FAQs
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams organizes teams and projects in one place, allowing members to collaborate quickly and effectively.
- A central hub: Microsoft Teams allows you to manage files created in Office 365 among your fellow collaborators, wherever they may be.
- Team collaboration: Everyone can stay up-to-date on the latest project status: Teams allows multiple people to edit documents simultaneously.
- Chat and share files: Group and individual chat functionality, easy access to shared team documents, and integration of other 365 apps.
How can I learn more about the privacy and security of Teams?
- Microsoft's Teams security guide
- Microsoft's privacy guide
- Secretariat privacy resources
- Secretariat Privacy and Remote Meetings guidelines
*Phone numbers of users who dial-in to Teams meetings are displayed to all meeting attendees
Can I invite external users to my team?
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- Up to 300 people can join a Teams meeting.
- Visit Microsoft's website for more Teams limits and specifications.
Where can I learn more about Teams?
- Microsoft has an extensive support section on their website that should answer most questions.
- There are also training videos that provide an overview of basic functions within Teams.
- If you are looking for a more hands-on experience, there is a live demo, which walks you through the Teams interface.
- Request a custom training workshop! Submit a request to rt-ist-csgs@rt.uwaterloo.ca.
- Register for the IT Professional Development (ITPD) course to learn more about Teams.
How do I request to sync a class roster with Teams?
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- Private and group chat messages in Microsoft Teams will be deleted one year after the message is sent or received and will not be recoverable.
- For example, chat messages sent or received on or before June 1, 2020 would be deleted.
- An automatically generated message stating "We've deleted older messages due to your organization's retention policy" will appear at the top of chat windows as older chats are deleted.
- Other Teams data will persist as long as the Team exists (i.e., All Teams data would be deleted if the entire Team was deleted).
- Links to files shared in private or group chats will also be removed from the conversation at the one-year mark; however, files will still be accessible in the MS OneDrive of the original sender.
Aren't the existing tools enough?
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Teams are available to University of Waterloo employees (i.e. staff, faculty, and graduate students employed by the University), who can use our Microsoft Teams form to request a Team.
How do I
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add Teams to a personal device
Follow these steps to download Teams on a personal device
Guides
General
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