Forum Discussion
Jason Drew
Jul 22, 2019Iron Contributor
Teams messages search function does not show full conversation
When using the search function in Teams chat, is there a way to see more than just one specific message (I would like to see the response to the message)? For example, I searched for a question that I asked someone but I want to know what their response was. Right now I can only see the question I asked. Here is a screenshot.
In my opinion, we should be able to navigate through the conversation after searching.
- Aaron_ClarionCopper ContributorDear Microsoft,
To reiterate; There seems to be no way to "go to message" in the history when searching for a message in a chat. The message is displayed in the right discovery pane however there is no history displayed around the message.
process:
open chat, Ctrl+F, type search phrase, press enter, results are displayed on the right (however no surrounding history is displayed, just the exclusive search results)
I can only think of one workaround which is to "Pin" the message and then use the Pin to find the message in the chat history. However, you can only have 1 Pinned message per chat which is another problem.
For example; I asked my colleague a question I wish to remind myself the answer to months later. I remember the question but not the answer. I search for the question phrase which just returns my question and the date it was posted. What I wish to see however is the response to the found question in history. I am forced to either jot down the date and time and manually search through the history or Pin the message, removing any existing Pin to then jump to the message I am looking for. I might have to do this multiple times if there is more than one result.
Quite honestly, how often would you be searching for something you already know?
Why can't we search for a message within the history of the chat? At the least, we need a "Jump to message" option.
and why can't we have more than one Pinned message? I like the Pin feature but limiting this to one Pin per chat makes it pretty pointless. For example, it would be ridiculous if I could only flag one email at a time.- ph_lySteel Contributor
Aaron_Clarion We have posted a workaround for this a few times now - pop out the chat first, then retry the search and go to message.
- phlyxIron ContributorOnly a work around for CHATS!!! Does NOT work for messages in Teams channels.
- SomeUsername15Copper Contributor
I got workaround.
So the solution i come up with is to search for the message , then you got results pin that message from the 3 dots and return to the normal chat window, then the pinned message will pop up and you will go to the desired place.
- PinkSantaCopper Contributor
Still looking for update after 2+ years..
Search in Teams is still USELESS~~ I want to go back to Slack!! Oh God!!
Also, why the list of replies is in ascending chron order? The most recent should be on top!
- JCtheBIGuyCopper ContributorFor a private/common chat conversation it appears to only work for the previous month. Any conversation older than that and it returns the single message. You can see 3 responses if you hit the down arrow on the search result which is a partial fix....at best. You can also spend the entire day scrolling back in the conversation to find it. In summation, Teams chat is pretty much useless making it a pretty terrible tool for productivity purposes.
- phlyxIron ContributorCouldn't agree with you more. A *VERY* frustrating part is scrolling back and back and back to find the message you were searching for, and when you finally get there you get another message in another channel. As soon as you click away you're back to today in the channel you were scrolling in and you get to start the scrolling exercise all over again. I really doubt Microsoft uses Team's or it would have been fixed by now.
- KristineMoCopper ContributorAiyuhyuh Microsoft please fix this. Makes the chat search feature basically useless otherwise!!!
- Hannover2kCopper ContributorThis is now working for me. When I click the 'Go to message' button, instead of just showing the single message, it now opens the chat window and takes me to the actual conversation in the chat so I can read the context.
Thanks to whomever for fixing this.- phlyxIron Contributor
Hannover2k THIS IS NOT FIXED!!!!!!! The only thing that works is IN CHAT!!! This absolutely does NOT work if your search results are older messages in TEAMS CHANNELS. 99.999% of the information we search for is in Team Channels *NOT* in private chat messages. The whole idea behind Teams is to work as a TEAM in Team Channels. If all you're doing is private chats you might as well just text message or go back to AIM. Just don't want MS (or anyone) to think this is resolved as it is most definitely not.
- Hannover2kCopper ContributorI just tested this and it is indeed fixed for me. I am able to search my group chats and it will bring up the conversation. It is in TEAMS CHANNELS and *not* private chat as you're so passionate about.
I'd also thank you to **NOT** tell me when something on my end is fixed or not since you're obviously not me, nor have you ever looked at my laptop. I don't work for Microsoft and I have no reason to lie about my resolution. I'm sorry it's still not working for you but as of this week, it's been working for me. I've been following this thread for quite a while myself and if you go back, you can even find my posts complaining about it just like everyone else. However as I originally stated, this it is resolved for me. It's just a plain fac. It is what it is and what it is for me is working.
I'll be removing myself from notifications on this post now since my issue has been resolved. Good luck to the rest of you.
- BILP123Copper Contributor
It's mid-2022 now, and still the same issue. It used to work for me like two or three months ago. It's so frustrating to see that Microsoft, a trillion-dollar company, with employees making more than 100k doesn't fix stupid issues like this.
If I had a choice, I would for sure go to some other messaging platforms but I am fixed to Teams that my company uses.
- phlyxIron Contributor
Run Teams but then run Slack on the side to be able to communicate efficiently with close co-workers that you often do important tasks with and collaborate with. Trust me, you would not be the first "Team" to do that.... 😁
- BILP123Copper ContributorThank you for the suggestion!
- tnblank777Copper Contributor
BILP123but don't forget about all the great features they've been spending their time on, like:
- Suggested Replies - which I immediately turned off because they are very slow to load and often "pop up" when I'm trying to click somewhere and I accidentally click them
- "Your Space" - so I can chat to myself? Immediately unpinned
Who needs software to work reliably and do basic things you expect it to do when you have new features like this being added all the time!?
- phlyxIron Contributor"Your Space"....??? Even the voices in my head unpinned that useless feature 😎😎
- lengocthuong15Copper Contributor
I've found a workaround:
Search message as usual -> Click on a message that you want -> Choose `...` -> Select pin message -> Go back to the chat -> Click on the pinned message.
- WhatupYoCopper Contributor
lengocthuong15 For me, it just pinned the one message and did not take me to the conversation of the other message of that hour/day. 😞
- phlyxIron ContributorThanks but ACK! The vast majority of the messages we are searching for are in TEAM'S CHANNELs and *NOT* in chat messages. This is like wanting to search through your emails and everyone posts ways to find things in your text messages.
- Phil LyleBrass Contributor
phlyx as I posted earlier, channel context does not exist, unlike chat. If someone replies to an old channel post it will bump it up to the newest post.
Stop being nasty to others in this conversation. You should be using Reply to keep all channel conversation in a single thread.
- GoceRBrass ContributorThis and a couple of hundred of other issues like these is the reason our company is leaving teams for good. We gave MS leeway for so long, but things are not getting better. Instead they keep getting worse. Paying for a service like this is a torture.
- phlyxIron ContributorKind of funny that we "officially" are on Teams *but* a lot of us use Slack on the side to be able to stay productive. Teams is about as efficient as filling your tires with concrete instead of air.
- BastienRRCopper ContributorStill not implemented...
- phlyxIron Contributor
Maybe we need a count-up timer for this thread....
DEAR MICROSOFT - THIS IS DAY 1,044 SINCE THIS ISSUE WAS BROUGHT UP AND IT'S STILL NOT ADDRESSED.