Microsoft Teams is finally getting the message feature you’ve long missed

Microsoft Teams may not be the best collaboration tool for many people, as its critics often prefer rivals like Slack. While Teams deserves criticism due to missing features and performance-related issues, the Redmond tech giant keeps on improving the app by closing the feature gap and introducing new ones.

In the next few days, Microsoft will highlight every new feature it added to Teams this month, just as it did last month. Before that happens, the software giant has updated us about what to expect in Teams in the next couple of months, and one of them is something you may have been missing for a long time.

Microsoft Teams will finally treat your forwarded messages the right way

Being able to forward a message is a common feature across all messaging apps, but platforms like Teams aren’t meant to act like a regular messaging app. However, one of the major problems with Teams is that it acts like a basic messaging app when it comes to handling forwarded messages.

Microsoft Teams allows users to forward messages to channels and chats. This way, the recipients can see the full content of the messages, but there is no way to go back to the original message, unless you ask for the message link. This is frustrating if you need to see the complete thread and know more about the context.

Microsoft Teams is finally getting rid of this issue by handling forwarded messages like Slack does. According to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap page, forwarded messages in Teams will come with a link to the original message. Users will be able to click the link to the original chat or channel it originally came from. However, it’ll work only if you have access to the original conversation.

When is it coming, and what more will Teams users get?

Many users on the Microsoft feedback portal have been asking the software giant to add this feature to Teams for months. But it’s only recently that Microsoft has officially talked about it. If we go by the release timeline mentioned on the roadmap page, Microsoft is planning to introduce the “Forwarded Message Links” feature (Feature ID: 503099) in October.

This feature will be available for both PC and Mac users at launch. Additionally, if you’re also using Teams on your iPad, you’ll get enhanced multitasking capability with the ability to separate a popout window for meetings (Feature ID: 503109) next month. In November this year, Microsoft Teams will also allow users to switch camera views in multi-camera Teams Rooms on Windows (Feature ID: 503104).

However, it’s worth remembering that release timelines on the roadmap website are subject to change, so Microsoft can delay them if things don’t go as planned.