multiple conversations. With this view, you can quickly identify where your attention is most needed, select a message, and respond directly from your flow of work.

Select the @mention view for an interactive single list of all your @mention messages across chat, channels, and meetings. Reply directly on the right-side pane.

Organize conversations your way

The new chat and channels experience in Teams empowers you to personalize your work environment to fit your needs and organize your conversations the way you prefer to work. The new favorites section is available for everyone by default, bringing together all your pinned chats and channels from the previous experience, so you have one easy-to-access place of your top priority conversations. With custom sections, you can bring all relevant conversations on a project or topic together into one place, be it in chats, channels, meetings, Teams bots or AI agents. With up to 50 sections and 50 items per section, you can efficiently manage even the most complex projects.

Chat list with favorites and a custom section. Organize your chat, channels and meeting chat conversations to fit your needs.

Stay on top of new messages and prioritize essential information by organizing your sections. Rearrange your conversation list to keep key discussions at the forefront using drag and drop. Alternatively, sort your conversation list by most recent message or choose to show unread messages only. This will help you address new communications promptly.

Right-click on sections in Favorites to view the context menu and sort a section’s conversations.

Save time when communicating

We are making it easier to send a new message in channels and promoting the use of existing channels. This integrates both chat and channels into your critical workflows, so you can Initiate a chat or channel post from the same place – eliminating the need to navigate to the specific channel first—with a streamlined new message feature. This update is also reflected in the keyboard shortcut for creating a new message, Ctrl+N (Cmd+N on Mac), for faster communication.

Initiate a chat or channel post from the same place.

Go to helps you navigate Teams effectively without context switching. Quickly navigate to your frequently used conversation across your chat and channels with a new keyboard shortcut Ctrl+G (Cmd+G on Mac).

Type Ctrl+G (Cmd+G on Mac) to navigate to your frequently used conversations.

Customize the experience to your preferences

Every user has a unique way of working. Now, you can customize Teams chat and channels to align with your personal workflow and preferred information consumption style. With new controls, you can choose to view chat and channels separately or see message previews. This way, you create a digital workspace that truly helps you soar.

New controls let you view chat and channels combined or separate and let you choose to show message preview and time stamps.

And if you want to stay on top of the most recent channel messages quickly, switch your teams and channels section to display all your channels in a single list, eliminating the need to expand and collapse team sections.

Display all your channels in a single list

If you are on the go, customize your experience with mobile-specific settings, such as choosing between viewing messages organized by sections or by most recent. The new experience is optimized for different screen sizes, helping you read and respond to messages efficiently no matter where you are.

Availability

Your work isn’t limited to just a desktop, so we’re excited to bring the new chat and channels experience to all devices for seamless productivity. This is coming to public preview in November to desktop, mobile, iOS, and Android, ensuring you can stay connected and efficient wherever you are.

The new chat and channels experience on mobile, for seamless productivity on every device

What’s next

We are just getting started, and we are committed to making Teams more streamlined and simpler with enhancements like threaded conversations. We are beginning to test threaded conversations with customers this quarter and will expand testing in early 2025, with broad availability expected in mid-2025.

Embark on your journey with the new chat and channels experience today and transform the way you connect, focus, and collaborate. Customers with access to Microsoft public preview will be able to try out the new interface starting in November. To activate, choose “Get started” when you see the welcome screen for the new chat and channels experience.

Welcome screen to the new chat and channels experience

Streamline your users onboarding experience and learn more via our hub adoption.microsoft.com. Learn more from Teams product leaders on the vision for the new chat and channel experience on our Meet the Makers episode and get started today:

Join the upcoming Ask Microsoft Anything – Microsoft Teams new chat and channels event on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, from 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST, to engage with Teams product makers, ask your questions, and share your feedback about the new chat and channels experience in Teams.