How to Customize Microsoft Teams Notifications

To customize Microsoft Teams notifications, open Settings and more (…) > Settings > Notifications and activity. Adjust your alerts there, then fine-tune busy channels and chats individually.

The desktop instructions below focus on work or school accounts. Teams for personal use has a different settings layout; Microsoft documents its desktop controls under Settings > Activity. Check mobile settings separately when reducing phone interruptions.

Customize Teams notifications on desktop

1. Open notification settings

Select the three-dot Settings and more menu beside your profile picture, choose Settings, and open Notifications and activity. If you cannot find an option, use the settings search box.

2. Control sounds and message previews

Review Sound and Display. Turn off previews for privacy or notifications during calls and meetings for fewer interruptions. Custom notification sounds are available on Windows and web. Use Test notification to check the result.

3. Choose chat alerts and missed-activity emails

Under Chats and channels, adjust the available dropdowns for each notification type. Keep important alerts visible and reduce less useful activity. Under Missed activity emails, choose a frequency or turn summaries off.

Need availability alerts? The Presence section manages notifications about selected coworkers. See Microsoft's Teams notification settings guide for the available controls.

4. Customize a specific channel

Beside the channel name, select More options (…) > Channel notifications. Choose alerts for new messages or posts, depending on the channel layout.

• Activity and banner: keep an Activity feed entry and receive a pop-up alert.
• Activity only: review updates in Teams without a banner.
• Off: disable the notification category you are adjusting.

In Threads-layout channels, include thread replies if you need reply alerts. Following all new threads adds replies to Followed threads; following alone does not create Activity feed notifications. These channel-specific controls let you prioritize a project without enabling every channel alert.

5. Reduce meeting-chat interruptions

Open Meetings within notification settings. Review meeting-start alerts, then adjust chat notifications separately for meetings you accepted and those marked tentative or unanswered.

For a single meeting, accepting normally unmutes its chat. Tentative or unanswered invitations normally stay muted until you join or send a message. Changing your RSVP can update notification behavior. You can also mute an individual meeting chat from its three-dot menu. Microsoft's meeting-chat guide explains these differences.

6. Mute a noisy chat

In your chat list, hover over a conversation and select More options (…) > Mute. You remain in the chat and can read its history. Ordinary message alerts stop, but @mentions can still notify you. Use Unmute in the same menu to restore alerts.

Hiding a chat only changes its visibility in the list. Use Mute rather than Hide when your goal is fewer notifications.

Customize Teams mobile notifications

7. Stop duplicate phone alerts

In the mobile app, tap your profile picture, then Notifications. Under Block notifications, open When active on other devices and enable blocking while you use Teams on desktop or web.

Mobile alerts resume after Teams detects several minutes of inactivity on those devices. Call notifications can still reach your phone. Review When in meetings separately if calls or meetings generate unwanted phone interruptions. Microsoft's mobile notification troubleshooting guide covers these settings.

8. Schedule quiet hours and days

From mobile Notifications, select Block during quiet hours. Enable Certain hours for an overnight schedule or All Day for selected days off.

Quiet time silences sound and push notifications; new activity remains available when you open Teams. Coworkers are not told that your phone notifications are muted. Quiet hours follow your device's time zone, including when you travel. See Microsoft's quiet-time instructions before syncing schedules across mobile apps and devices.

If notifications still do not appear

Check the affected chat or channel first, then your device permissions. On Windows 11, review Settings > System > Notifications, including Do not disturb and app notification permissions. On phones, allow Teams notifications in the device's Settings app and review quiet hours or cross-device blocking before changing more settings.