Is the chat area visible to the whole Group?

Yes, everyone within the Team or group chat can see the messages posted and contribute to the conversation. For 1-1 conversations open a new chat, inviting that individual.

What happens when I add @ in front of someone’s name?

It shows the message is intended to be seen by a specific person or people. If they have not seen the message Teams will send them a notification. Everyone within the chat will be able to see the message and be able to contribute to the conversation. Adding @ in front of a name does not make the conversation private.

What should I be mindful about when sending messages through Teams?

Remember this is a business communication tool and you should therefore refrain from non-work related topics. The same etiquette standards should apply to Teams as they would when sending a work email or having a telephone coversation with colleagues or students.

It is also important to remember Teams data is subject to data protection requests and freedom of information requests so do not type anything you wouldn’t be happy to say directly to that individual.

What about confidential information?

Refer to the CSU where to save guide on ChiDrive for advice on where different documents should be stored. It references Microsoft Teams.

You can store data in Teams intended for public viewing.

Being conscious of who is part of the Team you can also store private (need-to-know basis) and confidential (personal or commercially sensitive data) documents in Teams.

Teams is also the ideal platform to hold interviews over video call or discuss the next steps in your department’s ongoing projects.

You should not store personally owned data including music, videos and images or information not compliant with Group policies or copyright licenses within a Teams site.

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