Teams Notifications
This doc is a rundown of Teams notifications settings and how they work. It will help you to make Teams a more efficient by customizing what you are and aren’t notified about.
To personalize your Microsoft Teams notifications, click on your profile picture in the upper right-hand corner of the Teams UI to access the account settings. From here you can access “Settings” and then you can click on “Notifications.”
1. Mentions: Mentions, or @mentions, work in two ways. You can either notify your entire team by typing the name of the team in the channel (example: @marketing) or you could mention the name of a specific individual to alert them of something (example: @bryan).
It’s also good to know that when you @mention someone directly in a channel, the entire team can read the message, but a Microsoft Teams desktop taskbar notification will only pop up for the @mentioned person. To further aide you, the message will also be highlighted with a red icon next to it in both the Teams vertical taskbar as well as in the channel flow discussion. Also, a red circle with a number in it appears next to the channel name. As an added benefit, especially for users still getting used to using Teams on a regular basis, the pop up appears even if your Teams app is not open.
2. Messages: Microsoft Teams is a messaging platform first and foremost, and so it’s obvious that it would have customization for its chat notifications. Because this centralized communication software is designed to reduce clutter and noise, each team gets their own general channel, which means others do not have to read internal departmental communications.
But, like any other messaging platform, you can message others privately, or create your own groups. You can choose to receive or disable notifications for normal chat messages, or specifically choose to enable Microsoft Teams’ notifications for conversations you’ve previously replied to or have been a part of. And just like consumer Facebook, you can ‘react and like’ messages, for which you can also enable notifications.
3. Other: These notifications are not related to messages, chats, comments, or tasks. To explain this subheading better, we’ll need to start by expanding on the two ‘roles’ that exist within Teams.
· Owner: a user that creates a new team or who starts a new channel is granted the owner status. An owner has more access and full permissions to the group, which means they can add/remove members, change team name, and do much more.
· Member: a group member who enjoys standard permissions to send/receive messages, make mentions, etc.
By default, Microsoft Teams enables notifications for role and membership changes. This is also where you can turn on SOUND notifications for calls, messages, and chats.
Quick Tip: If you ever want a quick way to check on all your unread channel notifications, just type /unread in the command bar at the top of Teams!
4. Meetings: When meetings start you can choose to be notified by a banner notification (explained below) or switch it off.
5. Status: You have the option to follow a person’s status which notifies you when that person switches between ‘Available’ and ‘Offline’.
Follow a Channel: Following a channel means you'll be notified whenever there is new activity within a channel. To do this, right click the channel and then click Follow this channel
Notification Settings Explained
Banner:
Banner notifications are larger notifications which appear at the corner of your screen whenever you’re mentioned individually or as a team in any channel/group. You’ll also get a banner notification when someone messages you personally. As stated, you can always change what triggers this type of notification.
Note: The banner notification will also indicate if the alert you’ve received is from a message, reply, etc.
Banner and Email:
Microsoft Teams notifications can also be sent to your inbox alongside a banner notification to ensure that you’re alerted on all fronts. You can also configure Teams to send scheduled emails for your notifications. The frequency can be adjusted as follows: As soon as possible, Once every 10 mins, Once every hour (default), Once every 8 hours, Once a day, or Never
In Feed:
Alerts can also appear in your feed, this is a section that displays all previous and new notifications.
Sound:
You can also enable auditory Microsoft Teams desktop notifications, and you’ll be able to select from three options:
- All – you’ll be alerted via sound for all messages, from all channels you’re part of, whether you’re mentioned or not (we recommend not selecting this to reduce clutter)
- Call, mention, and chat – notifications will only appear when you’re called, someone private messages you, or when you’re mentioned
- Off – this will disable all sound notifications