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:

  • Mute all notifications (except for calls and meetings): Turn this setting on or off. Available on Windows only.

  • Play sounds with notifications: Every notification will include a system sound to alert you.

  • Play sounds with urgent and priority contact notifications: Differentiate messages market Urgent and notifications from priority contacts

  • Play sound with incoming calls, requests to join, and meeting start notifications: Only incoming calls, requests to join meetings, and meeting start notifications will include a system sound to alert you.

  • Show message and content previews in notifications: A short preview of the message or content will be included in the notification.

  • Show notifications during calls and meetings: Notifications will be shown even if you are in a call or meeting.

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. 

Change how your notifications appear on screen 

Under Display  Preview form or quiz eye icon, you can:

  • Choose to Show message and content previews in notifications for more or less detailed information.

  • You also have the option to Show notifications during calls and meetings ​​​​​​​or turn this setting off for fewer interruptions.

  • Choose where you'd like notifications to appear on your screen under Position on the screen. Select Bottom right, Top right, Bottom left or Top left. Change this setting any time for the most seamless Teams experience.

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: 

  • To be notified about Chat message notifications, select to have those notifications shown in the banner or turned off.

  • To be notified when you are @mentioned, use the toggle to turn these notifications on or off.

  • Additionally, you can configure @mentions for channel and team @mentions, tags, for everyone in the chat, or your personal @mentions.

  • Configure where replies to your channel posts and replies are shown.

  • Configure where likes and reactions are shown.

  • Configure where replies to your channel posts and replies are shown.

To learn more, see Customize channel notifications.​​​​​​​

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.

  • Meeting start notifications can be turned on or off using the toggle.

  • Meeting chat notifications can be set to mute, unmute, or to mute until I join or send a message.

People notifications

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

  • Select Manage notifications, then enter the name or names of the contacts you want to keep track of.

  • Select the correct contact(s) from the list.

  • You'll see those contacts appear below the text box. To stop tracking their status, select Turn off next to their name.

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.

  • New invites, updates and cancellations sent to me allows you to show notifications in Activity, in Activity and banner, or turn these notifications off.

  • When people forward meetings I’ve organized allows you to show notifications in Activity, in Activity and banner, or turn these notifications off.

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 can be configured to turn the notifications for each app on or off using the toggle next to the app name.

  • Additionally, some apps may allow additional options to allow you to show notifications in Activity, in Activity and banner, or turn these notifications off.

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

Hover on a channel and select More options Microsoft Teams more options icon > Channel notifications Activity button.

For each channel you can configure notifications in two ways:

  • For All new posts, you can select Banner and feed, Only show in feed, and Off. You may also choose to include replies by checking the Include replies box.

  • For Channel mentions, you can select Banner and feed, Only show in feed, and Off.

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

Best practices for Teams notifications

First things to know about notifications

Mute notifications during a meeting in Teams

Customize channel notifications in Teams

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