In “Taskbar Items,” flip the “Chat” switch to “On.” Even if you love the feature, it’s great that Microsoft gives you the option to hide it.

If you want to get it back, you’ll need to open Settings and navigate to Personalization > Taskbar. If you don’t want to use the Microsoft Teams Chat button, you can remove it from the taskbar easily: Just right-click the Chat icon and select “Hide from taskbar.” It's not hard to understand whythis is an application designed with the user in mind. RELATED: How to Set Up a Meeting in Microsoft Teams You Can Disable the Chat Button If You Like Best team chat app for a chat-powered workplace Slack (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web) Slack launched in 2013 and quickly came to define the office chat space, in no small part because people loved using it.

When it’s finished, audio and video calls will probably function similarly to how those features currently work in Windows 10. In the conversation view, you can see small video and audio call icons that show “Coming Soon” if you mouse over them.Īs Microsoft keeps updating Teams for Windows 11, the firm plans to add quick access to audio and video calls directly through the Chat button pop-up, which could prove convenient for some people. RELATED: What Is Microsoft Teams, and Is It Right for My Business? You Can (Eventually) Make Video and Audio Calls Through ItĪs of this writing in early August 2021, the Microsoft Teams chat feature for Windows 11 is still under development. The whole Chat/Teams experience in Windows 11 has a good persistence and speed to it that feels reassuring so far. If you close the Teams app (or even if you leave it open), you can still access your existing Chat conversations quickly by clicking the Chat icon in the taskbar again. (This could change in a future release, as this feature is still under development.) While it doesn’t show a list of the online/offline status of friends like those ancient apps did, the simple back-and-forth word bubble chat interface includes all the basics that you’d expect these days: You can send emoji, attach GIFs from Giphy, and even format the style of the text.Ĭuriously, you can send files as well, and if they’re text or Word files, they’re automatically uploaded to OneDrive for collaborative editing. RELATED: What Is 'Meet Now' on Windows 10, and How Do You Use It? It Feels a Lot Like an Instant Messaging AppĪnyone familiar with using AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, or Apple iChat back in the day will feel instantly at home with Microsoft’s new Windows 11 chat feature. The interface feels lightweight and responsive enough to be a pleasant experience in general. Clicking the Chat button again or clicking outside the chat pop-up window makes it disappear, as you’d expect.

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