Microsoft Teams is about to get this feature it should have had on day one

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You'll soon be able to customize the location of Microsoft Teams notifications.

Microsoft Teams app and logo running on a laptop and smartphone.
The option to choose where notifications appear in in testing on Windows and should make its way to other versions of Microsoft Teams in the future. (Image credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Microsoft Teams has been around since 2017 and is used by hundreds of millions of people, but the app still lacks some functionality that seems like it should have shipped on day one. One of those gaps is about to close, since Microsoft started testing the option to customize where notifications appear on your PC recently.

The developers behind Teams are quite active, often adding new features and options within the app. While many features center around AI, Microsoft also rolls out improvements to the interface of Teams quite often. For example, possibly the biggest change in Teams history revamped how teams, chats, and channels are organized within the app.

A blog post from Microsoft outlines the benefits of choosing where notifications appear:

  • Greater focus: By positioning notifications in less intrusive areas of the screen, you minimize distractions and better concentrate on tasks.
  • Improved productivity: With notifications appearing where they are most visible and least disruptive, you can stay informed without breaking your workflows, thereby boosting overall efficiency.
  • Intuitive and flexible interface: You can adjust notification locations to best fit your current workspace, ensuring a seamless, comfortable, and adaptable working environment.

Those all seem to be fair arguments for why the feature is a nice addition to Teams, though I admit I wonder why it took eight years to integrate the option into the app.

You will soon be able to choose where Microsoft Teams notifications appear on your screen. (Image credit: Microsoft)

The ability to customize where Microsoft Teams notifications appear is available for those on Windows devices who are in Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted Release.

If you have access to the option, here is how to customize where Teams notifications appear:

  1. Open Settings within Microsoft Teams.
  2. Navigate to Notifications and activity.
  3. Navigate to Display.
  4. Choose where you want notifications to appear.
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Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott is a tech journalist at Windows Central, specializing in Windows, Microsoft software, AI, and PCs. He's covered major launches, from Windows 10 and 11 to the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. Sean's journey began with the Lumia 740, leading to strong ties with app developers. Outside writing, he coaches American football, utilizing Microsoft services to manage his team. He studied broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University and is active on X @SeanEndicott_ and Threads @sean_endicott_. 

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • GraniteStateColin
    I don't disagree that the ability to select notice placement is a good thing (and I love Teams -- best new product MS has released since Excel), but it does feel like different groups within MS still fighting each other instead of working together: Windows has a notification center. Ideally, ALL notices would use that for a consistent experience. Consistency is the single most important feature of a good UI. The proper solution here would have been for the Teams team within MS to push and work with the OS team to add this option to the system-wide notifications and still worked within that system. Then, everything would benefit and remain a cohesive UI. Instead, this just creates a one-off fix that further creates a chaotic feeling to using Windows.

    If the Windows team said they couldn't do this for whatever reason (design reasons, lack of time, etc.), then Teams should offer an option to use the System Notifications or custom. That way, at least by default, it would continue to use the OS notification center, but users desperate to move at least Teams notices could do so. By the picture in the article, doesn't look like using the Windows Notification Center is even an option. That's bad.
    Reply
  • bazanime
    GraniteStateColin said:
    I don't disagree that the ability to select notice placement is a good thing (and I love Teams -- best new product MS has released since Excel), but it does feel like different groups within MS still fighting each other instead of working together: Windows has a notification center. Ideally, ALL notices would use that for a consistent experience. Consistency is the single most important feature of a good UI. The proper solution here would have been for the Teams team within MS to push and work with the OS team to add this option to the system-wide notifications and still worked within that system. Then, everything would benefit and remain a cohesive UI. Instead, this just creates a one-off fix that further creates a chaotic feeling to using Windows.

    If the Windows team said they couldn't do this for whatever reason (design reasons, lack of time, etc.), then Teams should offer an option to use the System Notifications or custom. That way, at least by default, it would continue to use the OS notification center, but users desperate to move at least Teams notices could do so. By the picture in the article, doesn't look like using the Windows Notification Center is even an option. That's bad.
    I hear you but some orgs disable the native notification area so maybe this apps behaviour is a solution to keep it independent of restrictions.
    Reply
  • GraniteStateColin
    bazanime said:
    I hear you but some orgs disable the native notification area so maybe this apps behaviour is a solution to keep it independent of restrictions.

    That's a good point (is it true? I've never seen an IT group disable notifications en-masse for the org, just on public/shared PCs). Also makes sense for Teams to include this for other systems if Macs don't have a notification system (do they?). If that's the reason, I get the need for Teams to have its own, but then, per my second paragraph, it should only be an option to use Teams Notifications in place of the OS'. The default should always be to use the OS' built-in notification system for consistency.

    Again, nothing is more important than consistency in UI design, unless that consistency would actually break critical functions (e.g., Excel and Word must do some things differently in table navigation because they have such different underlying structures and methods of use).
    Reply
  • marksv
    It's helpful to think about how things are developed at Microsoft, which is a platform company. Say, Office wants to add a new feature to an application (e.g., add notifications to Outlook). Office is on a separate cadence from Windows, so they just add the feature ("toast" pop-ups in the lower-right of the screen). Eventually, this feature is popular, so Windows adds an API and UI (e.g. Windows Notification Center). As more and more apps (Microsoft and 3rd party) adopt the capability, it gets harder and harder to significantly modify it without impact on the ecosystem (i.e. it may introduce a "breaking change"). Then a fast-moving internal team (Teams is the epitome of this) wants to extend the feature, and their request sits in the Windows new feature backlog for a while. Eventually, they just build the thing for themselves, and the cycle continues.
    Reply