Here’s an unvarnished truth: if you’re still clicking around Teams like it’s 2010, you’re wasting time. Stop complaining and learn these three hacks your future self will thank you.
NOTE: No, I’m not becoming a Microsoft Teams blogger, it’s just these along with a few other prospective features can help when stuck dealing with Microsoft Teams. Since I have to be tortured with such an app, I’m just offering this meager help via blog entries. Otherwise, you can rest assured I’ll be back to regularly scheduled software development and related technical topics very soon!
1 >> Stop Clicking >> Use Slash Commands & Keyboard Shortcuts
- What to do: Hit Ctrl + E (Win) or ⌘ + E (Mac) to jump to the command bar (yeah, there’s a command line, also see docs), then type
/and a command:/dndto set Do Not Disturb/call [name]to ring someone immediately/filesto see your recent docs
- Plus: Memorize the basics:
- Ctrl + Shift + M to mute/unmute
- Ctrl + Shift + O to toggle your camera
- Ctrl + N to start a new chat
- Why it matters: Teams is famously sluggish, stop letting the UI slow you down. If you can’t spare ten minutes to learn these, fine then keep clicking.
2 >> Pop-Out Chats and Meetings into Their Own Windows
- What to do: Right-click any chat, channel conversation or meeting entry and choose “Pop out”, or hit the little diagonal-arrow icon in the top-right of a chat.
- Why it matters: One giant, tab-filled window is a productivity killer. Pop-outs let you spread chats and meetings across monitors, so you’re not constantly Alt-Tabbing. Microsoft buries this feature but it’s a required feature if you want to really negate Microsoft Teams negative impact.
3 >> Tame the Notification Beast with Filters & Tags
- Notification Settings:
- Go to Settings → Notifications and mute every channel mention, reaction, or thread you don’t absolutely need.
- Set your Activity feed to show “Mentions & replies only” via the filter dropdown to stop drowning in the chaos.
- Use Tags (if you can, more nightmares IYKYK):
- Create Tags like @dev, @design, @QA so you only get pinged when someone tries to rope in your team.
- Pro-tip: Don’t go overboard with too many tags = just as much noise as channels. Also, too many as with many things (like Outlook) can lead to other calamity like app crashes.
- Why it matters: By default Teams spams you for everything. Prune ruthlessly or you’ll never see the messages that actually matter.
That’s another three hacks for you that will actually work. If you’re still griping about Teams being “so clunky,” take five minutes right now to set these up and it’ll free up time for finding the other features (or lack of) to gripe about with Teams. Otherwise, keep losing hours every week to menu-diving and ping overload. Zoom zoom! (pun not particularly intended)