Forum Discussion
Can no longer add People to a chat and include chat history in Microsoft Teams?
Used to be able to add additional people to a chat and get option to show chat history with add person icon at top of screen. Now, when press button you only get the option to start a brand new group chat and never given option to include chat history.. this was a VERY useful feature that seems to have been removed?
Not sure if this on purpose or is this a bug?
karen_dredske Along that vein, clearly demarking one on one versus group chats would help also. The same icon is used for both types. I honestly wasn't aware that there was any difference in functionality. It would really help if I could see in my chat conversations list my personal (one on one) chats possibly by grouping, tag, color coding, font, etc. I think the differentiating personal conversations is good, it just hasn't been implemented well to be useful! Yes you don't want to do the equivalent of "Reply All" when it comes to a personal conversation, but this schematic isn't implemented worth a darn.
karen_dredske Regarding not giving the OPTION to provide history to new users in a 1-on-1 chat, this is a ridiculous assumption on the part of Microsoft regarding business' users need to share information. Teams is a business tool primarily, they aren't too many private chats. Just give the OPTION, possibly a warning that you are expanding a one on one chat to a group, please consider if you want to include all chat history vs starting a new group chat? Just make the message a little more salient than when adding users to a group chat. I can see people could get burned by this once in a while, but what are you supposed to do after you report a hot issue to your boss and he wants other people brought into it? This seems like the most COMMON BUSINESS use case scenario for the use of Teams! Why should the business users have to start the conversation over from scratch. This is anti-business and anti-productivity. Teams does not need to try to replace Facebook!
I'm finding this change to be a nightmare! terrenceNokia I can't believe this change in functionality, it's so anti- collaborative.
I'm chatting about something important or an issue and find I need to bring someone else into the chat with the all history, which is quite common practice or I have someone covering for me whilst I go on leave and need to bring them into the chat so they have some history of an ongoing conversation.
Yet I can't as it now forces a brand new chat so I now have to copy the chat history into my new chat, it makes no sense. I'm responsible enough to select the history I do and don't want to share. I do hope this change is revoked as it's really unproductive.Been experiencing this for both 1:1 and 1:Many sessions. Most recently when trying to add users outside my own organization. Cannot tell for sure it goes for internal only users.
Edit / Update: Only applicable when trying to add External users. Cannot quite understand the brilliant value for that... Or possibly a setting my own org made in a bit too eager security ambition?
Really disturbing and one wonder if team developing really use Teams or perhaps they are on Slack?!
terrenceNokia
Thanks for this post to let us be heard.
I have the same issue. I can add a person to a group chat and get the option to include chat history, but in a 1:1 chat it creates a new (and therefore empty) chat instead.
When a new member of the chat is added there should be the option whether to include the chat history or not, regardless of the number of previous participants of the chat.
I agree - the eventual mistake of adding to much history to a new member is the same in both a 1:1 chat or a group chat, so we need the option whether to include chat history or not in all cases.
Because, It is always the new member's need and authorization level that must be considered when adding history or not - regardless if there are one or many persons in the chat from the beginning.
Is this feature really intentionally removed by Microsoft (it seems too irrational to be intentionally) or is it simply a bug?
- The issue here is somehow add a new person in the existing 1-1 chat does not provide the option to include the chat history. However, this option is there for an existing group chat of 3 or more. This should work independent of the number of participants in the chat.
This makes no sense, and this seems to be a bug in Microsoft Team. This is very annoying..... terrenceNokia I'm using the New Teams and this is still happening to me. I cannot add a person to an existing chat, rather, it creates a brand new empty chat.
- Having worked with Teams since it started and trained people on it all that time. . . what you are asking for is there and has always been there in a group chat. However, if you have a 1 on 1 chat - just you and one other person - it is just that, a single person chat. When you are in that chat and you add another person it becomes a group chat. To do that, it starts a new chat session with all 3 or more people. It does not include nor ask you to include the 1 on 1 chat history because that is considered private between 2 people. If you have a group chat with 3 or more people in it and you want to add someone. . . then you are always asked how much history in the chat you want to share. This is not new. This has always been the way that chat in Teams has worked.
What you are asking for would be an enhancement. You can provide that feedback from the Help menu in the lower left corner of the Teams client. One of the options there is Give feedback. You can provide your feedback directly to Microsoft from there.karen_dredskeThe rule doesn't make sense. It is reasonable to assume that I'll start a 1-on-1 conversation with someone and decide to add another person to the conversation later on. Maybe, in my haste, I forgot to add the person to begin with. So, that means that the entire conversation is now unavailable for that other person? That means the only way around this problem is to remember to invite a token / placeholder 3rd person? I'm at the mercy of what my company chooses for business communications but stuff like this is the reason I'm often espousing and recommending other chat programs instead of Teams. Very disappointed.
karen_dredske well it sure seems like we like start a thread and invite more members and allow them to see the whole chat as it is relevant to the issue being looked at.
Just provide a choice when adding, problem solved.
terrenceNokia As ususal in these microsoft support pages, they provide no answer. I am experiencing the same issue here, but the feature is intermittent across the board. Some can share, others not, like me. I have looked throughout the settings and cannot find any relatable setting to toggle or set. The past chat history setting is a necessary feature for the business industry and the excuse that Microsoft is afraid of the "uncle Bob" comments being shared is just simply ridiculous. I myself would like an answer, but it seems Microsoft is too busy providing features and then taking them away from their software without any notice or reasonable explaination.
- I will enter it as a request for enhancement.
Thank you! Is there a link where we can upvote it?
I have the same issue. 1on1 chat wont allow the history to be carried into a 3 person chat but a 3 person chat allows history for the 4th or more to the chat. looks like the group needs to be made up front.,
if i could only just copy the entire chat to the new group.
- UPDATE: not sure if this is the case for everyone, but this feature is back... thank you MS! 🙏🏾
- Have you been able to get the option to include chat history for also a 1:1 chat or is it only for the group chat?
