Chapter 6

IN THIS CHAPTER

Installing and signing in to the Teams mobile app

Staying connected with family and friends

Chatting, calling, and sharing your location

Planning events and sharing files

If you are like me, you have a mobile device or smartphone on or near you at all times. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t work for a day without using my smartphone. There will always be a need for a laptop or desktop computer, but more and more often a smartphone is the tool of choice for modern information workers.

In this chapter, you discover how to use Microsoft Teams on your mobile device and smartphone. You get Teams installed and learn about some of the ways working with Teams on your phone can make you a lot more productive. You also take a look at how Teams makes it easy to keep in touch with family and friends by using it to help keep your personal life organized in addition to your work life. You discover how to use Teams to chat, make phone calls, plan events, share files, and even share your location with others.

Installing the Teams Mobile App

You can install Teams on your mobile device in a few different ways. The easiest way is to open the Google Play Store (on Android devices) or the Apple App Store (on iOS devices) and search for the Teams mobile app. Another way is to use your mobile web browser and sign into https://teams.microsoft.com, and then tap the icon for installing the mobile app.

The icon on the website to install the mobile app is a shortcut that takes you to the relevant app store. I find it easier to just go straight to the iOS or Android app store and search for Microsoft Teams instead of trying to navigate my mobile web browser to the Teams website.

Installing on iOS

To install the Teams mobile app on your iPhone or iPad:

1. Open the Apple App Store on your iOS device.

2. Tap the Search icon in the store and type Microsoft Teams in the search box.

3. Click search.

Make sure you choose the Microsoft app from the options that appear (see Figure 6-1).

4. Tap the download icon to install the app on your device.

5. Once the app has finished downloading and installing, tap the Open button.

Installing on Android

To install the Teams mobile app on your Android phone or tablet:

1. Open the Google Play Store on your Android device.

2. Tap the Search icon in the store and type Microsoft Teams.

3. Click search.

Make sure you choose the Microsoft app from the options that appear (see Figure 6-2).

4. Tap the Install button to install the app on your device.

5. Once the app has finished downloading and installing, tap the Open button.

FIGURE 6-1: Installing the Teams app from the Apple App Store.

FIGURE 6-2: Installing the Teams app from the Google Play Store.

When you first open the Teams mobile app, you are presented with a sign-in screen where you can choose to sign in to Teams, as shown in Figure 6-3. Tap the Sign In button and then enter your Microsoft 365 credentials you created when you signed up for the Microsoft 365 trial in Chapter 1. Teams loads and walks you through some tips on using the app. Once you get through the tips, you can start working with Teams, as you will see in the next section.

If you have already signed in to any other Microsoft 365 app on your mobile device, such as Outlook, you can just select that account and Teams will automatically log you in using the credentials that are already cached on the device.

If you want to skip signing up for Microsoft 365, you can also sign up for a free account just by downloading the app on your mobile device and then tapping the Sign Up for Free button shown earlier in Figure 6-3.

FIGURE 6-3: Signing in to the Teams mobile app.

Finding Your Way Around the Teams Mobile App

Something I really love about Teams is that it doesn’t matter what client I am using — the desktop and laptop version or the mobile app — the concepts and options are all the same. I have used the Teams client on my Mac, iPad, Android phone, Windows laptop, and my iPhone. Because Teams is a new application that was only created in the last few years, Microsoft took the opportunity to build all the clients at the same time. The interfaces are slightly different because they are optimized for the device you are using, but once you get familiar with the concepts in Teams, you can use any client and feel comfortable in how to use it.

If you are a Linux fan, you will be happy to learn that Microsoft Teams is now also available for Linux.

Throughout the previous chapters, I discuss the left navigation pane in the Teams web and desktop and laptop apps. The Teams mobile app is similar, except instead of accessing the Teams icons in the left navigation pane, the app includes tabs across the bottom of the screen, as shown in Figure 6-4. You get to your profile settings (see Figure 6-5) by tapping the Settings icon, which is also called the hamburger menu because the icon’s three layers look like a hamburger. Here you can do things like set your status and status message, turn on or off notifications, learn about new features, and access additional settings specific for the mobile app.

Three settings control the settings for the Teams mobile app in general, as shown in Figure 6-6:

· Dark theme: When you enable this feature, the colors of the app switch to dark colors. By default, Teams uses lighter colors, but you may prefer the darker colors when using the app in low-light situations.

· Notifications: Use this setting to update how you get notified by Teams. You can set the hours you want Teams to be quiet and not send you notifications; set if you want the Teams mobile app to only send notifications when you are not active on the desktop app; configure notifications for incoming calls, missed calls, ongoing calls, chats, likes, and reactions; and set other notification-related settings.

· Data and storage: It would be nice if everyone had unlimited data on their mobile devices, but unfortunately this is not the case (as I can attest). Using these settings, you can set the quality (size) of images you upload, clear temporary files and app data, and clear your chat history to help manage the data load on your mobile device.

FIGURE 6-4: Viewing the navigational tabs across the bottom of the Teams mobile app.

Additional settings may be set for each specific team, as shown in Figure 6-7:

· Profile: You can set your profile picture and view your activity, organizational chart, email address, and phone number with this setting.

· Messaging: Use this setting to show channels in your chat list. When you tap the Chat tab at the bottom of your mobile screen, you will then see your channels in addition to your private chats.

· Shifts: Shifts is a new feature that stems from a service called StaffHub. The Shifts functionality is designed for shift workers. You can set up reminders for your work shifts, set timing on when notifications should appear before your work shifts, and clear shifts app data.

· About: This setting provides information about the mobile app, such as the version, privacy and cookies, terms of use, and third-party software notices and information.

· Help & feedback: Click this setting to view Help information and provide feedback to Microsoft about the app.

FIGURE 6-5: The profile settings menu in the Teams mobile app.

FIGURE 6-6: The general mobile Settings for Microsoft Teams.

FIGURE 6-7: The team-specific mobile settings for Microsoft Teams.

· Rate us: Use this setting to rate the app on the relevant app store.

· Report an issue: Use this setting to report an issue about the app to Microsoft.

· Add account: With this setting, you can add an additional account to use the app. I do this when I work with clients that set up an account for me in their Office 365 subscription. I can use multiple accounts with my Teams app on my phone.

· Sign out: Use this setting to sign out of the Teams app. This is useful if you work in more than one organization. For example, I have a Teams account where I use my @portalintegrators.com email account. I use this for any work related to Portal Integrators. I have another Teams account specific to this book.

Tapping Your Way through Teams

The Teams mobile app, like any other mobile app, is designed to be used by tapping your fingers on the screen of your phone or tablet. I have found Teams to be intuitive; however, there are a few differences between using your keyboard and mouse and using your fingers.

Interacting with messages

In Chapter 4 you learn about reacting to messages in channels and chats. Using reactions, you can add a happy face, a thumbs up, or any number of different emojis to your chat messages. In addition, you can interact with messages in a number of different ways. You can:

· Save a message so that you can quickly find and review it later.

· Mark a message as unread so that it continues to show as new in Teams.

· Copy a link to the direct message.

· Open the message in the immersive reader, which will read the message for you and show you each word as it is read.

· Turn on notifications for the message thread.

· Create a new poll that will be attached to the message. (This is handy when someone brings up a topic that needs input from others.)

If you are reacting to your own message, then you have additional options such as being able to edit or delete the message. If you don’t see these options for your own messages, then your administrator has turned off your ability to edit or delete messages.

When you are using Teams with your keyboard and mouse, you can hover your mouse over a message or click the ellipsis to see these interactions. However, when you are using Teams on your mobile device, hovering your finger isn’t an option. Instead, you need to tap and hold on the message in order to bring up the same menu, as shown in Figure 6-8.

If you get stuck and cannot find a menu when navigating Teams on a mobile device, try tapping and holding as an option. Using a mouse, you can hover your mouse over elements of the interface to see menus, but hovering is not an option when using your fingers!

If you are reacting to a message in a chat, you must tap and hold to access the reaction options, but if you are reacting to a message thread in a channel, you will see a tiny ellipsis and you can tap that, too. I find it easier to just tap and hold a message in either a chat or a channel in order to bring up the menu shown in Figure 6-8.

FIGURE 6-8: Reacting to a message using Teams on a phone or tablet.

Getting used to navigation

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, navigation through the Teams mobile app is slightly different than when using your keyboard and mouse. Rather than clicking navigational icons along the left side of the app, in the mobile version these icons are found along the bottom of the app (refer to Figure 6-4).

The experience is optimized for mobile devices, which means the flow is slightly different in the mobile app because the amount of space on a mobile device is much smaller than a laptop or desktop computer screen. One key difference in navigation is that the screens you navigate may require more taps to the screen than the associated clicks with your mouse. For example, when you tap the Chat icon at the bottom of your mobile app, you will see all the chats you currently have going on.

Navigating into your chats on your mobile device is very similar to the keyboard behavior. However, if you tap the Teams option, you will be presented with all the teams and channels you have. You then you need to tap again to open one of those channels, as shown in Figure 6-9. On a large monitor you can see all the teams and channels at the same time you see the associated messages in the channel. With the mobile app, you need to make another tap in order to get into the channel, and if you want to change channels, you need to tap the back icon and then select a different channel.

FIGURE 6-9: Tapping a channel in the list of teams on a mobile phone.

Navigating Teams on a mobile device can take more taps than the associated clicks when using Teams on a laptop or desktop. Even though the mobile app takes more work to navigate, it is worth the effort because the experience on a mobile device is designed for smaller screens and using your fingers instead of a mouse.

Organizing Your Home Life

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had to plan a birthday party or a vacation with extended family and/or friends. Emailing the plans back and forth between all interested parties and then using text messages to follow up can get cumbersome. Not to mention all of the different messages can make it difficult to keep track of all the details. Having a single place to hold conversations and share documents will make planning and executing any party or family vacation feel much easier.

The Microsoft Teams app lets you do just that: with text messaging, voice and video calling, the ability to share files between contacts, and the ability to share your location in real time, you can keep the busyness of life at bay under one umbrella, er, app.

If you already have the Microsoft Teams app downloaded on your mobile device or desktop, you do not need to download another version to use it to organize your home life. All you need to do is to log in to Microsoft Teams using your personal account.

Using the mobile app for chatting

To use the Teams mobile app to chat, follow these steps:

1. Open the Teams mobile app on your smartphone.

2. Select your Personal Teams account from the Accounts and Orgs list.

3. Select the Chat icon from the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.

The Chat screen opens.

4. Select the note icon that appears in the upper-right corner.

This icon looks like a piece of paper and a pencil.

On the next screen, you will see a search box that starts with To:, a link for New Group Chat, and list labeled “Suggestions.” The suggested names are contacts from your contacts list who are using Microsoft Teams.

5. Select the name of the contact (or the group name if you created a group).

The contact appears in the To: field of the chat screen.

6. To send a chat, tap in the text box labeled “Type a message,” and type your message as you would for any chat application, as shown in Figure 6-10.

7. Tap the paper airplane symbol to send your chat when you’re done.

Creating a specific group can help keep your chat conversations organized. To create a group chat, select the note icon on the upper-right corner to start a new chat as described earlier in Step 3. Select the “New Group Chat” link and add a name for the group. Click Next and then add the names of the contacts you want to be added to the group chat. If your contact has not joined Microsoft Teams yet, that contact will get an invite and will be added to the group when they accept the invitation.

FIGURE 6-10: Using chat on a mobile phone.

Using the mobile app for calling

To use the Teams mobile app to make phone calls, follow these steps:

1. Open the Teams mobile app on your smartphone.

2. Select your Personal Teams account from the Accounts and Orgs list.

HELP! MY CONTACT ISN'T USING TEAMS!

If the person you want to send a chat message to isn't using Microsoft Teams yet, no need to panic. You just need to invite that person to join Teams. Instead of selecting the name of the person from the list of suggestions Teams offers when you click the note icon, start typing the name or the email address of the person you want to invite to Microsoft Teams in the To: field. If the email address is already saved on your device, it will appear in the search results. Select the email address and it will appear in the To: field, along with a Send Invite button. Tap the Send Invite button to send an email invite. Once your contact accepts your invitation and logs in to Teams, you will see that person’s contact information on the main Teams screen and you can chat away!

3. Tap the Calls icon at the bottom of the screen on an iOS device; tap More and then Calls on an Android device.

4. Search for the name of the person you want to call and select that person’s name.

Note that you can only call someone who is already in your Microsoft Teams contacts list.

5. On the pop-up menu that appears, select phone icon to place a voice call or the camera icon to place a video call.

Some of the call features you can use are putting someone on hold, sharing your screen, raising your hand, using a blurred background, and turning off incoming video if you need to save bandwidth. Access these options by tapping the ellipsis icon on the call screen.

Sharing files with contacts or groups

The chat and calling features discussed so far are par for the course for any messaging app like Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and so on. What sets Microsoft Teams apart from the others is that it lets you share documents with your contacts. Here’s how:

1. Open the Teams mobile app on your smartphone.

2. Select your Personal Teams account from the Accounts and Orgs list.

3. In the Search bar, search for the contact or group you want to share files with.

At the bottom of the screen, you will see an Activity icon, Chat icon, Calendar icon, Files icon, and the ellipses for more options.

4. Select the Files icon.

A list of the available locations where you can select the file you want to share appears (see Figure 6-11).

5. Select the storage location from this screen and navigate to the file you want to share.

6. Select the file you want to share.

Teams gives you the option to type a message.

7. When you are ready to send the file, click Send.

FIGURE 6-11: Selecting the location of the file you want to share.

Planning events

Now that you know how to chat and share files on Microsoft Teams, you can use it the next time you plan an event. Create a group chat with the people you need to collaborate with and name the chat the name of the event. Doing this can help everyone to stay focused on the subject matter. Any conversations not related to the planning of the event can be had in a different group chat. Easily share a task list on a spreadsheet or that PowerPoint file for that slide show.

To create an event invite, follow these steps:

1. Select the group chat you created for the event.

2. Select the Calendar icon.

3. Select the plus (+) icon in the upper-right corner to add a new event.

The New Event screen appears, as shown in Figure 6-12.

4. Enter the information for the event.

5. Select Done.

The new event is added to your calendar and an invite is sent to the group you selected.

FIGURE 6-12: Creating a new event.

Sharing your location

Ten years ago, I went on vacation with my family to Disneyland in Hong Kong. Like anyone who has been to a Disneyland park, I know all too well how easy it is to lose track of someone in the park. One person decides to go one way, while others go another way, and then like that the person is out of sight. But Teams provides a way to help prevent this. Before you go on vacation, make sure every member of the entourage is using Microsoft Teams. If you have not already, create a group, and add all the members of the entourage to that group. Then, share your locations between the group members and voila! You can keep track of everyone without needing to make several phone calls to keep confirming locations.

To share your location within Teams, follow these steps:

1. Select the name of the contact or group you want to share your location with.

2. On the bottom of the screen, select the location icon.

3. Select Share your live location.

You have the option of how long to share your location.

4. Choose either 30 mins, 1 day, or Always On.

5. Choose Send Location.

Your location will appear on the chat screen. Any member of the group chat can click the link and see your location.

6. To stop sharing your location, click the map you shared and click Stop Sharing.

Once you stop sharing, a message will appear on the chat window informing the members of the group that you have stopped sharing your location.