Microsoft Teams Overview

Microsoft Teams is a communication and collaboration platform that keeps you connected with coworkers, project teams, and communities—no matter where you work. Whether you’re chatting, meeting, sharing files, or co-authoring documents, Teams makes teamwork simple and efficient.

Teams integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 apps to boost productivity:

• Outlook: Schedule and join Teams meetings from your calendar.
• SharePoint: Access team sites and shared document libraries.
• Planner: Create and manage tasks within Teams channels.
• OneNote: Take and share collaborative meeting notes.
• Loop: Work together in real time with portable components across Teams and other Microsoft apps.
  

Why Use Teams?

• Chat anytime: Message individuals or groups instantly.
• Meet virtually: Join video or audio meetings with screen sharing and recording.
• Collaborate easily: Share and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in real time.
• Stay organized: Use channels to group conversations and files by topic or project.
• Access anywhere: Use Teams on desktop, tablet, or mobile—at work or remotely.
  
  

Common Tasks in Teams

• Start a chat with a coworker or group.
• Schedule or join a meeting.
• Share and edit documents with your team.
• Create a team for a project or department.
• Use apps like Planner or OneNote directly in Teams.
  
  

Sensitive Data in Teams

Michigan Medicine’s Microsoft 365 environment, including Teams, supports high data sensitivity, including Protected Health Information (PHI).
Messages in Teams are retained for one year, then deleted. This applies to:

• Private and group chats
• Public channels
• Private channels

For details, see the U-M Safe Computing Sensitive Data Guide.

Creating a New Team

Effective September 22, 2025, Michigan Medicine has changed the process for creating a Microsoft Team. Michigan Medicine now uses the native functionality within Microsoft Teams for team creation, outlined below:

1. Open the Teams app and click Chat in the left menu. If you are using the separate view, Select Teams.
2. At the top, select New Items, then click Create team.
3. Choose to build from a template or use an existing Microsoft 365 group.
4. Select privacy: Private (invite-only) or Public (open to your organization).
5. Name your team, add a description (optional), and click Create.
6. Add members and create channels to organize work by topic or project.

Helpful resources:

• Step-by-step guide: Create a team from a template in Microsoft Teams
• Video tutorial: Create a team with team templates - Microsoft Support (Video)
  
  

Joining an Existing Team

1. Open the Teams app and click Chat in the left menu. If you are using the separate view, Select Teams.
2. At the top, select New Items, then click Join Team.
3. Browse public teams and click Join team or enter a code for private teams.
4. Once added, you’ll have access to channels, conversations, files, and resources.

Helpful resource: Find and join a team in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support

Inviting External Users to a Meeting

You can invite external users to Teams meetings by:

• Adding their email in the meeting invite via Teams or Outlook.
• Sharing the meeting link.

Important: External users wait in a lobby until they are admitted.

Limitations for external users:

• External users can only chat during the meeting; chat access ends when the meeting ends.
• External users cannot request device control.
• External users cannot view meeting transcripts.

To learn more about Teams and how to use it for personal productivity and team collaboration, please visit the following resources:

M365 Learning Center

Microsoft Teams (M365) - Features and How To's