Microsoft Teams Chat View Settings: A Complete Guide to Customizing Your Chat Experience

If you use Microsoft Teams every day, you’ve probably noticed that the default chat view doesn’t always feel right. Maybe it feels too cluttered. Maybe you can’t see enough messages at once. Or maybe Microsoft recently updated Teams and now your Chat and Channels look completely different from what you were used to — and you just want it back the way it was.

Whatever the situation, you’re in the right place.

In this tutorial, I’m going to walk you through every important Microsoft Teams chat view setting — what each one does, how to change it, and when you’d actually want to use it. No fluff, no unnecessary steps. Just practical stuff you can apply right now.

Why Chat View Settings Actually Matter

Think about how much time you spend inside Microsoft Teams on any given workday. For most people in office or remote work environments, it’s hours. If your chat view is hard to read, cluttered, or just not organized the way your brain works — that adds up to a lot of friction over weeks and months.

The good news is that Teams gives you more control over the chat interface than most people realize. A few tweaks in Settings can make a real difference in how quickly you find messages, how easy it is to read conversations, and how much cognitive load you deal with throughout the day. If you’re tidying up your whole workspace, these Microsoft Teams best practices are a good next read.

How to Get to Chat View Settings

Before we dive into individual settings, here’s how to access the relevant settings panel in Microsoft Teams:

1. Open Microsoft Teams on your desktop (Windows or Mac).
2. Click Settings and more (the three dots (…) icon) near the top-right corner, next to your profile picture.
3. Select Settings from the dropdown menu.
4. In the Settings panel, click on Chats and channels in the left sidebar.

That’s the main hub for all the chat view customizations I’ll cover below. Some settings are also accessible directly from the chat list itself, which I’ll point out as we go.

Setting 1: Combined View vs. Separate View

This is probably the biggest change Microsoft has made to the Teams chat interface in recent years — and it’s the one that confuses people the most.

What’s the difference?

• Combined View: Your Chats, Teams, and Channels all appear together in a single unified list on the left panel. Everything is in one place.
• Separate View: Chats have their own dedicated tab, and Teams/Channels have a separate tab — just like the classic Teams layout most people were used to before the 2024 update.

By default, Microsoft now sets Teams to Combined View. A lot of people find this jarring at first, especially if they’ve been using Teams for years and built their workflow around the old layout.

How to switch between them:

1. Go to Settings > Chats and channels.
2. Under Viewing chats, teams, and channels, you’ll see two options: Combined and Separate.
3. Click the one you prefer. Teams saves it automatically — no need to hit a Save button.

Alternatively, you can do this directly from the chat list:

1. Click the More list options button (three dots at the top of the chat/channel list).
2. Select Customize view. Teams opens Settings > Chats and channels.
3. Choose Combined or Separate.

My take: If you’re managing a lot of channels and group chats simultaneously, Combined View can actually be helpful once you get used to it. But if you prefer keeping work channels separate from direct messages, Separate View gives you that clean mental boundary back. Not sure how teams and channels differ? Here’s Microsoft Teams team vs channel explained.

Setting 2: Chat Density — Comfy vs. Compact

This one is a game-changer if you’re dealing with a long list of chats and constantly scrolling to find the one you need.

What is Chat Density?

Chat density (Teams now labels it Message density) controls how much space each message takes up in your chats. You have two options:

• Comfy: More space between messages. Conversations feel open and easy to read, with more breathing room. It’s the default, and good for people who find dense UIs overwhelming.
• Compact: Less space between messages, so more of the conversation fits on screen at the same time. Great if you’re juggling many simultaneous conversations.

How to change it:

1. Go to Settings > Chats and channels and scroll to the Chat section. (Some Teams builds show it under Appearance and accessibility instead.)
2. Under Message density, select either Comfy or Compact.

That’s it. The change applies instantly.

When should you use Compact?

If you’re the type who has 20+ active chats running at once — project threads, 1:1 conversations, group chats, channel notifications — Compact mode lets you see far more at a glance without scrolling. I’ve found it especially useful during busy project sprints when everything is active at the same time.

When should you stick with Comfy?

If you’re in long reading-heavy conversations or if you tend to have fewer but deeper threads open, Comfy mode is much easier on the eyes. It also works better on larger monitors where screen real estate isn’t the bottleneck. If text still feels small, you can also zoom in on Microsoft Teams.

Setting 3: Message Previews in the Chat List

You know how in the chat list, you can sometimes see a snippet of the last message someone sent you — right below their name? That’s the message preview, and you can turn it on or off.

Why would you turn it off?

Two reasons:

• Privacy: If you’re sharing your screen in a meeting or working in an open-plan office, you probably don’t want snippets of private messages visible to everyone around you.
• Cleaner look: Some people find the previews visually noisy and prefer a cleaner chat list with just names and timestamps.

How to toggle message previews:

1. Go to Settings > Chats and channels.
2. Under Chats and channels list, find the Show message previews for chats and team names for channels toggle.
3. Switch it on or off based on your preference.

The same group also has Show time stamps, Filters, and Copilot toggles. In my Teams, message previews were off by default in the combined view.

Simple, but genuinely useful — especially for the screen-sharing scenario. If you present a lot, here’s how to share your screen on Microsoft Teams.

Setting 4: Suggested Replies

If you’ve noticed those little quick-reply buttons that pop up below messages — things like “Sounds good,” “Thanks,” or “On it” — those are Suggested Replies. Teams uses AI to generate short reply suggestions based on the message content.

Some people love them. Others find them distracting or impersonal.

How to turn Suggested Replies on or off:

1. Go to Settings > Chats and channels.
2. Scroll to Suggested replies and find the Show suggested replies in chat toggle.
3. Turn it off if you don’t want those prompts appearing.

Personally, I keep them off. They’re useful occasionally, but they can make the chat feel less like a real conversation and more like you’re picking from a menu.

Setting 5: Filters — Finding the Right Conversations Fast

If you’re in the Combined View, Teams gives you a filter bar at the top of the chat list. These filters help you quickly narrow down what you’re seeing without manually scrolling. You can show or hide the filter bar with the Filters toggle in Settings > Chats and channels.

Available filters include:

• Unread — Shows only conversations with unread messages
• Chats — Shows only direct messages and group chats
• Channels — Shows only channel conversations
• Meeting chats — Shows chat threads from meetings
• Unmuted — Shows only conversations you haven’t muted
• Communities — Shows your Teams communities

How to use filters:

In the Combined View chat list, you’ll see filter options near the top of the pane. Click any of them to narrow your view. Click again to remove the filter. Select the down arrow at the end of the row to see the rest of the filters.

This is particularly useful first thing in the morning. Instead of scanning everything, just hit Unread and work through what actually needs your attention. It cuts the noise significantly.

Setting 6: Hide Channels You Don’t Use

If you’re a member of many Teams channels, your list can get unwieldy fast. Teams doesn’t have an automatic hide-inactive toggle in Settings, but you can hide any channel you don’t use to keep your view cleaner.

How to hide a channel:

1. In the chat list, hover over the channel and select More options (…).
2. Select Hide.

Teams then moves the channel out of your main list. You can still access it — it shows up when you search or under See all channels for that team — but it won’t clutter your daily view. If you hide every channel in a team, the team is hidden too, and you still get notified about @mentions and replies to threads you follow. Prefer to keep a channel close? Move to section in the same menu sends it to Favorites or a custom section instead.

This is one of those settings most people never discover, but once you turn it on, you wonder how you lived without it.

Setting 7: Jump to Last Read or Newest Message

When you open a long chat that you haven’t checked in a while, where should Teams take you? The last message you read, or the newest message at the bottom?

Teams lets you choose.

How to configure this:

1. Go to Settings > Chats and channels.
2. In the Chat section, find When I open a chat, take me to and select either:
   • Last read message — Takes you to where you left off
   • Newest message — Takes you to the latest message in the thread

For channels, the matching option is In post channels, show recent activity: pick At the top or At the bottom (it’s in the Suggested replies screenshot above).

The “last read message” option is great if you like to catch up sequentially. The “newest message” option is better if you prefer to see the latest context first, then scroll back if needed.

Setting 8: List Layout vs. Grid Layout

In newer versions of Teams, you can also change the layout of your channels list. The default is a List layout, which is the traditional vertical list most people are used to. There’s also a Grid layout that shows your teams as tiles.

To check and switch layouts:

1. Go to Settings > Chats and channels.
2. If you use Separate view, look for a Layout option. In Combined view I don’t see it at all, because Combined always uses the list.
3. Select List for the standard view (this is also required to enable Combined View, so keep this in mind).

Note: Combined View requires List layout to be selected. If you’re trying to enable Combined View and it’s greyed out, switch your layout to List first.

A Few Bonus Tips for Managing Your Chat View

Here are some smaller things worth knowing that don’t have dedicated settings panels, but make a real difference in day-to-day use:

• Favorite important chats: Select More options (…) next to a chat or channel, then Move to section > Favorites. Favorites stay at the top of your list regardless of recent activity.
• Mute noisy chats: Right-click a chat and hit Mute (for a channel, use Manage notifications). You’ll stop getting notifications, but the conversation stays accessible.
• Create custom sections: In the Combined View, you can create labeled sections (like “Projects” or “Team”) by selecting New items (the down arrow next to the new chat icon) > New section, then drag conversations into them. This is really useful if you want to organize by project rather than by recency.
• Mark as unread: If you read something but want to come back to it later, right-click the chat in your list and select Mark as unread. It keeps the conversation highlighted so you don’t forget it.

Wrapping It Up

Microsoft Teams chat view settings give you a surprising amount of control over how your workspace looks and behaves. Whether you want a cleaner layout, faster access to unread messages, or just want to get the old separate Chat and Teams view back — it’s all there in Settings.

Start with the biggest impact changes: switch between Combined or Separate view based on how your brain organizes work, then adjust Chat Density to match how many conversations you manage. From there, layer in the smaller tweaks like message previews, suggested replies, and hiding channels you don’t use. Want a different look too? Try Microsoft Teams dark mode.

The whole point is to make Teams work the way you think — not the other way around.

Frequently Asked Questions

Want to keep tuning Teams? These guides pick up where this one ends:

• Prefer more privacy in chats? Here’s how to turn off read receipts in Microsoft Teams.
• Need more room during meetings? Learn how to hide the chat panel in Microsoft Teams.
• Chat disappeared from the left rail? See the fix for a Microsoft Teams chat icon missing.
• Want your messages to stand out? Try these ways to change font style in Microsoft Teams.