Get Your Head Around Microsoft Teams Notifications

If you’re getting too many Microsoft Teams notifications, rest assured you’re not alone.

Or perhaps you’re not getting any and there’s clearly a problem. Or maybe it’s that you’re getting some but at the wrong time and they’re not the ones you want.

In order to avoid notification overload on any platform, it’s important to spend some time playing around with your notifications settings. With Teams, in particular, there’s a wealth of customization you can apply.

Let’s start with the types of notifications you can get in Microsoft Teams.

What is a banner notification in Microsoft Teams?

This notification type appears as a banner on your device. On your PC, you’ll get banner notifications on the right bottom or right top corner of the screen for Windows or Mac, respectively.

You can respond to banner notification messages quickly without being in a chat.

How to turn on banner notifications for Teams

Banner notifications can be turned on or off for one-on-one chats and group chats. Click the menu icon and select “settings”.

Click the “notification” column and select the edit button under “chat”.

Set messages to “banner” and your group and regular chat messages will now begin to display banner notifications.

You can also set @mentions to display banner notifications.

What is an activity notification in Microsoft Teams?

Activity notifications are indicated at the top left corner on the notifications bell icon. They are nonintrusive unlike banner notifications.

How to turn on activity notifications for Teams

Activity notifications can be turned on or off for one-on-one chats and group chats. But you cannot turn them off for @mentions.

Click the menu icon then select “Settings”. Next, click the “Notifications and activity” column and select the edit button under “Chats and channels”.

Set all options to “Show in Activity and banner”, “Show in Activity”, or “Off” and you’ll begin receiving feed notifications for regular chats, groups, and @mentions.

What is the difference between banner and feed notifications in Teams?

There are three key differences between feed and banner notifications:

1. Indicators’ position: On your desktop client, banner notifications appear in the bottom right corner while feed notifications are indicated at the top left corner of the app.
2. Intrusiveness: because of the larger badge, banner notifications tend to be more intrusive, and some might even say, annoying. Especially when they pop up during meetings.
3. Quick previews: When enabled, banner notifications will display information about what has been sent to you. If it’s a text, a mention, or an attachment, you may know or read the entire content and send a reply on a banner notification without exiting your current location. A feed notification only shows a preview when you’re in the “chat” section.

You may also like: How to Connect Google Chat and Microsoft Teams

What is a pop up notification in Microsoft Teams?

We can consider the term, “pop up notification” as a sort of umbrella term for notification badges that pop up on any device you’re collaborating on Teams from.

Yes, this means that banner notifications on desktop clients are a form of pop-up notification.

Mobile devices, on the other hand, provide a different layout and user experience. And this varies based on what device or software you use – Android or iOS.

Now we know what types of notifications you can get in Teams, let’s turn them on.

How do I turn on notifications for Microsoft Teams?

For desktop client

1. Click the menu icon beside your profile icon.
2. Follow this directory, Settings > Notifications and activity, then go to “Chats and channels”.
3. Set notifications for @mentions, messages, and likes & reactions to “Show in Activity and banner” or “Show in activity”.

For Android app

1. Click your profile icon at the top left corner.
2. Click “notifications”.
3. Select “open settings”.
4. You’ll be redirected to your phone’s system notification settings where you can turn on Microsoft Teams notifications.

For iOS app

1. Click your profile icon at the top left corner.
2. Follow the directory, Notifications > Open settings > Notifications.
3. Toggle on “Allow notifications”.

How do I get pop up notifications for Microsoft Teams?

For desktop client

1. Click the menu icon beside your profile icon.
2. Follow this directory, Settings > Notifications and activity, then go to “Chats and channels”.
3. Set notifications for @mentions, messages, and likes & reactions to  “Show in Activity and banner”.

For Android app

1. Click your profile icon at the top left corner.
2. Click “notification”

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3. Select “open settings”.
4. You’ll be redirected to your system notification settings where you can turn on notifications badges for Teams.

For iOS app

1. Go to phone settings and click “notifications”.

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2. Select the Teams app.

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3. Tick on “banners”.

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Can you force notifications in Teams?

No, you can’t force notifications in Microsoft Teams. Notifications can only be managed by the person receiving them.

Granted, when collaborating, some messages are more important than others and may require a quicker response.

This is why, on Teams, there is a place where receiving important messages and having a notification fatigue-proof setup can meet in the proverbial middle.

That place is in the Teams @mentions for desktop clients.

The reason is, unlike regular messages, you cannot turn off activity notifications for @mentions.

And that’s fine because activity notifications are nonintrusive anyways.

Once you’re on the app, you will see the indicator by the notification bell and chat icon if you’ve been mentioned.

You can also achieve this same effect by using the “Important” marker on your messages. Under the chat box, click the ! icon.

You’ll see the icon for the option to mark the message as important.

When you mark your messages with this, your recipient will receive a feed notification/indicator even if they’ve turned off notifications.

These are great workarounds for a balanced work dynamic. However, if appropriate Microsoft Teams etiquette is not observed, they may do more harm than good.

How do I stop Microsoft Teams pop up notifications?

For desktop client

1. Click the menu icon beside your profile icon.
2. Follow this directory, Settings > Notifications and activity, then go to “Chats and channels”.
3. Set notifications for messages and likes & reactions to  “off” then set notifications for @mentions to “Show in Activity”.

For Android app

1. Click your profile icon.

2. Choose Notifications > General Activity.

3. You’ll be redirected to your systems notification settings for Teams. Here you can toggle off “notification badges” to disable pop-ups.

For iOS app

1. Go to your phone settings and click “notifications”.
2. Select the Teams app.
3. Turn off “banners”.

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Why am I not getting notifications on Microsoft Teams?

There are several ways to troubleshoot Microsoft Teams notifications issues depending on which device you’re collaborating on.

The first thing to do is check that notifications are turned on in the first place, by following the different steps we’ve already discussed above.

Teams asks for notification permission when you launch the app for the first time and it’s possible that you skipped that step.

Now, let’s fix those issues making you miss notifications on Microsoft Teams on your:

Mobile device: iOS and Android users may not be getting Teams notifications for similar reasons:

• Teams suppresses notifications for your mobile device if you’re active on both your mobile device and your desktop at once.

This is to reduce notification fatigue and improve battery life. Your notifications will return once you become inactive for three minutes on your desktop client.

You can remove this limitation by going to your notifications settings in the Teams mobile app, clicking the “when active on desktop” column. . .

. . .and toggling it off.

• You may also be having difficulties receiving specific one-on-one, group, or channel notifications. All you have to do is long press the location (1) and unmute it (2).

Desktop clients: just like mobile users, Windows or macOS users may not get Microsoft Teams notifications for the same reasons. If you’ve ensured that notification on the desktop client is turned on, then you should check your system settings.

The paths for Windows and macOS are different.

For Windows, the path is Start  > Settings  > System > Notifications, then you can customize Microsoft Teams notifications preferences under “notification senders”.

For macOS, the path is Apple menu  > System Preferences > Notifications, then you can select the Teams app in the left column and adjust its notifications preferences.

If none of these solutions do not fix your problems, you can get help from the Teams community or contact Microsoft support.

How do I send a notification to people on other platforms?

When you’re colleagues use platforms other than Teams, you might think you have to log into those platforms or send them an email.

That used to be the way. Until message interoperability became readily available.

You can now connect Microsoft Teams to another platform by connecting channels and/or users.

Whether you use Teams for 30% or 95% of your organization, you can always incorporate users on Google Chat. There’s no longer a reason for your business to operate in silos.

To find out how to connect Teams with your choice of platform, learn more here.