Show context around old Teams messages from search results

Anonymous
2020-09-29T18:45:59+00:00

Looking for help with a particular issue with searching for older messages inside of Teams.

When I search for a certain keyword - say, "hot dog" - I get results that are both old and recent from past conversations. If I look at the recent results I get the full message context that surrounds it - messages coming and going.

If I read older messages, however, I only get the single message result without any surrounding context. This is only marginally helpful, as the context is necessary to add, well, context to the conversation!

Has anyone figured out how to do this? Is it an admin side thing that needs to change?

Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams for business | Chats | Search messages and conversations

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

74 answers

Sort by: Newest
  1. Anonymous
    2022-08-10T04:54:29+00:00

    I used to the the "pop-out" chat box as a work-around. However, the pop-out option is no longer available for me. Does anyone else have this issue?

    Now I have to scroll through months, or years worth of messages. This isn't practical at all. @Microsoft what the heck?

    If anyone knows how to restore the pop-out option, please let me know. Thanks!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2022-08-04T12:05:22+00:00

    Great!

    But now the WebVersion only shows one message immediately before and one immediately after and not the entire history :(

    However, this is a million times better then the downloadable Teams client...

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Deleted

    This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.


    Comments have been turned off. Learn more

  4. Anonymous
    2022-07-08T01:20:44+00:00

    I'm honestly astounded that this thread--which pops up when you google how to do this very simple thing that pretty much any other chat client will do without workarounds or dumb hassles--is still going on after 2 years.

    Shame on you, Microsoft.

    Biggest tech company in the world, global pandemic that makes products like this totally essential, and yet there's been zero effort made to make Teams' search functionality useful in this way. It's a big deal. I work in tech, replies matter. Entire conversations matter. Now (actually 2 years ago) is the time we need robust communication software the most. It's integrated into our work and home life. If your company uses Microsoft products, chances are you have to use Teams as well. Discord, Slack, even iPhone's message search brings up the message in context.

    But hey, at least we can now chat with ourselves for drafts and things. Slack has had this feature for as long as I can remember. Great job. I'm not even sure why I bother posting this when clearly they don't care.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2022-07-07T18:51:25+00:00

    "unfortunately, it is not feasible to show the chat history related to the specific search result."

    You should try Slack.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments