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

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-04-29T22:44:40+00:00

    Its absolutely unbelievable. Teams is a huge resource hog, has trouble viewing pictures in chat still, arrow keys randomly stop working still, requires consuming an entire screen just to be functional, lacks simple background effects for most VPNs, functions poorly on a VPN standalone app, sucks at determining which mic and headset to use, and now the inability to bring up past conversations.

    At least we get gifs! Although it's not gonna be the gif you really want. For that, you'll need to Google it and paste it into chat and then wait 3 minutes for Teams to register a new image and upload it so the other participants can reliably view it in their own Teams instances. Now that is quality software from a Fortune 100 company.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-04-29T22:46:57+00:00

    I just had to go find my Microsoft account login credentials again just to come here and reply to this. I have been searching for a message for quite some time today and it reminded me of this post. These are all still issues that have been around for about 2 years. I went to go see if they're planning to make changes to the things you listed, not a single one of them is in the Microsoft Teams road map.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-05-04T10:43:05+00:00

    completely mad that this isn't a thing. the way the search currently works is useless for a chat application. love to search for a question i've previously asked and answered in my chats, only to find my own question...

    teams seems like one of those programs that is not used by the humans that create it. there's so much basic stuff that works in a wholly unintuitive way, or doesn't work at all.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-05-26T16:07:48+00:00

    Management must have had a list of features with a checkbox beside each.

    Bare Minimum Message Search Function... Check!

    Useful Message Search Function... ETA:Q4:2026

    Report status of each function on our Discord server. Check!

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-06-02T20:53:42+00:00

    I may have found a functional workaround to the insanity that is Team Desktop's lack of a functioning search.

    It seems that if the chat that contains your search result is in a *Pop Out* window, that the popped-out window will scroll to the search result when you hit "Go To Message" rather than presenting you the message in a window by itself.

    So:

    * Type a query in Teams Search, find a result you are interested in, click "Go To Message", and Teams stupidly shows you the message you clicked, all by itself, with no context.

    * Type a query in Teams Search, find a result you are interested in. Go to the Chat list, find the person whose conversation your desired result was within, POP OUT that chat window into a new window. Repeat your search query, hit "Go To Message", and the popped out window scrolls to the result!

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