Link/Deeplink to chat with a user

[Charlie Nixon]

We're in the process of rolling out Teams in our Org. I'm going to be the primary contact for Teams support, and I'd like to provide a link that will initiate a chat with me. So many parts of the Teams interface are deeplinkable, but I can't seem to find any way to do this. Am I missing something, or is this not possible?

[#2]

You will need to create a href to the sip: protocol! I’m not sure if this is supported yet! You can do this with Skype and set the sip protocol to Skype as default!
The uservoice is here:

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/32536723-hyperlinking-to-a-cha...

Someone else might have better input here!

[#3]

Skype uses sip:, don’t know what teams will be using/ uses

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Looking at the browser client, should be possible but the format is annoying:

https://teams.microsoft.com/_?tenantId=GUID_of_the_tenant#/conversations/19:GUID-of-user-initiating-chat_GUID-of-user-to-chat-with@unq.gbl.spaces?ctx=chat

As it does seem to require both user's GUIDs, you will have to come up with solution that dynamically adds/transforms the ID of the "requestor" in the link. Can be done with Graph or PowerShell.

[#5]

Hmm. Looks like it's not supported. How odd. I voted for the uservoice, but I don't want to even try messing with SIP handlers. 

[#6]

That's almost useful. I could see making it work if you could just specify the chat recipient's GUID. I think in our environment, that solution is probably going to be too much work. Thanks for the pointer, though!

[#7]

Ya'll are over complicating this :P. Teams now supports Sip by default as Adam was thinking.

Add a link on a page, or even in e-mail sig with <a href:"sip:username@domain.com"> Chat with Username</a>

And that link will call up to select default app when used, but you click Teams and it'll deep link into Chat. Users may need to Change their default SIP provider if they have another one set, but usually it'll ask.

[#8]

I appreciate the confirmation, but I still don't think that's going to work for us. Deeplinking would really be the solution we need. Our org is about half Mac, and Teams isn't registering itself as handling SIP on Mac. Deeplinking is nice, since it gracefully falls back to the web interface of Teams. I guess we'll just have to hope that MS adds it at some point. Thanks anyway!

[#9]

The SIP method works but you have to have the app installed. Most of our users do not have the app installed.

The steps below worked for me to open up the web client and didn't require knowing the GUID of the person initiating the chat. There is probably a better way to get the GUID of the person you want to send the message to, but for me this is how I got it. If you already know the GUID you can just skip to step 3 and replace the "xxxx-xxx...." with the GUID of the person/email group.  

1. Go to https://teams.microsoft.com/_#/conversations/newchat?ctx=chat from a different account than the person you want the link initiate a chat with. 

2. Type in the name of the person or group you want the link to initiate conversation with

3. Start typing a message. The URL at the top should change to something along the lines of

https://teams.microsoft.com/_#/conversations/19:preview-xxxx--xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxx?ctx=chat

I copied the URL and was able to embed it where I needed. I tested with a few different accounts in the organization that have never used Teams before and it works okay for what we need. 

I also came across the following resource but had no success getting it to work. For our scenario it would have been nice to be able to include multiple people in the conversation and have a default message: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform/concepts/deep-links#deep-linking-to-a-chat 

[#10]

Thanks for the pointer! For our scenario, what you've discovered is actually functional enough to be useful. It seems like their development is pretty active, so hopefully the developer preview functionality will make it into production soon. 

[#11]

@Charlie Nixon  - check out https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform/concepts/deep-links, scroll halfway down for URL schema for chats. Relatively new!

[#12]

@Charlie Nixon I think being able to respond to a single message also very useful then. Now you will receive a bulk of messages from users, which users might have to number for you to respond to relevantly. A button "reply" to one message like in whatsapp would be very useful.

[#13]

@Charlie Nixon I don't know if they've updated things since you first asked, but this worked perfectly from me.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=username@yourcompany.com

[#14]

I try this link but when open web then not work create private chat group

https://teams.microsoft.com/_?tenantId=5ebe5d1f-6ce7-4b89-a8a7-66e17e123451e#/conversations/19:5b791...@yourcompany.com?ctx=chat

I want create deep link and embed web to user can click and open web page chat with some specific user

[#15]

Wouldn't it be easier, and more open from a support pov, to simply add a Yammer tab in Teams that references a Yammer group for Teams support. Just a thought. 

@Charlie Nixon 

[#16]

@Tien Ngo Thanh here's the documentation about hosw to create deep links

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform/concepts/deep-links#deep-linking-to-a-chat

[#17]

@Steven Collier  for document  I try it only work when user use app team , if use web then not work

[#18]

@Tien Ngo Thanh the link will work in either the desktop or the web client, but it will ask you to choose.

[#19]

@Steven Collier: example I have case I want embed this link to web and when user click and chat with me this link to not work https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=support@test.com&topicName=support&message=hello   

support@test.com is email my support on team

[#20]

@Tien Ngo Thanh The deep link is to start a chat with one or multiple users. Is support@test.com a user? 

[#21]

@Steven Collier support@test.com is sample user . if It can support multiple then so good

[#22]

Tony Redmond posted about this recently - see https://office365itpros.com/2019/04/29/adding-teams-chat-link-email-signature/

[#23]

@Rob Ellis 

Perhaps that works for one user, but when I try it with multiple users Teams opens, but there is no chat started with the two or more people I wanted to chat with.

[#24]

This worked perfectly for me. Thanks!

[#25]

This works for our organization! thank you!