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

  1. Copy the message
  2. On your keyboard press “Shift” + “>”
  3. Paste the original message
  4. Press Enter twice and then 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:

  1. Copy the message
  2. Click on Format located in the text box
  3. On the toolbar click on Quote
  4. Paste the original message
  5. 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.

Share location using Microsoft Teams

This tutorial is also available in a video format.

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53 Responses to “How to quote a message in Microsoft Teams”

  1. Steve

    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

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      March 24, 2020

      Hi Steve,

      Thanks for the tip, I’ll add it to the article.

      Have a nice dau

      Reply
  2. Eugene

    April 4, 2020

    • João Ferreira

      April 4, 2020

      Thanks for letting me know

      Reply
      • Hristijan

        March 15, 2021

        Too bad the addon is only for direct chats, and not for Teams conversations..

        Reply
  3. Zubin

    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

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      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 🙂

      Reply
    • Guillermo

      April 21, 2020

      You need to press “enter” twice and then you will be able to type your reply.

      Reply
      • João Ferreira

        April 22, 2020

        Thanks Guillermo for sharing your feedback

        Reply
      • xlepws

        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 🙂

        Reply
    • Evanson

      June 4, 2020

      very helpful

      Reply
  4. Evan Camilleri

    May 25, 2020

    Still they need to do this simpler! Select the … and click reply would have been fine!

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      May 25, 2020

      Tottaly agree with you Evan

      Reply
    • Adrian Rogobete

      June 17, 2020

      I mean, seriously Microsoft? You want to replace Skype with Teams and you cannot even copy the basic features?!?! Shame

      Reply
      • João Ferreira

        June 19, 2020

        Adrian,

        I understand your frustration but I’m sure this feature is coming sooner or later.

        Reply
        • Matteo

          January 15, 2021

          6 months after, we are still waiting for this simple feature…. Shame on Microsoft

          Reply
          • Cesar

            June 3, 2021

            12 months later… still we have to quote manually…

        • Joe

          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?

          Reply
          • Timothy O'Donnell

            April 28, 2021

            The silence from MS following this statement is deafening!

    • Kenny

      June 3, 2021

      Yes This would be the ideal way to do this. Need this added asap

      Reply
  5. Mark

    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

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      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 🙂

      Reply
      • Joe

        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?!?

        Reply
    • João Ferreira

      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 🙂

      Reply
  6. ABUSAIF

    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

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      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 🙂

      Reply
      • Joe

        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?

        Reply
        • João Ferreira

          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 🙂

          Reply
          • Vincent

            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

          • João Ferreira

            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.

  7. Venkat

    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.

    Reply
  8. Ese Kasari

    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.

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      July 23, 2020

      Hi Ese,

      I understand your frustration and I’m sure sooner or later this feature will come.

      Have a nice day 🙂

      Reply
  9. J T

    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!

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      July 23, 2020

      Hi JT,

      Thank you for suggestion, will include it in the article.

      Have a nice day 🙂

      Reply
    • Daniel

      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.

      Reply
      • João Ferreira

        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 🙂

        Reply
  10. Olufemi

    September 23, 2020

    A reply feature will be good to have on Teams Desktop.

    Reply
  11. Marius

    September 30, 2020

    Why can’t we just right click and quote? Microsoft UI should be ashamed of itself.

    Reply
  12. Oleksandr

    October 23, 2020

    What about https://teams.microsoft.com/ ?
    Is it possible to use in WEB version?

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      October 24, 2020

      Hello,

      Yes its possible to use the same shortcut on Microsoft Teams for web.

      Have a nice day 🙂

      Reply
  13. steps0x29a

    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!

    Reply
  14. Ramona

    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

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      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

      Reply
  15. Ajax

    March 5, 2021

    Here we are a year later still waiting on this embarrassingly basic functionality from Teams. This is why it’s free.

    Reply
  16. Victor

    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.

    Reply
  17. Yevgeniya Milyutina

    May 17, 2021

    Thank you very much!! it is very helpful!

    Reply
  18. Cesar

    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

    Reply
  19. Favier Shoo

    June 9, 2021

    This quote style is not user-friendly at all. Skype and Whatsapps style of quote is much easier.

    Reply
  20. juan fuad lazar

    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..

    Reply

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I've been working with Microsoft Technologies over the last ten years, mainly focused on creating collaboration and productivity solutions that drive the adoption of Microsoft Modern Workplace.

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