How do you handle employee recognition in Microsoft Teams without it feeling forced?
Hey community, Our HR team is trying to implement a point-based recognitions / incentive program (or rewards whatever you are all calling it in your companies). We are having a bit of trouble finding the right features inside MS Teams to do this. We really don't want this to live outside of Teams because you know how initiatives work in modern work: If people don't see it, they are going to forget about it in a month or two tops. Any recommendations?
Customize the Basic Approval Request
Is there any way that I can customize the Basic Approval Request in Teams? For example, at the top, it states Approvals. Can this be changed to state Acknowledgement instead? Is there anything else that can be customized just by using the MS Teams Basic Approval template?Introducing a new feature on Microsoft Teams: "Save this message"
Exciting news - alongside pinning your posts/messages, you can now save them too. All your saved messages will be neatly organized under the "Saved" menu within Teams, right below the "Followed Thread" section. Look out for a special icon marking your saved messages for easy reference. And the best part? You have the flexibility to unsave messages whenever you wish. Stay organized and never lose track of important information with this handy
Formal Complaint: The UX Failure of Microsoft Authenticator and Teams Guest Access
To the Microsoft Product & Engineering Teams, I am writing this not just as a frustrated user, but as a systems engineer and developer who has just spent several hours navigating the Kafkaesque labyrinth that is your current authentication ecosystem. The transition to a new mobile device while maintaining "Guest" access to an external organization (Rihter d.o.o.) has been an exercise in systemic failure. Specifically, I would like to highlight the following critical UX flaws: The Identity Paradox: Your system’s inability to gracefully handle a personal Outlook account acting as a Guest in an Entra ID tenant is baffling. Receiving the error "You can't sign in here with a personal account" while trying to access a tenant I am already a member of is a fundamental logic failure. Visual Inconsistency (The "Briefcase" vs. "Initials"): The fact that an account can appear in Authenticator as a "One-time password" nalog with initials, yet be completely non-functional for Teams until it is manually re-added as a "Work/School" nalog with a briefcase icon, is a UI disaster. The "Action Required" Loop: I was trapped in a cycle where the app demanded action but provided no path to resolution within the mobile environment. I had to resort to using a desktop browser in Incognito mode just to force the system to generate a valid QR code for the new hardware. Mandatory Hardware Security (Passwordless): Forcing users to implement device-wide PINs or biometrics on their private hardware just to use the "Approve" notification feature is overreach. There should be a clear, frictionless fallback to TOTP codes within Teams without degrading the entire app's functionality. App vs. Web Desynchronization: It is unacceptable that a web browser (in Desktop mode) can successfully authenticate a session while the native Teams app on the same device remains stuck with stale tokens and cached AADSTS90023 errors. As someone who designs low-level architectural specifications (DREL), I find the lack of interoperability and the "black box" nature of these errors (like AADSTS90023) to be a significant step backward for professional productivity. I hope this feedback reaches someone who prioritizes user flow over bureaucratic security layers. Best regards, Milan Lakatoš Petrović Systems Engineer & Freelance Programmer
