Forward Chat Messages in Microsoft Teams

The new ability to forward chats in Microsoft Teams brings a fresh experience and has garnered a positive response among users. This exciting capability empowers users to share important information within the MS Teams environment. You can transmit messages across 1:1 conversations, group chats, and meeting chats via the new Microsoft Teams on desktop, web, and mobile.

Let’s discuss how to forward chats in Microsoft Teams and explore its advantages in collaboration.

The message forwarding feature in Microsoft Teams provides users with several valuable benefits:

• Beyond the flexibility to forward messages, this feature enables users to add additional content to the forwarded messages. This addition provides crucial context clarity for the readers.
• When forwarding a message in Teams chat, it consolidates its authenticity, going beyond conventional methods such as copy-pasting.
• This feature extends beyond simple text messages and allows users to forward entire chats in Microsoft Teams, including files, images, and more.

The method to forward chats in Microsoft Teams is a straightforward process. As an end user, just adhere to these simple steps to forward a message in a Teams chat:

1. Go to the respective chat (1:1 chat, group chat, or a team’s channel) and find the message you want to forward to another chat.
2. Click on the ellipses (three dots) in the tooltip that appears when hovering over the message.
3. Select the Forward option from the drop-down menu.
   
4. Upon selection, a window titled Forward this message will appear on the screen. There you can search for existing team channels, group chats, meeting chats, distribution lists, groups, or a 1:1 chat.
   • You can select multiple users (combination of users, groups, DLS) to forward the message in a group chat. If there’s no existing group chat available for the selected set of users, a new group chat will be automatically created.
   • If you choose an existing group chat, you can’t add extra individual chats, group chats, distribution lists, or team channels.
   • You won’t see the option to forward messages from channels in a team if administrators apply sensitivity labels that restrict content sharing.
5. Next, you can type any extra content to clarify the reader (optional).
6. Finally, click on the Forward button.
   
7. The recipient will see the forwarded message along with any additional content you’ve provided.
   

Note: Instead of forwarding, if you want to share a message across multiple channels, you can cross-post a channel conversation in Microsoft Teams.

To improve clarity and traceability, forwarded messages seen in Microsoft Teams include a clickable link to the original message.

• The link appears as part of the forwarded message timestamp.
• Clicking the link takes the recipient directly to the original chat or channel message (if the recipient has permission to view it).
• If the recipient doesn’t have access to the original conversation, they’ll see a prompt stating that they’re not part of the chat.
• This helps users quickly understand the full conversation context without scrolling through long chat histories.

Microsoft has improved this feature by introducing a new capability named Multi-Select Forward. This helps Microsoft Teams users forward multiple messages as a combined single message. Users can access this capability from the message action menu under Forward → Multiple messages.

With this enhancement, users can select up to five messages from a chat or channel and forward them together.

Multiple messages forwarded from a chat appear as one bundled message, preserving the original order and context.

Rollout Timeline

• Targeted Release: Early January 2026 – mid-January 2026
• General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): Mid-January 2026 – late January 2026
• General Availability (GCCH, DoD): Early February 2026 – mid-February 2026

Note: This Multi-Select Forward feature is available on Teams desktop (Windows and Mac) and Teams on the web. On mobile devices, users can view bundled forwarded messages, but the option to forward multiple messages is not currently available.

This update directly addresses long-standing user feedback by simplifying how related messages are shared. It makes conversations easier to follow and improves collaboration in Microsoft Teams.

Conclusion

Similar to recent enhancements in Microsoft Teams like intelligent meeting recap and collaborative meeting notes, the feature to forward Teams messages to another account undoubtedly improves the user experience. If you have any questions or need clarification on how to share chats in MS Teams, please feel free to leave a comment.