How to Use Microsoft Teams Like a Pro: 10 Features You’re Missing
Most businesses use Microsoft Teams for chat and video calls — and that’s about it. But Teams is a powerful collaboration platform with features that can genuinely transform how your team works. These microsoft teams tips business users should know will help you get far more value from a tool you’re already paying for.
Whether you’re a small business or a growing organisation, these ten features can save time, reduce email, and keep your team aligned.
1. Pin Important Messages in Channels
Every channel has messages that people need to reference repeatedly — meeting notes, project briefs, key decisions. Instead of scrolling endlessly, pin them.
How: Hover over any message, click the three dots (⋯), and select “Pin.” Pinned messages appear at the top of the channel for everyone. Use this for standing instructions, key links, and important announcements.
2. Use Tags to Notify Groups Within a Team
Stop @Mentioning People One by One
Tags let you create groups within a Team that you can mention all at once. Create tags like “Managers,” “Sales Team,” or “Project Alpha” and @mention the tag instead of individual people.
How: Go to the Team name → Manage Tags → Create Tag. Add the relevant members. Now @Managers will notify everyone in that group.
This is one of the most underused microsoft teams tips business users overlook. It saves time and ensures the right people see the right messages.
3. Set Up Shared Channels for External Collaboration
Need to collaborate with a client, vendor, or partner? Shared channels let you add external users to a specific channel within your Team — without giving them access to everything else.
How: Create a new channel and set the channel type to “Shared.” You can then invite people from outside your organisation using their email address.
This eliminates the endless email chains and gives external collaborators access to the files and conversations they need — nothing more.
4. Use Loop Components for Live Collaboration
Loop components are interactive elements you can insert into Teams messages that everyone can edit in real time. Think of them as mini-documents that live inside your chat.
Available Loop components include:
- Task lists: Create and assign tasks without leaving Teams
- Tables: Build collaborative tables that update for everyone
- Paragraphs: Co-author text in real time within a message
- Checklists: Simple tick-box lists for quick tracking
How: In the message compose box, click the Loop icon (or type “/” and select a component). Everyone in the conversation can edit the component live.
5. Schedule Messages for Later
Working late but don’t want to ping your team at 10pm? Schedule messages to send during business hours.
How: Type your message, then right-click the Send button (or click the dropdown arrow) and select “Schedule Send.” Choose the date and time, and Teams will deliver it then.
This is brilliant for respecting work-life boundaries while still getting things done on your schedule.
6. Use Bookmarks to Save Important Messages
Your Personal Reference Library in Teams
Save any message for your personal reference using the bookmark feature. Unlike pins (which are visible to everyone), bookmarks are private to you.
How: Hover over a message, click the three dots (⋯), and select “Save this message.” Access your saved messages anytime from your profile menu → Saved.
One of those microsoft teams tips business professionals wish they’d known earlier — especially for tracking important decisions and commitments.
7. Create Approval Workflows Without Leaving Teams
The Approvals app in Teams lets you create, manage, and respond to approval requests directly within your workflow. Perfect for:
- Leave requests
- Expense approvals
- Document sign-offs
- Purchase orders
How: In any chat or channel, click the “+” icon to add the Approvals app, or type “Approvals” in the app bar. Create a new request, assign approvers, and track the status — all within Teams.
8. Use Breakout Rooms for Workshop-Style Meetings
Running a large meeting where you need small group discussions? Breakout rooms split participants into smaller groups for focused conversation, then bring everyone back together.
How: When scheduling or during a meeting, click the Breakout Rooms icon. Choose the number of rooms and whether to assign participants automatically or manually. You can broadcast messages to all rooms and close them when it’s time to reconvene.
9. Set Up Channel Notifications Strategically
Tame the Notification Overload
Notification fatigue is real. The trick isn’t turning notifications off — it’s configuring them intelligently.
For each channel, you can set notifications to:
- All activity: For critical channels you need to monitor closely
- Mentions only: For channels where you only need to respond when tagged
- Off: For reference channels you check on your own schedule
How: Click the three dots (⋯) next to any channel name → Channel notifications. Customise for each channel based on its importance to your role.
Also set Quiet Hours in Teams mobile settings to prevent after-hours notifications — your team will thank you.
10. Use Teams as Your Meeting Hub With Intelligent Recap
If you’re on a Microsoft 365 Business Standard or higher plan, Teams can automatically generate meeting recaps with:
- AI-generated meeting notes: Key points and action items extracted automatically
- Recording and transcript: Searchable transcript of the entire meeting
- Task extraction: Action items identified and assignable from the recap
- Chapters: Meeting recording broken into navigable sections by topic
How: Enable recording and transcription when starting a meeting. After the meeting, the recap appears in the meeting chat and calendar event.
This is arguably the most powerful of all microsoft teams tips business users should adopt. It eliminates the “what did we decide?” problem and creates accountability for follow-through.
Getting More From Teams Starts With the Right Setup
These features are available to most Microsoft 365 business subscribers, but many organisations haven’t configured Teams optimally. Governance policies, team structures, and security settings all affect what’s possible and what’s practical.
If you’re not sure whether your Teams environment is set up to support these features, your IT support provider can help. A properly configured Teams environment is the foundation for productive collaboration.
Infraworx helps Sydney businesses get the most from their Microsoft 365 investment. From Teams configuration to ongoing support, we ensure your technology works as hard as your team does. Call us on 1300 277 211 to find out how we can help.
