Microsoft says ‘we have threads at home’ — rolls out feature Slack has had for years

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It’s exciting news that threaded conversations are now being tested for Microsoft Teams! This new feature, currently under public preview, is expected to roll out to all users soon, enhancing the channel experience by allowing for more organized discussions.

In teams, channels with threads offer a fresh approach to collaboration, or simply put, it’s another method of teamwork within the platform. Many other applications like Slack have been utilizing this feature for quite some time now.

The function enables you to respond specifically to certain messages, transforming them into organized discussions known as threads. This helps in keeping track of specific subjects more efficiently and minimizes the chaos within channels.

In a recent blog post, Microsoft described threads within channels as an essential element of their evolution. Essentially, these threads bring together the casual, conversational feel of chats with the organization, longevity, and ease of management offered by channels, allowing users to focus on important information while avoiding information overload.

It’s worth noting that Microsoft has mentioned threads are not a novel idea. Intriguingly, it’s quite astonishing that Teams hasn’t adopted threaded conversations earlier, given that platforms like Slack have been offering this feature for some time in communication apps.

In Microsoft Teams, the “Followed Threads” feature gathers all your discussions in one organized, interactive line, allowing you to respond to individual threads without hopping between channels. Additionally, you have the option to cease following a specific thread to halt receiving notifications about it.

Users who favor the Posts layout, where content is arranged according to the latest responses, can continue to utilize it without any changes.

More Microsoft Teams features

In addition to the significant enhancement of adding threads within channels, Teams also boasts other improvements. Soon, the app will allow users to initiate workflows using emojis.

To give an illustration, responding to a message with an exclamation mark emoji could automatically generate a helpdesk ticket in your company. Microsoft highlights that this functionality can be utilized for “streamlining DevOps, incident management, team coordination, and other tasks using the Workflows application.

Teams will also support slash commands in the near future, such as using /gif to search for a GIF.

Lastly, customizable keyboard shortcuts are on the way to Teams.

All of the new features outlined in the recent blog post are in public preview.

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2025-07-09 22:09