Shifts is the scheduling app inside Microsoft Teams: a team owner creates one schedule per team, sorts people into schedule groups, and workers use it to pick up open shifts, swap or offer shifts and request time off. Every request goes to a manager for approval, and a swap or offer also needs the teammate to accept it first.
Here's the catch. You must be a team owner to create a schedule, and the Create button only appears for teams you own. On top of that, a schedule belongs to one team, so you can only add people who are already members of that team. If someone's missing from the list, the fix is in Teams, not in Shifts: add them with the Manage team link, then give it a little while, because Microsoft says changes to a team might not show up in Shifts straight away.
Setting up your first schedule
Microsoft splits the setup into six steps, as of October 2026. Here they are in order:
- Open Shifts from the left side of Teams on desktop or web. If it isn't there, find it under View more apps.
- Select Choose or create a schedule, then New schedule, and select Create next to your team. Set the time zone by picking the closest city, then Confirm.
- Add schedule groups. A new schedule starts with one group called Unnamed group; rename it and add more with Add group.
- Add people to each group with Add people. One person can sit in more than one group.
- Go to the Settings tab and choose which Shifts features your team can use.
- Optionally, turn on shift-based tags so people can reach whoever's on shift.
Schedule groups organise people by something they share, such as role or department. Microsoft's example is a shop with Sales associates, Cashiers and Floor leaders. Name your groups with care, because those names become tags people use in @mentions, which I'll come to below.
The settings worth deciding up front
On the Settings tab you choose how much freedom your workers get. You can:
- Set the day of the week your schedule starts.
- Turn on open shifts for workers to request.
- Choose whether workers can swap shifts and offer shifts to coworkers.
- Decide whether workers can request time off, and add or edit the time-off reasons.
- Turn on time clock so workers clock in and out and record breaks.
- Set privacy controls for how far back workers can see each other's shifts and in how much detail.
Everything a worker can request depends on these switches, so if a worker can't see a Swap button, check this tab before anything else.
Open shifts, swaps and offers
| Request | What the worker does | Who has to say yes |
|---|---|---|
| Open shift at your location | Opens Open Shifts, then Your locations, picks a shift and taps Request | Your manager |
| Open shift at another location | Uses the Other locations tab, if that feature is set up for your team | The manager at that location |
| Swap a shift | Taps their shift, then Swap, and picks a teammate's shift | The teammate first, then the manager |
| Offer a shift | Taps their shift, then Offer, and picks a teammate | The teammate first, then the manager |
| Time off | Sends a time-off request, if your schedule allows it | Your manager |
Open shifts are unassigned shifts a manager has made available to request. With swaps and offers, the request goes to the teammate's Teams Activity feed first. If they accept, it's automatically sent to the manager for final approval, and both people get a notification when the manager responds. If it's approved, the schedule updates itself.
Workers can see every request and its status under Requests in Shifts. The In progress section lists anything still waiting for a manager, and you can cancel any request that's still in progress. The Completed section shows what was approved or denied. There's also a shift reminder: go to Settings, then Shifts, and turn on Set shift reminder to get a notification one hour before your shift starts.
Copying a schedule weeks ahead
Building every week from scratch is the slow way. Copying lets you set up weeks or months in advance:
- At the upper-right corner of the schedule, select Copy schedule.
- Choose the start and end dates of the timeframe you want to copy.
- Pick what to include, such as Shift notes, Activities, Time off and Open shifts, and which schedule groups.
- Choose the date to copy to and how many times to repeat it, then select Copy.
- Make your changes, then share the schedule with your team.
The shifts are duplicated on the dates you chose, but nothing reaches your team until you share it, so you've got time to tidy it up first.
Shift-based tags: reach whoever's on now
This is the clever part. With shift-based tags switched on, people are automatically tagged with their schedule group name. Anyone on the team can use that tag in an @mention to start a chat or in a channel post, and the notification only goes to the people who are on shift at that moment. Microsoft's examples are a store manager posting to @Cashiers to reach every on-shift cashier, and a nurse using @CardiologistsOnCall to start a chat with every on-call cardiologist.
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To turn it on, a manager chooses the team in Teams, selects More options, then Manage team, goes to the Settings tab and turns on the Shifts toggle in the Tags section.
Approvals and the rest of the frontline kit
Shifts sits alongside other apps Microsoft points frontline teams to, including Walkie Talkie, Planner and Approvals. For anything that isn't a shift request, Approvals handles it: open the Approvals app, select New approval request, fill in the name, who needs to approve and in what order, add any extra info or an attachment, and select Send. Approvals created through Power Automate land in the same hub. If you're new to Teams in general, start with my Microsoft Teams tutorial.
My verdict on Microsoft Teams Shifts
I'd use Shifts if you already run your frontline team in Teams, because the approvals, notifications and on-shift tags all live where people already chat. Set the Settings tab first, name your groups so the tags make sense, and copy a good week forward instead of rebuilding it. Skip it if your schedulers aren't team owners and can't become one, because that's the first wall you'll hit. If you're weighing up the paid extras, here's what Microsoft Teams Premium adds.
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Frequently asked questions
Who can create a schedule in Microsoft Teams Shifts?
You must be a team owner. Each team gets one schedule, and the Create button only appears for teams you own.
Does a shift swap in Teams need a manager's approval?
Yes. The teammate accepts or declines first, and if they accept, the request goes automatically to the manager for final approval.
Why can't I add someone to my Shifts schedule?
A schedule belongs to a team, so you can only add members of that team. Add them with the Manage team link, then wait a bit, as team changes might not show in Shifts right away.
Who gets notified when someone uses a shift-based tag?
Only the people who are on shift at the time the tag is used.
Can I copy a schedule in Shifts?
Yes. Select Copy schedule, choose the dates and what to include, pick where to copy it and how many times, then share it with your team.
