Search for messages and more in Microsoft Teams

There are several search and filtering options to help you find messages, people, files, and other info shared in Teams.

Start any search in the search box at the top of Teams. When you type a word or name, Teams will show related results. Either choose one of the suggested items or press Enter to get a full list. Choose one of the items for a full view.

Search your current location with Ctrl+F

Press Ctrl+F (cmd+F on macOS) to search messages within a particular chat or channel in Teams.

Choose the area you want to search—for example, a recent chat or the General channel within a team.
Press Ctrl+F followed by your search terms, and then press Go. The search results will be displayed from within the Find in chat option.
Choose any one of the available results and Teams will scroll up to the location of that particular message.

Search for one-on-one or group chats

Type the person’s name in the search box. You’ll see their name and any group chats listed. Select their name to go to your one-on-one chat with them, or choose a group chat to pick up where you left off.

Search for name or group

Search for group chats by the chat name (if it has one) or search by the name of the chat participants.

Search for teams and channels

Search for a team or channel by its name in the search box. Select the suggested option in the list to directly navigate to the Team or channel.

Search for messages

Start typing a keyword into the search box and press Enter. This displays a list of results that include the keyword.

Scoped Search within Viva Connections

If your organization has Viva Connections enabled, you can scope your search to results within your Connections experience. Select the search box while within Viva Connections and as you type, you will be provided with the option to “Search in Viva Connections” (or the name your organization chose for Connections), in addition to being able to search in Teams. Select a search result to go to the corresponding Connections (or Teams) experience.

Notes:

Viva Connections is available to all Microsoft 365 or Office 365 enterprise plan users.
Scoped search is not available for GCC and GCC High customers. It will be made available with a future update.

Filter your results

After you’ve entered your search terms into the search box, use the Messages, People, or Files tabs above your results to refine your search. Another tier of filters will appear after you make your initial selection, providing a search option for more granular results.

For example, if you select Messages, you can then filter by who the message is from, where the message is, and more.

Use search modifiers

For richer search results in messages, use KQL (Keyword Query Language). The following are the modifiers that Teams supports:

Note: Remember that there's no space between the colon and the search terms.

From:Person's name
In:Channel or group chat name
Subject:keyword from a channel message with a subject line
Sent:Date

Search tips from the pros

Use an asterisk * to get results for any words with a matching prefix. Type the first few letters of a word followed immediately by an asterisk. For example, type "serv*" into the search box, and you'll get results for all words that start with those four letters (server, service, and so on).
Use quotation marks to search for an exact match on a word or phrase. Example: “annual budget”.
The search box also supports certain spell corrections and nickname matches for people searches.

Note: For more info about using KQL, see the developer documentation at Keyword Query Language (KQL) syntax reference.

Filter your activity feed

From the Activity feed, select Filter then More filters to show certain types of messages such as unread messages, @mentions, replies, and likes.

Tap Search Search button and enter a search term or phrase. Tap Messages or People to narrow your results.