Threaded Conversations Now Available On Microsoft Teams

Threaded conversations, which Microsoft Teams customers have been waiting years for, are now available. Microsoft has unveiled this long-awaited feature as part of a public preview, but there are certain design decisions that could alienate customers.

This week, Microsoft updated its Teams communications tool to include threaded conversations. Microsoft is now making a public preview of threaded chats available for Teams members to activate, following their announcement that the much-anticipated feature would be released in the middle of 2025.

Threaded chats keep side topics organized and manageable by allowing participants to respond to individual messages inside a chat. The new feature, which enables targeted conversations without overcrowding the main chat, makes its debut in Teams’ Channels area.

The channels portion of the app is where the Microsoft Teams threads integration first appears, and it functions somewhat differently than Slack’s threaded discussion feature. Noga Ronen, senior product marketing manager for Microsoft Teams, says, “You can follow the threads that are most important to you, and when an important update or decision is made, you can send it back to the main conversation, so everyone stays aligned without them having to sift through every reply.”

It doesn’t appear that threads will be as simple to build as Slack because Microsoft Teams users will only be able to create posts or threads in a single channel. Depending on how a channel is used, Teams channel owners will need to choose between a post or thread layout.

The only drawback is that Teams forces channel owners to choose between a thread or post layout, in contrast to Slack, where threads are fluid and impromptu. This limits your flexibility based on how teams function because you won’t be able to mix and match inside the same channel.

Nevertheless, Microsoft is making an effort to maintain order. Only threads that you have initiated, responded to, been mentioned in, or voluntarily joined will be followed. Additionally, there is a special “Followed Threads” view that makes it simpler to keep track of the important things and turn off the rest.

Additionally, Microsoft has developed a Teams following threads view that contains all of the threaded conversations that are important to you. From here, unfollowing noisy threads is also simple. Ronen explains that by default, you will only follow posts that you have created, responded to, been referenced in, or specifically choose to follow.

Microsoft Teams is finally allowing users to respond to messages with multiple emoji reactions in addition to the public preview of threaded conversations. “Multiple emojis per message are now in public preview,” says Ronen. Additionally, Teams’ slash commands are receiving some enhancements, including the ability to search for GIFs using the /gif command.

Teams is also introducing threads, enhanced slash commands like /gif for fast image searches, and multi-emoji reactions per message—yes, at last. Another minor but potentially helpful update for power users who wish to expedite navigation is the ability to customize keyboard shortcuts.

Although this thread implementation isn’t the most streamlined, it’s a positive step for Teams, which has frequently fallen behind rivals like Slack and Discord in terms of chat usability. Although the platform’s inflexibility may still irritate some users, the move represents Microsoft’s attempt to make Teams more flexible for contemporary cooperation.