Creating a new Chat with everyone in Teams contact group

[robthom]

Hi :

Is there a way to create a new group chat by selecting a contact group in teams (not AD).  To clarify, this would be the area in the chat section, you click on Contacts.  From that area, I was trying to figure out if it's possible to select a group and it automatically starts a chat with everyone in the selected group without me having to enter each member one by one. Thanks 🙂

[#2]

@robthom as far as I know you do have to add the members to the chat group the first time.  But then you can rename the group and even pin it for future chats.

[#3]

@robthomHi, did you get anywhere with this ? is the group chat possible using a contact group ?

[#4]

@mymacadd Hi, as of right now, still no luck.  Been doing things manually.  I am exploring power scripts as a solution.

[#5]

Any chance this is a thing yet? I have a lot of individual contact groups that I want to create conversations with. i.e Group A, Group A and Group B, Group B and Group C and so forth.

Individually adding each person is tiresome.

[#6]

I really need a solution for this as well. Is Difficult for me to engage people in a channel conversation, because the posts do not appear in Microsoft Teams Chat Section. Nobody in my organization is attention in Activity Section, just chat Section. One solution is in this topic, trying to transform a group in chat group in a easily way. But much easier, for me, is to simply synchronize the posts in channel teams to also appear in Chat Section. Is it possible?

[#7]

@robthom 

We've recently transitioned from Skype to Teams and this was a very useful feature in Skype, having a contact group and starting a team chat via the contact group without having to add individuals to a team chat every time, which it seems to be the only way to do in Teams. 

The funny part to me is that Skype was owned by Microsoft, right?  And yet that feature couldn't be ported over (yet)?  <sigh>

Posting here just in case anyone hears of an update to Teams where this (seemingly) simple feature gets added to Teams Chat, let me know.  Thx.

[#8]

Still the same issue in November 2021 - contact groups are useless. And I have only 18 people in the team, my condolences to the guys who has hundreds.

[#9]

This comes up regularly from Skype for Business users when they just transition to Teams, but after a few months is no longer considered an issue. Create a Team and add the DL as members, a group chat with 10s of users isn't as useful as a channel.

There is a sample custom app that Microsoft share to bring back the Skype feel, but I wouldn't recommend heading backwards.

GitHub - OfficeDev/microsoft-teams-apps-contactgrouplookup: This is the Contact Group Lookup app tem...

[#10]

Right, we are in a process of transition from Google Chat, so far we miss group options.
Also maybe you aware why Teams doesn't release camera after Meeting - it is annoying to disconnect camera every time.

[#11]

@yokushka I don't have to do anything to switch between using the same camera in Teams and Zoom or any other application on Windows 10.

[#12]

Thank you, just confirmed it is particular camera/driver related issue. Strange that the same camera works fine in other video chat apps.

[#13]

Half of 2023 has been gone already and I'm baffled that this simple function was not yet implemented. That and the ability to create other categories in the "Chat" menu, besides the default "Fixed" area.

[#14]

@Jonatas4ndrade Hi this has been available for a little while now but your admin may have disabled the option to chat with groups:

"Users can start a chat with distribution groups (distribution lists), mail-enabled security groups, and Microsoft 365 groups. Once the Chat with groups setting is enabled, users can search, select the group, and start chatting with the members of the group." 

- Chat with distribution lists (DLs) - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

If you're looking to categorise your chats, the structure in Teams would be to use teams and channels to segment and organise your conversations. 

[#15]

Hey there Ben, thanks for taking your time.

We do use the Teams/Channels, but our organization is way too big (around 100k employees). There are a plethora of fixed channels already, any more would produce extra clutter.

We can start chats with DLs, but the chat section doesn't allow categorization as we said. Sometimes we need to make a meeting with two or four people and relevant information is registered in the chat. As we can't categorize/group, finding it becomes a burden after a while, specially when the contact name is forgotten, or if there are many chats with a similar group of people.

[#16]

Also, we (end users) cannot create custom DLs. We could use TAGs, but that requires making a Team with everybody, which is also annoying and generates further clutter.

[#17]

@Jonatas4ndrade That does sound like a challenge and I can see how what you're asking for can be valuable.

I've seen some people use naming conventions to try and make it easier to find chats but that only works if you have created it - creating something from scratch with a tagged/categorised group wouldn't be easy with that many staff.

It might be a good one to put on the feedback portal if there isn't already a similar recommendation there > Microsoft Teams · Community