How To Use The New Threads In Teams!

How Threads in Microsoft Teams Will Transform Your Channel Conversations

I’ve spent years helping professionals get the most from Microsoft 365 and one of the most common frustrations I hear is how messy Microsoft Teams channels can become. Important posts get buried, and finding the right conversation often means endless scrolling. If you’ve ever felt lost in a sea of posts, you’re not alone.
That’s why I’m excited to share a major update coming to Teams: Threads. This new feature is set to make channel conversations clearer, more organised, and much easier to manage.

What Are Threads in Teams?

Threads allow you to keep discussions neatly grouped together. Instead of replies piling up under every post and cluttering your channel, each conversation now sits in its own thread. You can expand a thread to see the full discussion in a dedicated panel on the right, making it simple to follow the flow and reply in context. The main channel view becomes much cleaner, showing only the main posts and a summary of replies.

How to Enable Threads

If you’re a channel owner, you can switch your channel layout to Threads in the channel settings. Once enabled, everyone in the channel will see the new threaded view. It’s worth noting that this is a global change for the channel, so make sure your team is ready for the update before switching over.

For new channels, Threads will be the default layout, but you can always switch back to the classic posts view if you prefer.

Key Features and Use Cases

Simplified Conversations: Threads keep related replies together, making it easy to catch up on discussions without wading through unrelated posts. This is perfect for project teams who need to track multiple topics at once.
Focused Collaboration: You can follow specific threads that matter to you, whether you started the conversation or not. This is ideal for managers or team leads who want to monitor key updates without being distracted by every message.
Efficient Notifications: When you reply to or follow a thread, you’ll get updates in a new “Followed Threads” section. This acts like an activity feed, helping you stay on top of important conversations across all your channels.
Flexible Layout: You can switch between Threads and the classic posts view as needed, giving your team the flexibility to choose what works best for them.
Pop-Out Threads: If you need to focus on a particular discussion, you can open a thread in a separate window. This is especially useful during meetings or when working on detailed projects.

Things to Keep in Mind

While Threads are rolling out, not everyone in your organisation may have access right away. If you enable Threads but some colleagues don’t have the feature yet, they might see messages out of order or disconnected from their threads. It’s best to coordinate with your team and wait until everyone has access for a smooth transition.

Why Threads Matter

Threads bring Teams channels closer to the experience of chat, making it easier to manage conversations and keep your workspace tidy. For anyone who’s struggled with cluttered channels or missed important replies, this update is a real game changer.

If you’re ready to take control of your Teams conversations and want to see Threads in action, you can find more information in my YouTube tutorial linked below.