25 Microsoft Teams Tips and Tricks the Experts Rely On

Whether your team works on-site, remotely, or a little bit of both, you need a platform to communicate with one another. On the surface, this may sound simple, but managing a comprehensive business communication network is no small feat. 

Microsoft Teams offers a number of dynamic functions that users can customize to fit their organization’s culture and preferences. Truly maximizing the Microsoft Teams user experience, however, requires you to know what to look for and what functionalities are available to you. Ntiva is here to help.

What Is Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based collaborative workspace that features group and individual messaging, voice or video calls, and file sharing. Like other messaging services, Teams messages can incorporate emojis, GIFs, and other media attachments.

Think of Microsoft Teams as a private social media site for your internal team. It's organized into groups of invited people who get to communicate and collaborate while the platform organizes all the relevant materials. You can create any number of channels (the places where you chat and share files) for your organization.

Microsoft Teams has become so popular due in large part to its inclusion with Microsoft 365. At no extra cost, you get a messaging app that enables you to create and integrate with more than 600 apps, including the entire Microsoft Office suite.

1. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are a secret weapon for speeding up the most common tasks. It can take a while before you feel like you know your way around these essentials, but once you do, it takes less than a second’s work to perform a command instead of fumbling through a drop-down menu. To see the menu of keyboard shortcuts, simply hold Ctrl and press the period (.) key. 

Here are some important keyboard shortcuts to get started:

• Search: Ctrl+E
• Turn off camera: Ctrl+Shift+O
• Mute: Ctrl+Shift+M
• Background blurring: Ctrl+Shift+P
• Open your files: Ctrl+6
• Open your calendar: Ctrl+Shift+B
• Create a new chat: Ctrl+N
• Start a video call: Ctrl+Shift+X
• Open the meeting options: Ctrl+Shift+O
• Start recording: Ctrl+Shift+R
• Pause/resume recording: Ctrl+Shift+P
  

Important note for Apple device users: The command (Cmd) key on a Mac keyboard is the functional equivalent of the control (Ctrl) key on a Windows keyboard. Therefore, for the shortcuts above, Mac users should use the Cmd key in place of Ctrl.

2. Make the most of the search bar.

Search will become an indispensable feature as you produce more and more content and start to forget where you put those work projects. After you type in what you want to search for and hit “enter,” the search results will appear in the pane on the left. Switch between “people” and “files” by clicking on the tabs. This will cover group messages and individuals.

Sometimes you need more than just simple search, which is where integrated keyword query language for more advanced searches in messages comes in handy. Here are the keywords Teams supports to boost your searching power. (Remember not to add a space between the colon and the search terms.)

• “From:” then enter the person’s name
• “In:” then enter the channel or group chat name
• “Subject:” the keyword from a message or a subject line
• “Sent:” the date the message was sent

Additionally, typing a forward slash (/) into the search bar presents you with a list of shortcut options, such as changing your status or composing a message.

3. Use hashtags for better searchability.

Designate topics, themes, projects, or other important categories using hashtags within your chats. By adding taxonomy to messages by including specific words or phrases, you make them more searchable and easier to find.

4. Customize chat names.

No one wants to dig through thousands of conversations to find that one message you need. Teams takes away this frustration by allowing full customization of your chat titles, so you can find them in the future. Simply hit the pencil at the top right of your chat, and rename it accordingly!

5. Optimize alerts.

Sometimes you might want to filter out distractions so you can give your full attention to the chat or task at hand with no worry of being disturbed by alerts. To do this, just select your profile picture (located in the top right corner), then select the “notifications” tab to change the type and frequency of your alerts, or turn on “do not disturb.”

6. Get a better video background.

We don't all work from beautiful, picturesque settings. Sometimes you've got no choice but to take that video call in a less-than-perfect space. Blurring your background can help add professionalism and keep your personal life personal! To do this in a call, select the audio and video settings screen, then the ellipsis (...), and then "blur my background.”

You also have the option to use an image instead of blurring. Go to the same location, but select “show background effects” to see a sidebar with some pleasant options for projected background images.

7. Translate messages.

Translating any message into a foreign language is one simple click away. Hover over the message you need to translate, click the ellipsis (...), and select “translate.” While not always perfect, Teams includes live video call translation. You can add captions in multiple languages using the “translate to” menu, and attendees can turn on captions by clicking “subtitles on” on the right side of their screens.

8. Forward emails to your channels.

Email may have fallen out of fashion for quick communication, but it certainly still exists, and plenty of us still use it every day. Thankfully, forwarding an email to any Microsoft Teams channel is easy. Next to the channel name, click the ellipsis (...), then “get email address.” Now your group has an email address that you can directly forward messages to!

9. Save a message for later.

Sometimes you need to focus on a project and flag a message to come back to later. Just hover over any message and click the ellipsis (…), then click “save this message.” You can easily find your saved messages by typing “/Saved” in the search box. Once you see your results, you can also unsave messages via the bookmark icon that appears in the top right of each message to keep your queue clear.

10. Send a message as "urgent" or "important."

This is the digital equivalent of banging loudly on an office door. To send an urgent message notification, look below the text compose box and click the exclamation (!) icon. You’ll be able to check “urgent” or “important” to add either of these tags to the message and help grab the recipient’s attention. If you mark a message as “urgent,” once you’ve sent it, they’ll receive a notification every two minutes for the following 20 minutes, which should make it hard to ignore.

11. Survey your staff.

Gathering feedback can be tedious, but Teams makes polling staff members a breeze. Just click the “forms” icon under the message box to start and send a poll in Microsoft Teams. You can then compose your poll question and responses.

For multiple answers, toggle the “multiple answers” option on. You have the option to share results automatically after voting ends and to keep responses anonymous. After you add the Polls app as a tab to your chat, each poll will appear as a draft within the app. You can choose an order to launch them or deliver questions to participants all at once. View responses in real time by selecting “view results.”

12. Use meeting reactions.

Teams gives you even more ways to express yourself in video chats with meeting reactions, which allow you to emphasize certain emotions without interrupting the flow of conversation. When you’re in a video meeting, navigate to the menu bar at the top of the screen and hover over the “raise hand” icon. You’ll then be able to choose from four options of emoticons representing various reactions (👍❤️👏😆).

13. Receive on-demand assistance.

You can access Microsoft Teams’ dedicated help agent (often referred to as a “t-bot” or just “bot”) for assistance with repetitive tasks. Click on this virtual assistant, and you can start typing questions (or just keywords) to get instant AI-generated answers based on predefined rules.

14. Transcribe meetings.

Meeting notes can be useful, but taking them efficiently tends to be a major chore. With Microsoft Teams, you can transcribe meetings live and automate note-taking. When you’re in the meeting, click on the ellipsis (...), select "record and transcribe," and then "start transcription." The full transcription will be saved and processed with the meeting recording. 

Teams also offers a recap feature, which summarizes the main takeaways of the discussion in addition to saving the chat and any files that were shared. To access the recap, navigate to your Teams calendar, click on the desired event, and use the expand arrows to see the meeting details and all attributed resources.

15. Turn on mic auto-adjustment.

When using the Teams desktop app, the default setting includes a microphone auto-adjustment feature. This feature is designed to improve audio issues, such as background noise and volume inconsistencies. To check if this setting is turned on, click the ellipses icon (...) at the top right corner of the app and select “settings.” Go to “devices” and turn “automatically adjust mic sensitivity” on or off to experiment with the microphone quality.

16. Chat with users across platforms

Teams enables users to chat with non-Microsoft 365 users without switching tenants. Users can initiate a chat with anyone who has an email address, and it doesn’t require the external contact to download an app or create an account to take part in the conversation.

Users also have the option to sign up for Mio, which integrates with Teams so that you can message non-Teams users on different platforms, such as Slack or Cisco Webex.

17. Reduce clicks with file syncing.

You can improve your workflow by synchronizing files and folders on your computer. Within your target channels, navigate to “files,” and select “sync” at the top of the menu. This allows Teams to add a quick-access folder to your desktop via OneDrive, making it easier to access files in a matter of seconds.

18. Streamline tasks with the Power Automate app.

If you have a lot of routine or repetitive tasks, you can automate them using templates to speed up your workload. To automate tasks within Teams, download the Power Automate app and pin it to your left navigation. You can use this app within Teams by selecting “create” and choosing from existing templates or creating your own flow from scratch.

19. View your recently visited locations.

When using SharePoint, you can easily navigate back and forth between recent pages or files by using the backward and forward arrows in the top left corner. If you want to visit a location a few jumps back, simply hover above the back arrow and choose from the last 10 locations you visited, give or take. This history menu comes in handy in case you accidentally close a tab or want to revisit a location you were working on earlier in the day or even last week.

20. Brainstorm with Microsoft Whiteboard.

Incorporate the Whiteboard app, which lets you and others collaborate in a shared space. Each team member has access to a virtual whiteboard where they can add text or images using sketching tools within the app. The Whiteboard app can be added to channels and chats and used during Teams video calls. 

Make sure you have downloaded the Whiteboard app, then open a channel and select the plus icon (+) and choose the “Whiteboard” icon from the “add a tab” drop-down list. Make sure to click “save” on the lower right to add it to the channel. You can follow the same process to add a new Whiteboard to a chat, or you may find Whiteboard listed in the tabs across the top of the window when you open a chat.

21. Bookmark files and apps with tabs.

Tabs enable you to quickly connect users with important content and services in Office or third-party apps. To add a tab to a channel, select the plus (+) at the top of the channel, choose a tab from the options, and hit “save.” The desired tab should now appear at the top of the channel.

22. Get inspired with industry-specific playbooks.

Another Microsoft Teams hack is using industry-specific playbooks for inspiration on how to use its various features to meet specific business needs. Whether you’re in education, finance, healthcare, or another field, Microsoft adoption guides provide insights and support on how to best implement Teams to align with your role and strategy.

23. Add a calendar to your channels.

Schedule events for everyone with ease by adding a calendar to your channels. When you open a channel, select the plus (+) icon on the right to open the “add a tab” panel. Click on the “channel calendar” icon and give it a name before selecting “add.” This helps everyone in your team stay informed about upcoming events and even adds a summary post to the channel every time a new event is added. 

24. Leverage the Scheduling Assistant.

To make coordinating meetings even easier, the Scheduling Assistant allows you to see the calendars of all invitees concurrently. Viewing everyone’s schedules side by side makes it easy to find mutual free time. You can access the assistant when creating a new meeting—just add all relevant parties to the event invitation, then click the “Scheduling Assistant” tab at the top of the invite window.

25. Harness the power of A.I.

Microsoft users can now leverage AI with Copilot for 365. This innovative AI tool is intended to work seamlessly with your favorite Microsoft applications, including Teams, to make your day-to-day work more efficient (and less tedious). You can use it for collaboration, to make the most of meetings, or even during meeting prep to put together engaging presentations and decks.

You can also use Copilot Studio to build custom AI agents, such as an internal help desk bot or a customer-facing chat assistant, that help connect your data, automate common tasks, and support your team without writing a single line of code.

Make the Most of Your Microsoft 365 Tools

Microsoft Teams not only offers vast collaboration capabilities but also provides convenient access to all files within an organization and integration with a long list of useful and popular apps. Reaping these benefits, though, depends on your organization’s level of proficiency with the software. We hope these tips can help you further maximize your Teams usage!

Although the Microsoft ecosystem is designed to meet any number of unique business needs, it needs careful configuration to successfully do so. Microsoft 365 is a powerful business tool, so you want to know that your environment is being managed by a qualified party. Ensure you’re making the most of everything Microsoft 365 has to offer by partnering with Ntiva.

Want to learn more about Microsoft IT Support for your business? See Ntiva’s Microsoft IT Support Services.

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Disclaimer:  This blog was originally published July 2022 and updated January 2026.