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Microsoft promised to bring threads to its conversations within Teams by mid-2025, and now that’s happening with the latest public preview of the app. You'll soon be able to use the threads tool that other team messaging apps have had for a while.
Threaded conversations allow you to reply to individual messages without distracting colleagues that aren't involved in the conversation. The thread can then be expanded for those who want to know more and keep up to date with the latest messages.
Microsoft says in its blog post, "While posts are ideal for announcements and broad updates, threads are a better fit with dynamic, scaled collaboration."
Other elements of this new feature allow you to follow threads you'll be interested in. Threaded messages that you start will notify you about updates, and you'll get the same if you've been mentioned or you've replied to a message. You can also follow threads you've not yet been involved in if you want updates on their progress. You can also unfollow when necessary.
(Credit: Microsoft)Microsoft Teams is also introducing the ability to react with multiple emoji to the same message. This has been a feature within tools like Slack for a long time, and it proves helpful when you want colleagues to have several options to react with. For example, if you're canvasing teammates for advice, and you ask them to pick emoji to select options, they can now select more than one to give you more useful results.
This update also introduces improvements to slash commands and customizable keyboard shortcuts. There’s also a new feature that allows your app's owner to set up workflows when someone uses a specific emoji on a message.
Microsoft's example for how this is useful uses the exclamation mark emoji. If someone selects that emoji, it will automatically set up a helpdesk ticket referencing that message. Another example is you could use the eyes emoji to forward messages to specific channels.
There are lots of options about how this may prove helpful, but you'll want your workplace owner to pick an emoji that isn't used often to ensure they don't break your workflows.