Chat channels
Set up Microsoft Teams
The assistant inside Microsoft Teams — personal chats, and @mentions in team channels. Everything else is ready in the product; the only prerequisite is a one-time Azure Bot registration, about ten minutes, usually done by IT.
Before you start
- An Azure Bot resource (Azure portal → create an “Azure Bot” — any name, the free F0 tier, type “Multi Tenant”). Its Configuration page shows the Microsoft App ID.
- A client secret for that bot's app registration (Certificates & secrets → New client secret) — copy the VALUE column immediately, Azure shows it once. Secrets expire in 6–24 months, your choice; a lapsed one shows a credentials error on this channel.
- Chat channels → Microsoft Teams: paste the Bot App ID and the Client secret. Create, then Test — it verifies the sign-in.
- Back in Azure: the Bot resource → Configuration → set the Messaging endpoint to the webhook URL shown in the channel's checklist, and under Channels enable “Microsoft Teams”.
- In Teams, find the bot (or share its install link) and send it a message to confirm.
How people use it
Personal chats are always private, using the asker's own account access. In a team channel the bot only ever receives messages that @mention it — “When @mentioned in a team channel” decides whether those answers use the asker's own access (the whole channel sees them), guest access groups only, or are switched off entirely.
Access
People are matched to their accounts by their work email automatically — Teams tells the assistant the sender's corporate email through its own member lookup, so most organisations need to set nobody up by hand. Someone whose email doesn't match an account is asked to link one instead, unless guest access groups are open on this channel.
Test fails when the App ID or client secret is wrong, or the secret has expired — mint a fresh one in Certificates & secrets and paste it in here.
Last updated 20 Sep 2026