Overview
This article provides answers to frequently asked questions about Microsoft Teams.
Information
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a chat and collaboration platform where all conversations, meetings, files, and notes can be accessed by team members in one place. This is an evergreen service that is continually evolving and developing. Check out the Welcome to Microsoft Teams video from Microsoft for a brief overview.
How do I get Microsoft Teams?
You can get an installer for your desktop or laptop through Office 365.
For mobile devices, go into the Apple App Store (for iOS devices) or the Google Play or Samsung App Store (for Android), and search for Microsoft Teams.
For more detailed instructions, follow the instructions specific to your device below:
Where can I get information on how to use Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft provides extensive on-demand training videos on their website.
Additional information can be found in the UO Service Portal's Microsoft Teams knowledge base category.
What is a team?
Teams are collections of people, content, and tools that center around different projects and jobs within an organization. In Microsoft Teams, team members can have conversations and share files, notes, and more. You can read more about teams in Microsoft's documentation found here.
What is a channel?
Channels are dedicated sections within a team to keep conversations organized by specific topics, projects, disciplines--whatever works for your team! You can read more through the Overview of teams and channels in Microsoft Teams article from Microsoft.
Which browsers are supported?
The Microsoft Teams app works in the following desktop browsers:
- Microsoft Edge
- The latest version of Chrome
- The latest version of Firefox
- Safari is not currently supported (see more)
What’s the difference between team channels and private chats?
Team channels are places where everyone on the team can have open conversations. Private chats are only visible to those people in the chat.
What’s the difference between public and private teams?
You can choose to set the privacy setting for your team as either public or private. In public teams, any user in the organization can join. With private teams, only team owners can add people to the teams.
Can I collaborate with people outside of the University of Oregon into my team?
Yes! A team owner in Microsoft Teams can add and manage guests in their teams via the web or desktop.
- Anyone with a business or consumer email accounts, such as Outlook or Gmail, can participate as a guest in Teams with full access to team chats, meetings, and files.
- Only people who are outside of your organization, such as partners or consultants, can be added as guests.
- People from within your organization can join as regular team members.
Here, you can read more about Using Microsoft Teams with Guests.
Can the team members or guests leave the team on their own?
Yes. Any member or guest can leave the team at any time via Teams web or desktop clients.
How do I make sure people in a team or channel see my message?
The best way is to @mention them using tags. Type @ before someone's name and they will get a notification.
- To get the attention of an entire channel, type @channel before your message and the channel will receive notifications.
- To get the attention of the entire team, type @team before your message and all your teammates will receive notifications.
What are the tabs in Microsoft Teams?
Tabs allow team members to access services on a dedicated section within a channel or in a chat. Tabs acts as shortcuts for team members to work directly with tools and data and have conversations about them in the context of the channel or chat. Tabs can be added to help users easily access and manage the data they need or interact with the most.
Are my files and conversations in Microsoft Teams secure?
Microsoft Teams is built on the Office 365 hyper-scale, enterprise-grade cloud, delivering the advanced security and compliance capabilities. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
Files are stored in SharePoint and are backed by SharePoint encryption. Notes are stored in OneNote and are backed by OneNote encryption. You can read more about security and compliance in the Security and compliance in Microsoft Teams article from Microsoft.
How long are my chats available in Teams?
As of June 30, 2021, any chat is retained within Teams for 180 days.
For more information, please consult either of the following:
What's the difference between Microsoft Teams and Team Sites?
Team Sites are internal websites that can be used to collaborate with your colleagues in Office 365. Microsoft Teams is a collaboration tool that provides instant messaging and video conferencing capabilities. Read more in SharePoint Online Team Site FAQ article.
Can I rename a team?
Microsoft Teams teams are named starting with the prefix O365_. This prefix is required to prevent the creation of teams that duplicate existing names in the University of Oregon namespace. A team name cannot be renamed after it has been created; however, you can change its display name.
I deleted a team. Can I restore it?
A deleted team can be restored by an Office 365 administrator up to thirty days after the team was deleted. If you need a team restored, please submit a ticket on Microsoft Teams Support service page.