Manage notifications in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams offers different ways to access, receive, and manage notifications. These settings include how, when, and where your notifications appear, custom settings for channels and chat, appearance and sounds, turning off specific messages, and so on.

To manage your notifications, select Settings and more

Teams settings and more icon.

at the top right of Teams, then select Settings

Settings button

> Notifications and activity

Activity button

Manage General settings for notifications

In the General section of Notifications and activity you can configure notifications in several important ways, ensuring that Teams is providing you with the level of notifications and reminders that works best for you.

Manage general notifications

In the General section, you have several options to configure and customize sounds. You can also change when you want notifications to display. Your options include:

Change your sound notifications

You can adjust the sound of your Teams notifications to help you prioritize tasks and stay focused. Choose to assign different sounds to different kinds of notifications, or mute notifications when you're busy or in a meeting.

In the Sound section of Notifications and activity, you'll see dropdown menus next to the first two notification items. Select a sound from the dropdown menu, then select Play

Play button

to preview the sound.

Simply select your preferred sounds for Play sounds with notifications and Play sounds for urgent and priority contact notifications, and you're all set.

Note: Custom sounds are currently available only on Teams for Windows and web.

Missed activity emails

In the Missed activity emails section, you’re able to set the frequency of summary emails detailing your missed activity, or turn this feature off.

Chats and channels notifications

Notifications for chats and channels can be managed at a granular level, allowing you to customize your notifications to your personal work style. In the Chats and channels sections of Notifications and activity, you can do the following:

Manage Meetings notifications

In the Meetings section of Notifications and activity, you can configure how notifications are shown for meeting about to start, and chat notifications during meetings.

People notifications

Keep track of the status of your colleagues and contacts, and get notified when they appear available or offline.

Manage Calendar notifications

In the Calendar section of Notifications and activity, you can configure how notifications are shown for new meeting invites on your calendar, updates, cancellations, and when meetings you’ve organized have been forwarded to others.

Manage Apps notifications

Individual apps (such as Power BI, Loop, and more) can be added to teams, and notifications can be managed and configured for each of these apps.

apps notifications

Note: The Apps section will not display until individual apps have been added to Teams, and you have received your first app notification.

Channel notifications from the teams list

Hover on a channel in your Teams list and select More options

Microsoft Teams more options icon

> Channel notifications

Activity button

For each channel you can configure notifications in two ways:

Note: By default, channel new post notifications are turned off, and @mentions will show in both Banner and feed. To return to default settings, select Reset to default.

channel notifications

Manage notifications from Activity

Go to Activity

Activity button

on the left side of Teams, and select More options

More options button

. Select Notification settings

Settings button

You will see the Settings > Notification and activity screen as described previously in the article.

Related topics

Microsoft Teams notifications on MacOS provide a seamless experience for calls, meetings, chats, channels, mentions, and apps within Teams. However, there are some differences compared to Windows due to the rich integration with the macOS notifications system.

Overview

Enabling OS Notifications for Microsoft Teams

A screenshot of the notifications screen on a Mac with Microsoft Teams notifications allowed.

  1. Open macOS System Settings (System Preferences for MacOS 12).
  2. Go to Notifications.
  3. Under Application Notifications, select Microsoft Teams.
  4. Turn on the toggle next to Allow notifications.

To learn more about how MacOS notifications work and how to change Notifications settings, refer to the MacOS user guide section Change Notifications settings on Mac. Make sure to select your OS version from the dropdown menu.

Notifications when mirroring or sharing a display

When you connect your Mac to an external display or dock station, by default all notifications will land in the Mac Notifications center only. If you want to receive Teams banner notifications as well:

  1. Open macOS System Settings (System Preferences in MacOS 12).
  2. Go to Notifications.
  3. Turn on the toggle next to Allow notifications when mirroring or sharing the display.

To learn more about pausing or allowing notifications when you mirror or share the display (for example, when playing a presentation), refer to MacOS user guide section Extend or mirror your Mac desktop across multiple displays. Make sure to select your OS version from the dropdown menu.

Teams notifications while Focus Mode is on

If you want to receive Teams notifications even when Do Not Disturb is active, add Teams to Allowed Apps. Please note that you need to take this step individually for each Focus scenario.

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  1. Open macOS System Settings (System Preferences in MacOS 12).
  2. Go to Focus.
  3. Select Focus scenario from the list. An example is Do Not Disturb.
  4. Select Allowed Apps > Add, then select MicrosoftTeams from the options.

For more details on Focus options in macOS, refer to the MacOS user guide section Change Focus settings on Mac. Make sure to select your OS version from the dropdown menu.

Once notifications are allowed and configured at the operating system level, you can fine-tune Teams notification settings directly within the app to receive the notifications you need.

Related topics

To customize your notifications, tap your profile picture at the top left of the mobile app, then select Notifications. To troubleshoot notification issues on mobile, see Troubleshoot notifications for Teams mobile apps.

Related topics

To customize your notifications, tap your profile picture at the top left of the mobile app, then select Notifications. To troubleshoot notification issues on mobile, see Troubleshoot notifications for Teams mobile apps.