FIVE TEAMS HACKS EVERYBODY KNOWS
Where would we be without Microsoft Teams? Pretty much where we are right now, I imagine. But with fewer dings, buzzes and relentless xylophone ringtones. Do you get those? Sometimes you feel like you get an alert every time someone farts. It’s madness.
So, facing up to the real possibility of throwing my laptop through a window (or something through my laptop) I googled “Easy ways to shut Teams up” and discovered some stuff that’s almost useful.
Do not disturb
This is obvious, right? But I’m slow. So it’s taken me weeks to work this out. If you’re somehow slower than me. It’s easy. Just click on your picture at top right and it shows your status. Next to that is the smallest arrow that’s ever been turned into pixels. (Design. Tick. UX. Fail). Click the arrow and choose ‘Do not disturb’. It silences everything instantly. Nice.
/Shortcuts a go go
Ever used the long search bar at the top of the app? Me either, until now. Turns out it’s a shortcut portal full of backslash nerdery. Try it out. Jump into the search box and hit backslash (/) to see a list of shortcuts. Want silence? /dnd - Need files? /files - Love to count all the times you’ve been @attacked? Try /mentioned – But, who really wants to see that?
Shorter Shortcuts
Having trouble with the effort of moving and clicking your mouse? No worries. Just hit the right keys in the right order and stuff will happen by magic. Want to switch to your feed? Hit Ctrl 1 or ⌘1 Want to jump to chat? Ctrl 2 or ⌘2 Microsoft have a full list of simple keyboard shortcuts for PC and Mac – perfect for those times when point and click is hard.
Fix up your alerts
Technophobic as I might be, I sorted out alerts early on. How dare they interrupt my flow with their popping up and buzzing crap? But what about my mobile? That can be fixed too. Just hit your Profile pic and choose Settings. Then go to notifications and go to town. Best feature is ‘quiet times’ – so no one bugs you in your downtime. I chose 9am to 5pm daily.
Finally, kill the xylophone
I’m old enough to remember the days when cellphone ringtones were a booming business and everyone chose something different to feel special. These days most people choose an old school phone ring. And that’s progress. Anyway, want to kill the xylophone? Easy. Go to activity, hit the settings cog, choose calls and choose your own ringtone. Spoiler alert: they’re all shit – but some are mildly less annoying.
And that’s what I’ve been doing to de-buzz, un-ring and generally neuter the digital casino vibe of Teams. Look out for more top tips soon - as I slowly discover stuff that everyone else has been doing since day one. Technology, huh. It’s mostly just there so we can look back in the future and ask ourselves WTF?
That’s what I reckon, what do you think?