No Team Channel Notifications

[Jake Baldwin]

We have a user base right now of 19 people and notifications have ceased to exist for any new messages in any channels that do not have a "@" mention. Everyone still receives notification of a chat message and if they are directly mentioned in a channel but not of a general message in a channel. I have checked out the Team settings under "view team" and everything is turned on. The Microsoft Teams application also has the default notification settings turned on. Any help is appreciated as people are finding this not useful as a messaging service if it does not notify them of a new message. Adoption has slowed.

[#2]

What you described is expected behavior - below are the current notification expectations:

1. If someone send you a direct 1:1 chat (not a channel conversation) you will receive a toast notification, and if you miss the toast the Teams icon will simply flash.  In addition, in the app, you will also receive a chat notification.
2. If someone posts a new conversation in a channel, you will only see the channel bolded in the app. 
3. If someone replies to a message that you post in a channel (using the reply and not creating a new thread), you will receive a toast notification AND badge increase on the Teams icon (and it will flash).  In addition, you will receive an alert in the app and the channel will be bolded.
4. If someone “@’s” you or “@’s” the team, you will receive a toast notification AND a badge increase on the Teams icon (and it will flash).  In addition, you will receive several notification in the app.    
5. If someone “@’s” the channel, (so long as you have made that channel a favorite)  you will receive a toast notification AND a badge increase on the Teams icon (and it will flash).  In addition, you will receive several notification in the app.

[#3]

I see at the link below that this is a planned feature though. Any word on if this will be completed by general release?

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public-preview/suggestions/16911520-notifications...

[#4]

This is a 100% deal breaker for my organization.  We are a service company and our techs currently use Slack for ongoing discussions and troubleshooting.  To not have the ability to receive notifications when someone makes a comment renders Teams useless.  

We are trying very hard to evaluate Teams to replace Slack.  We can't move past this missing feature.

For the record, the other missing option is for chat windows to auto scroll to the most recent message when a channel is updated.

[#5]

Completely agree with above. You can't compete with slack without this feature. I see the logic in not wanting people to uninstall instantly when they get bombarded, but you need to be able to tune notifications how you want. 

[#6 · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone - The ability to turn on notifications for all activity in a channel (as opposed to only things related to you) is a feature that we are currently building in for our GA release. The feedback for this item is tracked here:

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public-preview/suggestions/16911520-notifications...

[#7]

Are toast notifications expected on Windows 10? I've been testing it out with a co-worker and don't see any.

[#8]

Yes, you currently should be recieveing toast notifications for things that appear in your notification list. For example if you recieve an @mention, if someone replies to your message, if you are added to a new team, etc. You will also get them for chats.

What you won't get right now is a notification for every message sent to a channel unless it's directed at you. That is what we are building now (ability to follow a channel and get notified for all messages sent to it).

[#9]

Yes; in all scenerios above except #2 you should receive a toast.

[#10]

Do you have any ideas what I could look at if I'm not seeing any toast notifications? I've been trying the 1:1 chat scenario with my co-worker. When I've got the Teams window closed all that I see is the task bar entry for the window appears and starts flashing; I don't see any toast notifications. I've got the default notification settings configured as per my screenshot. And I've got the latest version as per:

You have Microsoft Teams Version 0.6.00.34901 (64-bit). It was last updated on 1/4/17.

[#11]

Hrm, so after trying some more tests from my end I'm now getting toast notifications as expected! Go figure! But yay! 

[#12]

 Hi I have a customer i am working with that is trying to move off Slack and onto Teams but they are facing issues from thier users that are blocking them.  Here are the questions they had below - 

1) Will global Channel search be enabled?

2) Will they be able to add external users to Teams like Slack can currently?

3) Since Skype integrates with Teams so well whats the roadmap for Skype?  Will it be going away?

4) Is there anyway to find out how many users are using it? 

5) What kind of Latency is there for the United Kingdom and Bellaruse?

6) What is the official launch date?

7) Is there anything on the roadmap for mass deployment to users like there is for OfficePro Plus for SCCM or MSI's?

9)  They do not receive notifications unless they are looking at it.  In Slack they receive notifications whenever someone comments. When they use Slack they get a notification everytime someone responds to you in channel messages. 

[#13]

Agree with both these comments, notifications do not work the way users work (and certainly not the way Slack users work).  It has been thought about by engineers, and not UX people.  Give users the options to have as many or as little notification as they want.  All my test users on Teams have been asking for better notifications from day 1, only to be told we are working wrong (this didn't go down well, and the test users just retreat to Slack).  Also the difference between default grey and BOLD isn't strickign enough - it just doesn't pop out on the page, so too much time is wasted looking for updates.  Users should have to seek updates, they should be prompted directlty to them.

Also agree on the auto ascrooling of new messages, something else we mentioned from day one that needed to be changed, and have been ignored.

[#14]

Hi Richard,

Would love to hear more about the level of configuration for notifications that you are hoping for from the product. If you go to the settings gear in the bottom left and chose "Notifications" you will see a list of every type of notification that we currently support along with the ability to configure how loud they are/turn them off/etc. If you are hoping for more control or different controls we would like to understand what your users needs are.

As for the "working wrong" comment - I'm sorry to hear that was a responce you got and certainly hope its not something that came from anyone on our team.

For the bold vs unbold - You mention that you guys use slack. I'd be interested to hear how you feel about thier indication of new messages since they also use the same bold vs unbold visual treatment. Is it simply the colors feel more clear in slack than in Microsoft Teams?

Lastly - the auto scrolling behavior you mention definitely did not get ignored. We listened to yours and others feedback on this and actually fixed this at the end of last year. Channel messages should automatically scroll into view if you are at the bottom of the channel and not listed as idle. If you are not seeing this happen then there may be a bug that we would can take a look at.

Andrew

[#15]

Same here, we are testing Teams as a communication tool to replace others. We'd absolutley have to have notifications otherwise it's not valuable to us. 

[#16]

This is really not making any sense.... we are testing this application for our organisation but it's really a dealbreaker if you don't introduce the notification feature for ANY post of a channel one is following.

All other applications are doing this and not having this would make Microsoft Teams totally useless!

When will this new feature be implemented?

Giuseppe 

[#17]

Agreed.  This is one of the top showstoppers for my group.  We've been looking at a variety of vendors and find that it's missing to be disappointing.  

[#18]

Follow a channel is already in the client. 

[#19]

Following a channel should be default when you join a channel. That's the way any competing app works and that's what users are used to. 

Also, a related question - how do I MUTE a chat now? It dumps an entire full toast for every new message. 

[#20]

The need to recive alerts for activity in MS Teams is a must! Please rush this developement.

Thanks!!

[#21]

Hi David - This feature is already released. If you would like to recieve notifications about all activity in a channel (not just the ones where you are mentioned, or replies to your conversations) go to the "..." more menu next to the channel name and choose "Follow this channel".

Note: You can only follow channels you have already favorited.

[#22]

This functionality is there. Click the ...'s next to any channel, and choose to Follow that channel. You'll get notifications for any activity in that specific channel.

I'm very much against turning this on by default :) I know many of you have smaller populations which this could be very handy for, but large enterprises where you might be a member of many many teams would cause this to be incredibly overwhelming. I would expect users to abandon Teams completely if their first experience is a nonstop barrage of notifications for things that probably aren't relevant to them. 

I personally am a member of 57 Teams right now. Probably only about 20 of them are things I'm actively working on, the others are more awareness or "advisory on demand". If all of these defaulted to notifications for everything, I would be CRUSHED with spam and would have to go manually turn that off for potentially hundreds of channels.

[#23]

I have done that and I am still not receiving alerts on my Iphone Teams app??

[#24]

Than you for your reply. We are just starting with Teams and we don't have many channels to keep up with and because we are not used to using the app we are not checking it often enough. I need this function to jump start the use of this great app. I need the alerts to pop up a banner on the Iphone and Droids. The alerts are working great with replies and such, but I still can't see new post alerts even by following the channel. And yes I have "liked" the Team too.

[#25]

There are additional settings on your iPhone in the Teams app (More -Settings-Notifications).  Please also pay particular attention to the settings at the bottom "Only when I'm not active on desktop" or "Always, even if I'm active on desktop". 

Finally, please be sure to check the Phone settings for the app (Settings - Teams - Notifications).

[#26]

I would also suggest you go through and leverage the great material Microsoft has provided around Teams to better engage your users with Teams. We've seen a lot more success in using a form of the workshop with groups of users as opposed to simply unleashing the tool on them and leaving them to figure it out and adopt on their own.

All team members need to be committed to using Teams, or you are going to struggle. Hybrid usage scenarios will suffer from lower adoption rates.

https://www.successwithteams.com/

[#27]

I understand that we now have the "follow a channel" feature, which is great addition. However I was wodnering if there's any notification system that allows the channel members to know when there are new activities in the channel such as:

1. new file uploaded into a channel's "file" tab
2. existing file in the channel is edited/updated
3. Planner task is added/assigned/updated/completed
4. OneNote is updated

For the first two there is a way to "set" alert in SharePoint, but its not by default and definitely not at a channel level. So technically as a one time static activity, I could go to every folder (associated to a channel) in SharePoint, and manually add people to receive alerts but that will still not update my channel. 

Anyone else thinking in this direction? Do you think this would be useful? Is it possible?

[#28]

I compeletely agree on both points!!  we just migrated from Slack to Teams and we really miss these features!

[#29]

I do appreciate your reply but I am still not sure how to set up alerts for the iphone or droid that will notify you when someone has added something to a channel? 

[#30]

@Rebecca Valdivia gave steps above for iOS:

There are additional settings on your iPhone in the Teams app (More -Settings-Notifications).  Please also pay particular attention to the settings at the bottom "Only when I'm not active on desktop" or "Always, even if I'm active on desktop". 

Finally, please be sure to check the Phone settings for the app (Settings - Teams - Notifications).

[#31]

Yes, I have explored all of those and they have helped, but they have not solved the problem. I need to get alerts for any activity in a specific channel. I am getting alerts for likes and replies, but not for new posts. On the Iphone that is ....

[#32]

So you've followed a Channel, and you have the notification for 'Followed channel posts' set to On in the iOS app, and you have the Send Notifications setting set to 'Always, even if I'm active on desktop'? May want to report a bug if all that is set and you're still not getting notifications. :(

[#33]

@Nikhil Nulkar we are thinking about that and do plan to extend our support of notiications into additional actions like modifications to files, onenote sections, etc. We don't have an ETA for when those things will light up though.  Please feel free to either vote on an existing idea or create a new one here: https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103; this will make the request more visable to our developers.

[#34]

I don't see an option to select "Follow Channel Posts" on my Iphone Teams App. I see: Chats, Mentions, Replies, Likes, and Other Alerts. I am receiving the previously listed alerts, but if a new post is created on the channel I do not get an alert on my Iphone. I am really hoping this option can be added to the Iphone app. Please....

[#35]

I updated the app and now I see the option.... Thank you all very much for your help with this matter!!! I will test this and hopefully it will work as I am envisioning.

[#36]

Glad you found it and hopefully everything is working. Great point that I think we missed in this thread - always make sure your mobile app is updated to the latest version!

[#37]

Just a quick update...  The app is working perfictly and just as I had hoped!! Thank you all for helping me with this issue!

[#38]

#2 makes no intuitive sense.  We need Toast notifications on a channel when a new conversation is started, or at minimum a setting to turn this on and off.

Is there a way to turn this on?

[#39]

Austin, We have made improvements since my initial posting in this thread.  We now have "follow this channel" which seems to be what you are looking for.  If you right click on the channel or click the "..." next to the channel, you can select follow this channel and receive notifications for every posting in the channel.

[#40]

Thank you for the response Valdivia,

My team is all following the channel in Question.  We have done extensive testing on this today and have found that notification on emails sent to the channel work around 33% of the time.  Some people get toast slice notifications , some don't.  For those that do, it only works sometimes for them as well.

Everyone's notifications settings are the same (brand new setup)

This isn't a deal breaker for us, but we can't do any of the fancy things with teams that we wanted to do, because we just can't trust the teams notifications.

[#41]

Hello has their been any update to my questions 2 months ago?

[#42]

What about notifications of new assigned tasks? I'm not recieving those either.

[#43]

Since different organizations are different, can't Microsoft make it an option to "Follow a Channel on by default" (on or off).

And it would be nice to have that as an option per 365 Group.

In both cases, some users will want to flip it on or off based on their notification level.

It would be nice to have the option from an Admin standpoint.

[#44]

Always supportive of more options for admins and putting the power in the hands of the user themselves when it is just a preference thing!

[#45]

So you missed the deadline on this one?

[#46]

Whether it is on by default or off by default, many people will have to edit the settings.  So, which makes more sense?  Obviously if you get a lot of notifications you don't want, you will know to turn them off.  However, if you don't think to turn them on (and expect them to be on like in all of the competitor's apps) you will miss activity.  Logically, it makes more sense to default to on and let those users that don't want all of the notifications (which are probably the minority) turn them off as they want.

[#47]

Depends on the org, but I'd be ok with that as long as the ability to turn them off is simple and straightforward and not buried in harder to understand menus. Maybe even proactively pop a tooltip if some threshold of notifications is hit and show users how to make changes if they wish.

My org struggles with overload, so a new tool that starts right away with a deluge is a quick path to abandonment. Especially if they see the tool as an additional channel to monitor instead of as a replacement channel.

[#48]

Even though notifications do in fact work when @ mentioning someone in a channel or group it still does not work for webhooks for which I would like to use it, as I am hooking nagios to alert admins on outages.

But neither channel nor group do alert members.

Administrators and support team need to check their channels on their own to notice a system outage.
This is not what we expected we could achieve using webhooks.

Is this going to be fixed sometime, soon?

[#49]

We are a 11,000-user company that uses Office 365 E3 and E5 plans.

We like if Microsoft brings the notification feature in line with what a Slack user or a WhatsApp user experiences.  The general expectation of ANYONE is to get alerted when a message appears from someone, regardless whether it was a reply or a directed message with the @ sign.

How can we get Mcrosoft to listen and get this corrected as soon as possible...?     We are lossing out on the adoption of Office 365 Teams on account of the lack of notification on Teams in the mobile or tablet apps.  Whereas, I see no adoption problems when it comes to Slack, and I feel a fool recommending Teams... :)

[#50]

I am aware that if you follow the channel you get notifications... But a general user has an expectation of what happens based on comparison with chat apps that existed before Teams...

Therefore, the user considers the extra act of having to follow a channel as a drag and doesn't see it as a feature... That is where we fail to convince most of the users...

Being in a group means that you should be already following... why do you need to explicitly make an effort to follow again...? I hope Microsoft see my point in the feedback i have sent them in a separate forum....