Microsoft Teams Chat gives users of personal Microsoft accounts fast and secure access to connect with friends, family, and even co-workers. You may recognize Teams Chat as the purple “Chat” icon that appears on your Windows 11 taskbar.
Here’s how to get started with Microsoft Teams Chat on your PC.
Contents
Advertising
Configuring Microsoft Teams Chat
To start using Teams Chat, click the purple chat icon in your taskbar.
If you don’t see the chat icon, you’ll need to enable it in Windows settings. Here’s what you need to do.
1. Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Items
2. Switch the Chat item to “On” position
Now that chat is enabled on your taskbar, click on it and a window will appear. Click on Begin.
After clicking Beginthe Microsoft Teams Chat app will open and walk you through the process of linking your personal Microsoft account or creating a Microsoft account if you don’t already have one.
There are a few caveats to consider before using Microsoft Teams Chat:
1. To chat with your friends and family on Teams Chat, everyone will need to have a personal Microsoft account, no exceptions.
2. You will need to associate a personal mobile number with your Teams account to use the chat feature.
Hopefully Microsoft changes these requirements in the future to make it easier to chat with your friends and family.
After clicking Beginthe last part of the setup is to choose your Microsoft account.
If you need to create a new Microsoft account, you can also choose the name you want to use in Teams Chat. If you click on your personal Microsoft account, you may see a similar welcome screen displaying your Microsoft account email address and phone number.
Click on Continue Where Use another account to start using the app. You can also click to sync your Outlook and Skype contacts to automatically find people you know on Teams.
When you close the Teams Chat app, it automatically runs in the background on your PC. If you want to reopen the app, you can always click the Chat icon on your taskbar for easier access.
Start a personal Teams conversation
Open team chat
To start a chat with someone, open the Teams chat by clicking your taskbar icon and click Discuss.
Enter a name, etc.
In the new chat window, you can click on the TO: at the top of the window to enter the name, email address, or phone number of the person you want to start a new conversation with.
Teams will search for the person, but they must have a Microsoft account linked to Teams for their name to appear in the Teams contact search.
You can add additional names, email addresses or phone numbers to add more people to the chat if needed.
Start chatting
To start chatting, click the Type a new message text input box and type your chat message. When you have finished your message, click the Send icon (paper plane) at the bottom right to send your message.
The small toolbar below where you type your messages contains additional tools to use in chat. Here’s what each tool does.
1. Format: Clicking this will allow you to change the color, size or style of the text you send in your chat messages.
2. Attaching files: Here you can attach files which will be sent to everyone who is in the chat.
3. emoji: Clicking it brings up an emoji selection screen to search and send emojis in chat.
4. GIF: All Microsoft Teams GIFs are powered by GIPHY. Clicking it opens a selection of animated GIFs. This is useful for sending GIFs or meme reactions.
When you’re done chatting, just close the chat window and the chat will be saved so you can continue where you left off later.
Additionally, you can have multiple chats simultaneously and each one will be listed each time you click on the chat icon in your Windows taskbar.
Use Meet for video chat
If you prefer to chat with a friend or family member face-to-face, you can start a video chat immediately or schedule it for a later date right from the chat icon. Here’s what you need to do.
1. Click the Chat icon on the Windows 11 taskbar
2. Click To encounter
3. Next, a drop-down menu will appear with two options: Start a meeting now and Schedule a meeting. Choose the options you want to use for your video chat.
It’s definitely a handy option to have right from your desktop!
Microsoft Teams app for personal use
One of the coolest things about using the Chat button on the Windows 11 taskbar is that you’re just a few clicks away from opening the Microsoft Teams app for an in-app experience. more robust.
If you want to open Microsoft Teams for personal use directly from the Chat app, here’s what you need to do.
1. Click the Chat icon on the Windows 11 taskbar.
2. Click Open Microsoft Teams basically.
Once Microsoft Teams for personal use is open, you will be able to access extended features, such as the calendar to check personal and work schedules, and add tabs with additional functionality, such as creating and sharing personalized polls with your group chat.
Are you using Microsoft Teams Chat on Windows 11? Tell us why or why not in the comments.