When timely communication and prompt response is essential, use the @mentions feature. Whether you are reaching out to an individual, a select group of people in a channel, or your entire team, @mentions will help you target your communication to the right people. An @mention is like a tap on the shoulder—a way to direct user attention in a channel conversation or a chat. By harnessing the power of @mentions, teams can increase their efficiency, productivity, and success by staying connected throughout the day when providing a service or working on a project. 

Learn more about 
Using @mentions in Chats and Posts in the OIT Knowledge Base. 

Dive deeper by watching the Use @mentions effectively video in LinkedIn Learning.

Do you have an existing Chat and need to add someone to the conversation? For example, your team has a Chat dedicated to a specific work topic with a set group of co-workers, and you want to add a new hire to that work topic. You can always add or delete people from existing chats in Microsoft Teams. When you add people, choose whether you want to include all the chat history, some, or none of the chat history. It’s up to you!

Learn how to add or remove people from a Chat in the OIT Knowledge Base.

In Microsoft Teams, chatting is a big deal. Chats are where everything happens! Whether you’re talking one-on-one, chatting in groups, or having conversations in channels, chat has you covered.

Starting a chat is easy. Click “New chat” at the top of your chat list, then enter and select the individual you want to message. Chat messages can include files, links, emojis, stickers, and GIFs — whatever helps you get your point across. And guess what? Chatting through Teams is one of the best ways to send and receive fewer emails across the university.

Here are a few benefits of chatting in Teams:

Quicker Decisions: Use instant polls to make decisions faster.

Ready to chat with your team? Try chatting today and discover how much more you can get done!

Chat in Meetings: Take notes and share information throughout your meetings.

Spontaneous Video Calls: Have video calls anytime you want.

Direct Messages: Send private messages to others.

Shorter Meetings: Have fewer and shorter meetings.

Grab someone’s Attention: Use “@mentions” to grab someone’s focus.

Want to learn more? Check out this LinkedIn Learning video.

Ready to chat with your team? Try chatting today and discover how much more you can get done!

If you need to send a chat to someone in Microsoft Teams outside of regular work hours or because the person is currently out of the office, you can schedule the chat for delivery at a specific date and time.

Note – you cannot schedule a Channel message to send during a specific time, only chats.

Type your message

If you wish to cancel the message before it has been sent, tap the ellipsis (…) menu and choose Delete.

Learn more about Sending a Teams Chat at a Scheduled Time in the OIT Knowledge Base.  

While in a Teams meeting you can survey your audience or increase their engagement by creating a poll using Microsoft’s Polls app for Teams. Or use Polls as a quick formative assessment at the moment! Whatever your reason, Microsoft Polls in Teams is easy to use, easy to set up, and provides a great source of information! 

The app can easily be added to a channel or chat.

Poll attendees while scheduling a meeting, during a meeting, or even added after the meeting! 

Learn more about Microsoft Teams and Polls in the OIT Knowledge Base.

Do you ever need to quickly find who attended a meeting? Perhaps you need to know when someone joined or left the meeting, or you need the email addresses of all attendees. Microsoft Teams provides access to this information in an Attendance List.  

Once a Teams meeting has been scheduled, open the meeting event on the Teams calendar. Here you will find a new tab for Attendance along the ribbon. Information on attendees will appear once the meeting has concluded.

Microsoft Teams Meeting Attendance in the OIT Knowledge Base.

Did you know that in Microsoft Teams, Channels (part of a Team’s messaging) and Chats (stand-alone messaging) don’t have the same features when it comes to handling files? Channels are a more formal way to collaborate and include more features for managing and sharing files. Chats are a less formal way to collaborate and include fewer options for modifying and sharing files.  

To delete a file in a Channel, navigate to the Files tab with the Channel.

To delete a file in a Chat, navigate to the entry within the chat to delete the attached document.

Delete a file from a Teams Channel or Teams Chat in the OIT Knowledge Base.

Microsoft Teams has multiple ways to communicate and collaborate with co-workers, peers, faculty, staff, and students.  Channels are inside the Team, and Chats are separate from a specific Team.

Channels: Teams will allow you to work with specific groups of people in a formal group space, called a Team, by communicating in Channels.

Chats: You can work with people informally, one-on-one, or in small groups outside of a Team using Chats.

Discover the difference between Channels and Chats in the OIT Knowledge Base.