Now in preview: Parsing firstname from AAD display names in Teams Activity Feeds and Notifications

[Kaushal Mehta (LYNC)]

Description

We are pleased to announce Teams Activity Feeds and Notifications banners in Teams now correctly parse “First Name” from AAD Display names. When DisplayName in AAD is setup to follow "Lastname, Firstname" teams will recognize and correctly parse firstname when users receive notifications.

This has been asked by multiple customers and we are excited to roll out the changes to our preview users.

Example

1) Display name =  Smith, John (First = John;  Last = Smith; Display = "LastName, FirstName") 

Previously notifications/feeds show Smith mentioned General

With the change Notification/Feeds will display John Mentioned General

We understand some regions or languages follow double-byte characters and this change does not take effect if AAD display names are not configured with firstname and lastname.

Flighting status

Feature now available to all preview users.

How to enable

This is enabled by default for preview users

Note: If you need information about enabling the public preview itself, see “Enable the public preview for Teams” below.

Supported clients and platforms

Windows	macOS	iOS	Android	Linux	Chrome	Firefox	Safari	Edge
Yes	Yes	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	-	Yes

 

Known issues

No known issues, if you come across any please share your feedback with us.

Known limitations

Currently it is only supported in activity feed and notifications area of the product. Support for missed activity email and other areas in product will be enabled at a later stage.

Enable your Teams client for the public preview 

1. First, IT admins need to set an update policy that turns on Show preview features. Learn how at Public preview in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs.  
2. Users then choose to join the public preview individually. See Get early access to new Teams features - Office Support (microsoft.com) for instructions. 

Summary of public preview features

For a history of features in the Office and Teams public previews, see Release Notes Current Channel (Preview) - Office release notes | Microsoft Docs.

Send us your feedback 

Got feedback on features in the public preview or other areas of Teams? Let us know straight from Teams via Help > Give feedback.  

Thank you,

Preview Team, @Tushar Pathak 

Quality & Customer Obsession, Microsoft Teams

[#2]

@Kaushal Mehta (LYNC)

I have been wondering for quite sometime. Where is the setting in AAD to change the DisplayName format?

Can we change the DisplayName format to "Firstname Lastname"?

I have been searching a way to change that, as the Assignment in Teams Edu shows name as "Lastname, Firstname". I want to change it to show "Firstname Lastname".

Thanks

[#3]

Will this ever become a final feature? What about @mentioning in other Microsoft 365 solutions like Outlook?