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How to quote a message in Microsoft Teams
Quote a message is a handy feature when you want to reply to a specific message in 1:1 chats or when you want to quote someone on your replies in group chats.
This feature is available by default on several chat applications like WhatsApp, however in Microsoft Teams it is not natively integrated which doesn’t mean you’re are not able to it.
Quote using a keyboard shortcut
- Copy the message
- On your keyboard press “Shift” + “>”
- Paste the original message and then type your own message
- Press Enter twice and to type your message after the quote
Quote using the text box
As an alternative if you forget the keyboard shortcut you can do it from the text box doing the follow:
- Copy the message
- Click on Format located in the text box
- On the toolbar click on Quote
- Paste the original message
- Press Enter twice and to type your message after the quote
This is a workaround but eventually this will be introduced in the product as a native feature in the upcoming versions.
How to quote a message on mobile
Quote a message on the Microsoft Teams mobile apps is a much easier process, the only thing you have to do is swipe the message to right and it will be added as a quote to the new message as shown in the following animation.
This tutorial is also available in a video format.
March 24, 2020
Maybe at to the article how to do it in the Teams mobile app 🙂 Super simple, just swipe right on a message.
Cheers
March 24, 2020
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the tip, I’ll add it to the article.
Have a nice dau
April 4, 2020
Hi,
Looks like there is an add-in for Teams that does the trick:
https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/product/office/WA200000285
https://quotemaster.ml
https://systemz.io/product/quote-master/
April 4, 2020
Thanks for letting me know
March 15, 2021
Too bad the addon is only for direct chats, and not for Teams conversations..
April 15, 2020
My issue is when you manually quote something with >_space_ it creates the quote grey bar to begin typing the quote, but I cannot go below, like close the Quote so I can resume typing.
My workaround is to:
Text here First[Shift+Enter]
[Shift+Enter]
Text here second
Then return to the gap I made and apply the > quote. So that I can click on the “second” text afterwards to resume typing my initial message.
This is beginning to be annoying
April 17, 2020
Hi Zubin,
Thanks for sharing your feedback and your workaround, I’m sure someone else will have the same issue.
Have a nice day 🙂
April 21, 2020
You need to press “enter” twice and then you will be able to type your reply.
April 22, 2020
Thanks Guillermo for sharing your feedback
December 21, 2020
and then you have to send the message using the send icon since any new “enter” will just go one line down without actually send the message. but that’s fine 🙂
June 4, 2020
very helpful
June 19, 2020
Thank you for your feedback
May 25, 2020
Still they need to do this simpler! Select the … and click reply would have been fine!
May 25, 2020
Tottaly agree with you Evan
June 17, 2020
I mean, seriously Microsoft? You want to replace Skype with Teams and you cannot even copy the basic features?!?! Shame
June 19, 2020
Adrian,
I understand your frustration but I’m sure this feature is coming sooner or later.
January 15, 2021
6 months after, we are still waiting for this simple feature…. Shame on Microsoft
June 3, 2021
12 months later… still we have to quote manually…
February 13, 2021
Why would we need to install an app for a feature that is available on every single open source chat application on the planet?
You absolutely, positively cannot have a group chat or even a one on one chat that goes more than a few responses without the ability to respond to a particular message. This is stupid. It makes it look like you guys haven’t really thought this out. When you were testing it internally are you telling me that NOT ONE single person on the Teams development team didn’t say – we need to be able to reply to a specific message? Not one of you?
April 28, 2021
The silence from MS following this statement is deafening!
June 3, 2021
Yes This would be the ideal way to do this. Need this added asap
May 27, 2020
What a faf i can’t believe Microsoft are so lax that they haven’t added a simple Reply button, you can do it in the mobile app. this is why so many people are using whatsapp. Ive tried to get clients to use Teams and i have to say ive had 30% success rate the word “clunky” an unreliable are bandies around a lot
May 27, 2020
Hi Mark,
I understand your frustration but Teams is much more than just a chat application.
Sharing private data through Whatsapp just for convenience can put a lot of things at risk.
I’m sure the quote will come to Teams while Microsoft continues to work on it to make it even better than what it is now.
Have a nice day 🙂
February 13, 2021
Please don’t tell us that Whatsapp is insecure in the context of ‘reply’ to a specific message.
Is teams end to end encrypted?
Put the reply feature in. Every open source chat app in the world has this basic function. This is like saying the light switch can turn on the light but we need to add functionality in order to turn it off.
No one on the Teams development team said – hey we need this basic functionality? No one? You launched Teams in November of 2016. I have to imagine you were developing it for 2 years or so prior. 7 years into Microsoft thinking, developing and launching Teams and you guy’s fielding questions about why you don’t have this basic functionality? We need an APP TO REPLY while in the app?!?
May 27, 2020
Hi Mark,
I understand your frustration but Teams is much more than just a chat application.
Sharing private data through Whatsapp just for convenience can put a lot of things at risk.
I’m sure the quote will come to Teams while Microsoft continues to work on it to make it even better than what it is now.
Have a nice day 🙂
June 3, 2020
Is there a way to Reply in the private chat? PC version, because in the phone version it is very simple just scrolling it appears the Reply option
June 19, 2020
I’m not sure if I understood your question but to reply to a message you can find the reply option under each message thread.
The only place where you will not see in is in the 1:1 chats where replies are made in the context of the conversation.
If this did not answer to your question please clarify.
Have a nice day 🙂
February 13, 2021
And what if you want to reply to a specific comment earlier in the thread? Your app right now, on one on one lets you only reply to the latest comment. You don’t think that 7 years after you guys started preparing to launch this thing that this is a ridiculous oversight considering we can do it everywhere else?
February 15, 2021
Hi Joe,
I understand my frustration and I really miss the reply option in the desktop application as well.
The best thing we all can do to get the reply option available soon is vote in the user voice so it is added to the application.
The link to vote is available here.
While it is not released the technique described in this article is the best way to quote a message in Microsoft Teams.
Have a nice day 🙂
March 11, 2021
Hi João,
I just voted, but I also saw that, despite the 42000+ votes and the daily outrage comments, it is still not implemented, and no feedback has been provided since May 7th (almost one year ago).
This is amazing. Would Microsoft actually want to infuriate its customers, it would not proceed in another way.
Wouldn’t it be better to get rid of the Vote page altogether as whole?
As an insider, would you mind letting us know why a company would want to behave this way?
Thanks,
Vincent
May 18, 2021
Hi Vincent,
I don’t know why this feature is taking so long to get released.
I can imagine that Microsoft is focused on other features like the breakout rooms and the webinar that have just been released and this somehow keeps getting delayed.
June 3, 2020
Thanks for the tip! I knew I could do this on the mobile app but was struggling with the desktop version. This si a good workaround until MS decides to put a simple reply button per message.
June 19, 2020
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
June 19, 2020
Realy??? There are several pointless face emojis in the option menu but not a reply button?
I want to meet the genius developers behind this app. This is supposed to be used as collaboration platform.
July 23, 2020
Hi Ese,
I understand your frustration and I’m sure sooner or later this feature will come.
Have a nice day 🙂
July 22, 2020
Just a suggestion Joao… Perhaps in your article above, adding the instruction ‘press enter twice after pasting the quote’ will help many with how to close the quote before typing one’s msg?
Took some time for me to figure out that one. Thank you for sharing!
July 23, 2020
Hi JT,
Thank you for suggestion, will include it in the article.
Have a nice day 🙂
September 22, 2020
Hi,
When I press enter, as suggested, the pasted quote/message gets sent. i.e. without my repply/comment, and it appears to the other person that i just sent their msg right back to them.
September 23, 2020
Hi Daniel,
Pressing enter twice should not sent the message, make sure you don’t have the send button selected before pressing enter.
Have a nice day 🙂
September 23, 2020
A reply feature will be good to have on Teams Desktop.
September 30, 2020
Why can’t we just right click and quote? Microsoft UI should be ashamed of itself.
October 23, 2020
What about https://teams.microsoft.com/ ?
Is it possible to use in WEB version?
October 24, 2020
Hello,
Yes its possible to use the same shortcut on Microsoft Teams for web.
Have a nice day 🙂
January 22, 2021
It’s a bit frustrating to have to do this:
Copy text, paste text, press Enter twice, select text, click format button, click quote button, click outside of quote
There really should be a reply/quote button on each and every message.
I’d really like to see that happen soon 🙂
Other than that: I really like Teams, keep up the good work!
March 2, 2021
Is there a way to Reply in the private chat? PC version, because in the phone version it is very simple just scrolling it appears the Reply option
May 18, 2021
Hi Ramona,
To this day is not possible yet to do the quote to reply without using this trick.
My best,
João Ferreira
March 5, 2021
Here we are a year later still waiting on this embarrassingly basic functionality from Teams. This is why it’s free.
April 27, 2021
This is nuts!! Do I have to do manual work to reply? That’s why Slack is much better, and now we are stuck in this dreadful software; you M$ developers are so smart that took off this important feature that comes from the ’90s and is widely used.
Now it takes me 3X more time to reply to a long text because of your great ideas ¬¬ and I need to be fast!!
Thanks for being absurd, Microsoft.
May 17, 2021
Thank you very much!! it is very helpful!
May 18, 2021
I’m glad it helped you 🙂
June 3, 2021
Also please note, that 3 similar functionalities are required, I mean, not only Quote:
It is:
1.- Reply
2.- Forward
3.- Quote
June 9, 2021
This quote style is not user-friendly at all. Skype and Whatsapps style of quote is much easier.
June 17, 2021
replying to a previous mssg is definitely a crucial part of conversation especially when wanting to highlight the previous conversation. i have to get the app for this.
if anyone else installed their teams on mobile, i suggest reply from the mobile instead, then go back to the desktop to continue.. waste so much effort with finding how to quote, launching the “quote” app (and even it is on trial basis even), copy, paste, bla bla bla..