Microsoft Teams Activity and Notifications

Categories: Howtos Information Instruction Office 365

This document provides information about activity and notifications in Teams.  For more information, see https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Keeping-track-of-conversations-afe6d0e5-34f3-4469-b7bd-905aab4042a3 

Getting Someone’s Attention 

To get someone’s attention in a channel conversation or a chat, @mention them. Just type @ before their name and then select them from the menu that appears. 

Note: You can also mention someone simply by typing their name. Start by capitalizing the first letter and as you continue to type the name, a list of people will show for you to choose from. 

They receive a notification, which they can click to go directly into the point in the conversation where they were mentioned. 

Activity feed basics 

Select Activity to view your Activity feed, a summary of everything that’s happened in the channels that are in your teams list.

Select Filter at the top right corner of the feed to show specific types of messages such as unread messages, @mentions, replies, and likes. 

When a red circle appears next to Activity, you have a notification—such as an @mention or a reply—in your feed. These notifications remain in your feed for 14 days. After that they expire and no longer show in your feed. 

Notes: Another way to check your notifications is to use the command box at the top of Teams. 

• Type /unread to view your unread channel notifications. 
• Type /mentions to view all your @mentions. 

For a more specific feed, go to the Feed menu and select My activity. You’ll get a list of everything you’ve been up to lately in Teams. 

Activity feed symbols 

Teams attaches unique symbols to different types of notifications in your feed. That way, you can look through your feed and prioritize based on the following. This includes @mentions of you specifically, replies to your posts, posts you liked, and suggested posts.

Notifications 

Six things to know about notifications: 

1. Notification settings are under your profile 

Access notification settings by selecting your profile picture in the top right corner of Teams, then Settings > Notifications. 

2. Notification sounds can be on or off 

To choose if a sound plays with each new notification, select your profile picture at the top right corner of Teams, then Settings > Notifications > toggle off/on. 

In this state, notification sounds are on. 

Note: Currently, only Android mobile devices are able to choose what type of sound plays for notifications. 

3. There are default settings 

If you change nothing about your Teams notifications, you’ll receive both desktop notifications and activity feed alerts for @mentions, direct messages (chat), and all new conversations and @mentions in the channels and teams that show in your teams list. 

4. There are four ways to get notified:

• The activity feed You’ll find this in the top left corner of Teams. This is where we’ll let you know what’s happening across your teams and channels. Check out the different kinds of activity you’ll get in Teams.  
• Then there’s chat This is where your group and one-on-one conversations happen. As you receive multiple messages, we’ll keep a count of them for you. 
• Desktop—aka “Banner”—notifications On Windows, these will show in the bottom right corner of your screen, then move to the Action Center. On Mac OS, these show up in the top right corner of your screen, then move to the Control Center. Note: If using Teams on the web, some browsers will only show notifications in the browser tab where you’re running Teams.
• Email If you want to use email to stay on top of Teams conversations as they happen, use the missed activity email. You choose how often you get them. If you want a summary of the day’s activity, use the digest email. You’ll get this email at the beginning of each day. 

5. Things are slightly different on mobile. One of the first things you’ll want to do is choose whether to send notifications to your phone Always, or only When I’m not active on desktop. (You’re considered inactive after 3 minutes of inactivity.)  The other thing you’ll want to make sure to set are your quiet hours. To do this, go to More in the top left corner of the mobile app > Notifications > Quiet hours. Then set a specific time of day when you want Teams to hold your notifications—or choose entire days. 

6. You can set notifications per channel, too. When you get added to a team, we’ll automatically show the three most active channels in that team. These channels will send you notifications when someone @mentions the channel. To also get notified for all new conversations and replies, select More options … > Channel notifications, or go to notification settings, and under Shown channels select Edit. 

Desktop 

There are multiple ways to access and manage notifications. To further customize your notification settings, select your profile picture at the top, right corner of Teams, then select Settings > Notifications. From there you can fine-tune what notifications you receive and where those notifications show up.  

In Activity on the left side of Teams, select More options on a notification. From the menu, you can mark a notification as read or unread. You can also turn on or off notifications for a specific channel if you want. 

• Stop email notifications Click on your profile picture in the top right of the app, then select    Settings > Notifications. Now you can set type of notifications you want for each type of activity on Teams. If you don’t want any emails, just make sure all activity types are set otherwise. 
• Keep notifications in the app Select Only show in feed. This means all notifications will be sent to your activity feed, which you can find at the top left corner of Teams. The app will still show notifications on your desktop taskbar, but no pop-up will show. 
• Get notified in app and on desktop Select Banner and feed and you’ll receive notifications as both a desktop notification and as an alert in your activity feed. On Windows, notification banners will show in the bottom right of your screen. On macOS, they show in the top right. 
• Turn off notifications for specific conversations Go to the beginning of a conversation in a channel, then go to the top right corner of the message and select More options  > Turn off notifications.  Just like muting a chat, turning off notifications to a channel conversation will stop you from receiving updates for that specific conversation. You’ll still receive notifications if someone directly mentions you. 
• Choose your channel notifications Go to a channel that shows in your teams list and select More options > Channel notifications. From there, you can choose what activity you get notifications for, and where they show up. By default, channel mentions are turned off and all new posts will only show in Activity. 

Notification tips and tricks 

How to get all notifications for all activity 

By default, you’ll only receive notifications for teams and channels that you haven’t hidden from your teams list. To make sure you have all the channels showing that you care about, follow the directions at Show or hide teams and channels. 

Once you’ve got all your channels where you want them, you’ll start receiving notifications in Activity. If you’d also like to get these notifications on your desktop, select Settings > Notifications > and select Edit under Shown channels and select Banner and feed.  

And how to turn down the noise 

Some simple ways to keep your focus on the activity that’s most important to you: 

• Turn off desktop notifications for activity you don’t need to respond to right away. Select either Feed only or Off. 
• Hide a channel to turn off activity and desktop notifications. Hidden channels will show in your list if a message is marked important or when someone @mentions you or the channel. 
• Set your presence to Do not disturb to get some quiet time. This won’t change your notification settings, but it will mute notifications until you change your presence back. 

IOS 

From your activity feed, tap Filter to show only certain types of messages such as unread messages, @mentions, replies, and likes. Use the feed options to select team or individual activity. To customize your notifications, tap More > Settings > Notifications. From there tap Open settings to access your iOS settings for Teams. Then tap Notifications > Allow notifications to determine how you want to view Teams notifications. 

Android 

From your activity feed, tap Filter to show only certain types of messages such as unread messages, @mentions, replies, and likes. Use the feed options to select team or individual activity. To customize your notifications, tap More > Settings > Notifications.