Microsoft Teams: New Update Brings a Compact View for Chats

Microsoft is giving another preview of new Teams features. With “Compact Mode,” the Redmond-based company plans to roll out a new chat view over the course of the month that says goodbye to speech bubbles and can display up to 50 percent more messages.

In competition with Slack, and Discord. Microsoft Teams users will soon be able to ditch the more or less popular speech bubbles and switch to the new “Compact” mode as an alternative to the so-called “Comfy” mode. As an optional design, this should increase the density of visible content in chats and allow users to see significantly more messages at a glance with the same screen size.

Currently only compact view for direct messages in the chat tab

Like the Redmonders in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (via OnMSFT) announce that the new compact view will initially only be offered within the Teams chat feature. The changes should not affect groups or business channels other than direct messages. This area, which is likely to be used more often, retains the old speech bubble display. It is not yet known whether the clearly neater-looking device will be introduced here at a later date.

According to the current schedule, “Compact Mode” for Microsoft Teams should be rolled out from mid-February. The new feature should be available across the board to all Teams users by the end of the month. The customizations can already be tried out in the beta channel. The changeover to the compact display is made via the settings and the menu item “General”. At this point, decisions can be made about the design, including dark mode, and about the new chat density.