Cool Tricks with MS Teams
USE THE COMMAND LINE
It might not be immediately obvious, but the Search box at the top of the Teams desktop app doubles as a command line. Click in that box and then tap the slash key (/) to display a list of all available commands. You can use /chat or /call, for example, to begin communicating with someone, or use /busy or /away to change your status.
CHANGE THE GROUP NAME FOR GROUP CHATS
The Chat pane is where you have private interactions with other people, outside the formal structure of a team. Chats can be one-on-one or can involve multiple people, and over time your Chat pane can become so cluttered you can't find anything.
By default, each chat session is labeled with the names of the other participants. To make it easier to find a specific session, change the group name to something descriptive. Select any group chat from the pane on the left, then click the pencil icon to the right of the participants' names at the top of the page. Enter a new group name and then click Save.
The new name is persistent, and every participant in the group chat sees that name. This technique is particularly useful for long-running chats with a large number of participants, so everyone knows where to go to rejoin the conversation.
BLUR YOUR BACKGROUND
If you're in a video chat and you'd rather not show off your messy office or allow family members to wander accidentally into the meeting room, you can blur the background. That option is on the toolbar. Click the ellipsis to see additional menu options, then choose Blur My Background, or use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + Shift + P, to toggle this setting.
CONNECT TO EXTERNAL APPS
Microsoft Teams has excellent communication tools built-in, but that doesn't mean you have to say goodbye to other tools.
For example, if one of your teams regularly uses Zoom or WebEx for meetings, you can connect those apps directly to the Teams app and then switch to that service as needed. To connect third-party apps, click the Apps button at the bottom of the navigation page and then search for a specific app or use the category list to narrow your selection. Click an available app, enter your credentials, authorize the app to share data with Teams, and you're done.
