Using Teams to Chat with Coworkers
Using Chat is a quick way to communicate with coworkers without cluttering up your email inbox. You can send files, links, gifs and start a video call within Chat.
Overview
As you can see from the screenshot above, there are quite a few things you can do when using Chat with a coworker.
Let’s start with the basics.
Starting a chat.
Once you click on the Chat icon on the left menu, you will see a list of your most recent chats. From here you can click the “compose” button on the top right of the list.
After you click on this button it will then ask you who you want to start a chat with. This already has the names of everyone in our organization in it. So as you start typing out a name it will pull up people from within the Perimeter Church Staff.
You can choose to do a chat with one person or you can choose multiple people and have a group chat.
Files & Video Calls
Once you’ve been chatting with someone you have quite a few options for what you can do with them:
- Send them a file
- Start a video call
- Share your screen
- Send links
One of the best uses of this is sending files. We will talk about files more later one, but from here you can drop a file in and it will automatically be sent to the other person. The chat history will also keep the files in a tab labeled “Files”. Convenient.
No need to search through your emails to find the email that had that attachment or to find where you downloaded the file to on your computer. All your files are right here. These are the files shared between you and the person you are chatting with. This is the same for group chats as well. Very cool and convenient.
The top right is where you have your buttons to:
- Start a video call
- Start an audio call
- Share your screen
These are here for single chats or group chats. It makes it super easy to jump into a video call with a group of people if you already have a group chat going.
Sending files and gifs.
As you can see, there are quite a few things that you can do with in a chat with someone. The main things you will likely use are the file attachments (the paperclip) and sending gifs (let’s be honest).
But one cool thing is the “Schedule a Meeting” button. That’s the calendar icon with the plus sign. When you click on that button it will open up a page to schedule a meeting with this person or people if it’s a group chat.
It will even suggest times that are available for both of you on the day that you choose.
That’s pretty much all of Chat.
It’s similar to texting so a lot of it should feel familiar. If you have any questions just leave a comment on this page anywhere.