Teams Outlook contacts

[reditguy]

Hi, we recently moved everyone to Teams but noticed that the Contacts under the 'Calls' tab is not syncing correctly to Outlook, from what I can tell, they are coming from the users mobile phone contacts after they installed Teams.  We tested by adding a contact in Outlook but don't see it in Teams, which is a big issue!

Also, the Calls - History, is that just the users call history? The call groups? The delegates? How does it work?

Any ideas?

[#2]

The sync probably takes a bit due to Teams cache, but the Contacts tab is a direct pull from your Exchange contacts. The ordering isn't the same as in your Outlook contacts so it might look different, but they are the same contacts if you look for each the ordering is just off.

Call History is any call that rings your client or you place from your client. Not 100% sure on delegate actions.

[#3]

@Chris Webb 

Thanks, but it absolutely seems like the contacts are coming from the cell phone contacts and not Outlook....when i search for contacts in Teams that we know are in outlook nothing comes up.

[#4]

I disagree. Those contacts are indeed stored within the user's mailbox, but they are not the same set of contacts exposed in the Outlook client. In fact they seems to be stored in some of the non-IPM folders, which are transparent to Outlook and other clients.

As an example, on my company's user account I have zero Outlook contacts, yet under Teams -> Calls -> Contacts I have added few just for testing purposes. The good news is that this is going to change soon(ish), as the contacts experience in Teams is finally getting a much needed overhaul. 

[#5]

@Vasil Michev @Chris Webb 

Thanks, any ideas on how to solve this?

[#6]

It works just fine adding a contact, but you have to quit and restart Teams for it to pull an updated list. Also make sure your contact you create must have a phone number assigned or it will not populate in your call contacts list.

[#7]

@Vasil Michev - Can you elaborate a little bit on your statement that the Calls section is soon to be updated? The more I get into the Outlook Contacts to Teams Contacts interaction, the more confused I become. I have a whole lists of practical questions to write up, but if this section is going to be a complete rewrite then there's not much point is doing so. Is there any official comment or blog post or road map item that you can refer to. I searched the road map, but I don't see anything related to this update. Thanks.

[#8]

@Andy Baerst It was something that was mentioned in an "internal" discussion we had with the Teams folks at MS, it should be coming relatively soon. I haven't actually seen it in action yet, so I cannot comment how good of an improvement it will be.

[#9]

@Vasil Michev - Ok, thanks. Then it may still be worth my writing up my thoughts since soon could mean tomorrow or never or somewhere in between.

I understand that Teams is Teams and Outlook is Outlook and that there is a whole camp that thinks that "never shall the two meet." I understand some of the dogma and practicality of that statement, but I also think that it's impossible to not acknowledge that there are a lot of users who have spent a lot of time (years) refining their Outlook contacts and, as of now, the integration is marginal at best with respects to presentation and functionality. It would be ok if the two product were really completely independent, but there are areas such as PSTN Audio Conferencing, where users who think that they aren't using Teams have no choice but to use it in some respects. It's a real deal ender when users can't locate meeting participants in Teams that they absolutely know that they have in Outlook.

Contacts in Teams has a juvenile feel to it right now. I'll lay out the details in another thread. Thanks again.