SOLVED

Enhancement Request - Remove the Switching behavior in Teams

Brass Contributor

We are currently migrating to Teams organisation wide and I am one of the lucky early users of Microsoft Teams. I messaged my team member who works in another organisation. She did not get my notification. Because she was also in Skype, I told her to check Teams. She eventually saw the message once she switched organisations. It should not be this complicated. 

 

 

All messages from individual chats and Team site chats should be visible in Teams. The Teams UI will need to be modified to display all internal chats, and below that it should show external chats --- without switching. Similar view should apply for Team sites as well so users don't have to switch e.g. screenshot attached.

 

2019-12-10:

Created User Voice entry at:

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/39225667-remove-the-switching-...

 

12 Replies
It’s a little more complex than this :) there is different kind of coexistence modes in Teams depending on how you are using Skype etc! Many users/tenants are still in island mode which means they are running Skype and Teams side by side! External chats are always routes to Skype when the receiver is on island mode! Best is if all is running Teams only making everything end up in Teams, always!
Read more about this here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-and-skypeforbusiness-coexistence-and-interoper...

Regarding chats you can have external chats aka not having to switch orgs! You can chat with someone outside your organisation by entering their email address and have both internal and external chats in your Teams account! Keep in mind that this feature can be turned off globally..
When it comes to teams you’re a guest of (other org teams) you have to switch tenants in Teams! There is a update rolling out currently that makes this a lot faster but I agree on that notifications here between different orgs are lacking! There are plans to do improvements on this guest experience though!!

Adam

@MichaelDelpach 

 

Your slow notification behavior sounds like a user in org 1 started a chat with someone in org 2 who is also a guest in their org (org 1). I see this quite a bit with the external users I chat with.

 

If user 1 starts the chat with user 2 in org 2 by entering their email address and searching externally, they can start a direct one-on-one external chat that is much like you want. It's the "guest" experience that is frustrating today. I've learned to train my external coworkers to search externally instead of using the guest. Once they know that, most of our issues disappear.

Hi @adam deltinger, thanks for your response. The bottom line is, switching is not the best experience to the end user. As shown in the screenshot below, they still show up as Offline to me, and they have not been notified of my message. This experience needs to be overhauled to the way I described earlier.

 

 

Hi @Paul Husted that's correct, it is the "guest" experience that is frustrating and it should be a seamless experience to the end user. I hope Microsoft is working on it. 

Hi! Go here and vote for one of the available uservoice a for this or create your own!

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/

Adam

@adam deltinger will do because I am amazed that this has not been requested before.

 

I tested Teams direct messages (Chat) further with on my team member (Aaron in this above screenshot from another organsation, say Org2). 

 

This was my experience:

My organsation is Org1.

While I am in Org1, I direct messaged (using Chat in screenshot below) Aaron who works at Org2.

Aaron did not see any of my messages until he manually switched to Org1.

He switched back to his organisation he works for, Org2.

While in Org2, he directly messaged me. 

I did not see it while I am in Org1, so I switched to Org2 and then I saw his direct message.

 

That's incredible. Teams did not use the same Direct Message stream that I initiated although it is the same two people directly messaging each other i.e. there are two Direct Message streams altogether for us two. How does this make sense?

 

This behaviour does not let people like us who are working with other organisations on a daily basis to effectively communicate. I am dumb founded to realise I am the first one to raise this as an issue if I have to create a thread at UserVoice?

 

First Direct Message stream in Org1:

 

Second Direct Message stream in Org2 to the same person:

 

Don’t see the pictures but this is what I believe happened:
You have messaged each other guests accounts! That way it goes to the same tenant you belong to and the receiver must switch to your tenant to read it!

Click new chat button , type the entire email address of the other user! Do not choose the account that comes up during typing! It should say external user!
Try now!

Keep in mind that the receiving end must be in Teams only mode for external chats to end up in Teams! Otherwise they go to Skype

@adam deltinger that's exactly what I did. As I type the recipient's email, Teams keep suggesting the account with Guest in it. I refused, and it then says: You need to add at least one more person to start a chat. Basically, Teams is forcing me to click on the prompted account. There is no way out.

 

 

 

You might check with an admin if external chat is turned if at the tenant level!
best response confirmed by MichaelDelpach (Brass Contributor)
Solution

@MichaelDelpach, rather than creating a new UserVoice entry, it would be better to vote on this existing one which is already one of the top requests anyway!

 

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/17750851-i-want-to-use-multipl...

 

And to quote the response from the product team (they are working on it) 

 

We know you are patiently waiting for this feature. This feature is being implemented in stages. Fast tenant switching is currently in testing both internally and with early customers. We expect to release to the public in the Fall. I’ll post an update once it’s rolling out. Full multi-tenant, multi-user support will be added after fast tenant switching

Hope that helps.

 

@Abhimanyu Singh 

 

Honestly "I want to use multiple Teams accounts at the same time" does not do enough justice. I need to remove switching, altogether, completely. 

 

All chats, all teams I joined in regardless of what organisation they are from, need to be in one UI.

-->> "..Full multi-tenant, multi-user support will be added after fast tenant switching"
Still waiting on this! :)
1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by MichaelDelpach (Brass Contributor)
Solution

@MichaelDelpach, rather than creating a new UserVoice entry, it would be better to vote on this existing one which is already one of the top requests anyway!

 

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/17750851-i-want-to-use-multipl...

 

And to quote the response from the product team (they are working on it) 

 

We know you are patiently waiting for this feature. This feature is being implemented in stages. Fast tenant switching is currently in testing both internally and with early customers. We expect to release to the public in the Fall. I’ll post an update once it’s rolling out. Full multi-tenant, multi-user support will be added after fast tenant switching

Hope that helps.

 

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