Teams Functions: A basic Overview

Teams Functions: A basic Overview

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform that allows you to communicate and work with your team members in different ways. You can use teams, channels, chats and calls to share messages, files, tools and meetings with your colleagues.

Teams and channels

A team is a group of people who work together to achieve a common goal, such as a project, a department or a hobby. A team can have multiple channels, which are subtopics or areas of interest within the team. For example, you can have a team for your marketing department and channels for different campaigns, products or events.

Channels are where you can have conversations with your team members, post announcements, share files and access apps. You can also start or join meetings in channels. Channels are visible to everyone in the team by default, but you can also create private channels that are only accessible to invited members.

To create a team or a channel, follow these steps:

  1. In the Teams app, click Teams on the left sidebar.
  2. Click Join or create a team at the bottom of the teams list.
  3. Click Create a team and choose a team type (such as Class, Professional Learning Community or Staff).
  4. Give your team a name and description and click Next.
  5. Add members to your team by typing their names or email addresses and click Add. You can also skip this step and add members later.
  6. Click Close to finish creating your team.
  7. To create a channel in your team, click the three dots next to your team name and select Add channel.
  8. Give your channel a name and description and choose whether you want it to be standard (visible to everyone) or private (visible only to invited members).
  9. Click Add to finish creating your channel.

Chats and Calls

Chats are private conversations between you and one or more people. You can use chats to send messages, files, emojis, stickers and GIFs. You can also make audio or video calls from chats.

To start a chat or a call, follow these steps:

  1. In the Teams app, click Chat on the left sidebar.
  2. Click New chat at the top of the chat list.
  3. Type the name or email address of the person or people you want to chat with and press Enter.
  4. Type your message in the compose box and click Send. You can also use the formatting options to add emojis, stickers, GIFs or attachments.
  5. To make an audio or video call from the chat, click the Audio call or Video call button at the top right corner of the chat window. The person or people you are chatting with will receive a call notification from you.

When to use what

Depending on your purpose and audience, you can choose between teams, channels, chats and calls to communicate and collaborate with your colleagues. Here are some general guidelines:
  1. Use teams and channels when you want to have open and transparent conversations with your entire team or a subgroup of your team. Teams and channels are also good for organizing information and files by topic or project.
  2. Use chats and calls when you want to have private and direct conversations with one or more people. Chats and calls are also good for quick questions, feedback or check-ins.




    • Related Articles

    • Record a meeting in Teams

      Any Teams meeting or call can be recorded to capture audio, video, and screen sharing activity. The recording happens in the cloud, and it is saved so you can share it securely across your organization. Notes:  Whiteboards and shared notes are not ...

    • How to Enable Large Gallery View in Microsoft Teams

      Engage with everyone in the meeting by viewing up to 49 participants’ video Microsoft Teams might be one of the leading contenders in the video conferencing ecosystem, but there are a few features it has been lacking in that its primary contender ...

    • How to use Apps in Teams

      You can use many apps to in teams to increase the productivity power of Teams. A few common Apps you may see are OneNote and SharePoint (Files) OneNote is a digital notebook that allows you to capture, organize and share your notes with your team ...

    • Share your calendar

      Share your calendar with others so they can view details about your schedule. Share your calendar Select Calendar > Share Calendar. Choose a calendar to share. Select Add, decide who to share your calendar with, and select Add. Select OK and you'll ...