- Pin a chat to the top of your list (Favorites)
- Pin a message for everyone in the chat
- Rules for pinned messages
- Unpin a message
- Other ways to tame a busy chat list
- Why it's called Favorites now
- What a good pinned message looks like
- Teams for personal use
- Which chats deserve a Favorites spot?
- Pinning versus saving
- My verdict
- Frequently asked questions
To pin a chat in Microsoft Teams, drag it into the Favorites section at the top of your chat list, or hover over it and choose More options, Move to, Favorites. To pin a single message so everyone sees it, hover over the message, select More options and choose Pin for everyone.
'Pin' means two different things in Teams. Pinning a chat keeps a conversation at the top of your own list, and in the current version of Teams Microsoft calls this adding it to Favorites. Pinning a message sticks one message to the top of a chat for everyone in it. Here's how to do both, and the rules that catch people out.
Pin a chat to the top of your list (Favorites)
- Find the chat in your list of chats and channels.
- Drag it into the Favorites list at the top.
- Drag chats up or down within Favorites to set the order you want.
Prefer menus to dragging? Hover over the chat, select More options, then Move to, then Favorites. To take a chat out again, choose More options, then Remove from section. Only your list changes; nobody else sees your Favorites.
Pin a message for everyone in the chat
- Hover over the message you want to pin.
- Select More options in the menu above it.
- Choose Pin for everyone.
The message appears at the top of the chat with the author's name and when it was posted. Anyone who selects it jumps to the original message in the conversation, which is handy for long chats.
Rules for pinned messages
| Rule | What Microsoft says |
|---|---|
| Who sees it | Everyone in that chat |
| How many at once | Only one pinned message at a time |
| Who can unpin or replace it | Anyone in the chat except guests |
| How much shows | Only a single line that fits the chat width |
That last rule matters. Write the key point in the first line of a message you plan to pin, such as 'Final deadline: Friday 5pm, files in the Shared tab', because the rest gets cut off in the banner.
Unpin a message
Go to the pinned message at the top of the chat, select More options and choose Unpin for everyone. Since anyone except guests can unpin or replace it, agree as a group what deserves the pinned spot, or the most recent pin will always win.
Other ways to tame a busy chat list
- Mute a noisy chat: you stay in it but only get notified when someone @mentions you. Muted chats move to a Muted section at the bottom of your list.
- Hide a finished chat: it disappears until someone posts again. You can also type /hide in the message box.
- Mark as unread: a quick way to remind yourself to come back to a message.
Used together, Favorites at the top, muted chats at the bottom and hidden chats out of sight turn a chaotic list into something you can scan in seconds.
Why it's called Favorites now
If you've used Teams for a while, you may remember a Pin option on chats. In the current Teams help, Microsoft talks about adding frequent conversations to the top of your Favorites list instead, which does the same job: it keeps the chats you check most at the top, in the order you choose. So if you're looking for 'pin' and can't find it, you're not missing anything. Drag the chat into Favorites and you've pinned it in all but name.
What a good pinned message looks like
Since only one message can be pinned and only its first line shows, treat the pinned spot like a noticeboard headline. Good candidates are the link to the project plan, the agreed deadline, the dial-in details for a recurring call or the one rule everyone keeps forgetting. Bad candidates are jokes, long updates and anything that changes daily. Review it every week or so, and swap it out when it's stale, because a pinned message that's out of date is worse than none at all.
Teams for personal use
The free, personal version of Teams has its own help article covering hiding, muting and pinning chats, and its menus differ slightly from work Teams. If the options above don't match your screen, check which version you're using: work and school accounts follow the Favorites approach.
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Which chats deserve a Favorites spot?
- Your manager or main client contact.
- The project chat you check every day.
- Your team's group chat.
- Keep it to a handful, or Favorites becomes another cluttered list.
Pinning versus saving
Pinning a message makes it visible to everyone. If you just want to remember a message for yourself, mark it as unread or keep the chat in Favorites instead, so you're not cluttering the top of a shared chat with personal reminders.
If your team also lives in Slack, the same housekeeping applies there: my guides on leaving a Slack channel and archiving one help keep that side tidy, and my office productivity hacks have more ideas.
My verdict
To keep a chat at the top, add it to Favorites by dragging it or using More options, Move to, Favorites. To make one message stand out for everyone, use Pin for everyone, keeping the key point in the first line. Mute and hide the rest.
Frequently asked questions
How do I pin a chat in Teams?
Drag the chat into the Favorites list at the top, or hover over it and choose More options, Move to, Favorites.
How do I pin a message in a Teams chat?
Hover over the message, select More options and choose Pin for everyone. It appears at the top of the chat.
How many messages can I pin in a Teams chat?
Microsoft says only one message can be pinned at a time.
Who can unpin a message in Teams?
Anyone in the chat except guests can unpin a message or replace it with another.
Can other people see my Favorites in Teams?
No. Favorites only change the order of your own chat list.
