Teams Tips: Chat Workflows – Tech Tip for December 18, 2025

In this week’s tech tip, we’re taking a closer look at one of Microsoft Teams’ most practical enhancements: chat-based workflows you can trigger directly from any message. These lightweight automations are designed for everyday scenarios—like reminding yourself to follow-up, revisiting important messages, or keeping track of key updates—without switching apps or managing extra tools. If you’ve ever thought, “I’ll come back to this later,” Teams workflows are built for exactly that. Let’s take a look!

Create a Workflow from a Chat Message

You can start a Workflow for the first time from an individual chat message or channel post by adding or building a template from scratch in just a few clicks.

From the Teams Desktop App:

• Hover over a Chat message (1:1 or group conversation) and select ‘…’ (More options) from the drop-down menu.
• Select from ‘More actions’ and then, click ‘+ Create workflows’ to open Workflows.
• Select from one of the Workflows options available.
• Teams will walk you through the addition of the template.

Select a Workflow Template:

• Click to Try: ‘Follow up on a message’ to add the Workflow.
  • You will be prompted to ‘Save’ the template.

• Now that you’ve added your Workflow template, go back to the chat message.

Set the Workflow Automation Details:

• On the Chat Message: Select ‘…’ (More options).
  • Select ‘Follow up on a message’ and a Workflow pop-up appears.
  • For this specific template, simply fill in the fields for ‘Date,’ ‘Time,’ and type a ‘Follow up’ reminder note in the available field.
    • Select ‘Submit’ to complete the Workflow automation.

Workflow Reminders:

• Workflow reminders for ‘Follow up messages’ will appear as an ‘Unread’ chat message at the specific date and time you requested.
• Select ‘…’ to view the drop-down menu of More options.
  • Mark as Unread: Change the message status to ‘Unread’ to visually be reminded to view later.
  • Remove: Delete the reminder message notification from the queue.
  • Notifications Settings: Adjust Teams Notifications settings.
  • Turn off Workflows: Selecting this will stop reminders from being sent.

TIP: If the Workflow that you’ve chosen doesn’t reflect or fit your needs initially, try a different option or select the ‘+ Build from Scratch’ option.

TIP: Remove old Workflows when they are no longer in use or necessary to keep your Teams chat and messages from automations organized.

What Workflows Are Best For

These chat-based workflows are intentionally lightweight. They work well for personal productivity and don’t require extra access or approvals.

You Can Easily:

• Schedule a reminder tied to a specific chat message.
• Send a message later at the time you choose.
• Create small, repeatable actions from chat activity.

If you ever want to expand a Workflow later, you can open it in Power Automate—but that’s optional.

TIP: Use Workflows for reminders instead of marking chat messages as ‘unread.’

TIP: Set follow-ups on messages that depend on someone else responding, and keep Workflows tied to chats so the original context is always available.

Let Teams track small tasks, so you don’t have to! By keeping Workflows inside of Teams chats, Microsoft makes automation approachable—and useful—without adding complexity. We hope you’ll give Teams Chat Workflows a try in your next Teams conversation!

Reach Out to TechWise Group

Interested in learning more about Microsoft Teams and Workflows? Reach out to TechWise Group. We’ll help you make the most of your Microsoft tools.