Connect Microsoft Teams

Connect Microsoft Teams, and people in your Microsoft 365 organization write to your team right in Teams: in a private chat with the Deskwoot app, or in a channel of a team the app was added to. Each private chat and each channel thread becomes a conversation in Deskwoot. Your team answers from Deskwoot, on the web or in the app, and the answer shows up in the same chat or thread in Teams. Fynn can answer first.

It suits an IT or HR help desk that runs in Teams, and a business whose clients work with it in its Teams. You can connect Microsoft Teams on every plan. On the Free plan it uses the plan's one inbox; live chat does not count toward it. Fynn answers in Teams on every paid plan, starting with Startup, and a 7 day trial includes that.

Connect your organization

You need the Microsoft account of a Global Administrator or Teams Administrator of your organization, and the permission to manage inboxes in Deskwoot; administrators have it.

1. Go to Settings > Inboxes, click Add Inbox and choose Microsoft Teams.
2. Enter an Inbox Name and click Connect with Microsoft.
3. Sign in with the Microsoft account of a Global Administrator or Teams Administrator. Deskwoot only reads who signed in and whether that account is an administrator. It keeps no Microsoft password and no access to your organization.

You land on the new inbox, on its Microsoft Teams tab. A Microsoft 365 organization can be connected to one Deskwoot workspace only.

Add the Deskwoot app in Teams

Your Microsoft 365 admin adds the app once for the whole organization.

1. On the Microsoft Teams tab, under The Deskwoot app for Teams, click Download the app and send the file to your admin.
2. Your admin opens Teams and goes to Apps > Manage your apps.
3. There they choose Upload an app > Upload an app to your org's app catalog and pick the file.

Deskwoot shows up right away: people find it in Teams under Apps > Built for your org. Your admin can also upload the file in the Teams admin center under Teams apps > Manage apps > Upload new app. Your admin decides with the app policies in Teams who may use it. When someone adds the app, it says hello once and tells them that their messages go to your support team and that an AI assistant may answer first.

Use Deskwoot in channels

To use Deskwoot in a channel, a team owner adds the app to the team and allows it to read the team's channel messages. For a shared channel, add the app to that channel too. Deskwoot does not work in private channels or group chats.

The team's channels then show up on the Microsoft Teams tab under Channels. For each channel you choose:

• Whether Deskwoot stores its posts (Store posts from the channel). Switched off, Deskwoot ignores the channel.
• Which posts start a conversation: Only posts that mention Deskwoot (the default) or Every new post.

A post and the replies in its thread are one conversation. Replies in a thread that already has a conversation reach it while the channel is on, with or without a mention. Deskwoot stores only posts from channels that are switched on and drops everything else without storing it.

Who is writing

Under Who is writing you choose which contact a message from Teams belongs to:

• Use the existing contact with the same email address (the default): when Microsoft confirms the person's address and a contact already has it, the message goes to that contact. Microsoft confirms the address of people in your organization, never the address of a guest.
• Always create a new contact: every person in Teams gets a contact of their own.

Guests from other organizations always get a contact of their own. In a channel thread, the conversation belongs to the person who started it, and each reply shows who wrote it.

Replies, status notes and files

• Your reply goes into the same private chat or thread. Every message in Teams comes from the Deskwoot app, so your name goes in front of each reply, for example "Anna: Your laptop is ready."
• With Tell people in Teams when their conversation is resolved or reopened on (the default), Deskwoot writes a short note in the chat or thread, in the person's language, when your team resolves or reopens the conversation. Nothing goes out when the person's own message opens it again.
• If the inbox sends a satisfaction survey, a private chat gets it after the conversation is resolved. A channel thread never gets a survey, because several people read it.
• A file someone sends in a private chat and a picture pasted into a chat arrive as attachments. Files attached to a post in a channel do not reach Deskwoot; only the text does. Files your team sends go out as download links.

Fynn in Teams

Turn Fynn on in the inbox's Bot Configuration tab, as for any inbox.

• In a private chat Fynn answers as in any chat, and Teams shows that he is typing. His answer starts with a line that says he is the AI assistant of your business: the first time, and again after your team wrote in between.
• In a channel thread he answers the post that started it, every message that mentions Deskwoot, and later messages of the person who started it while he still handles the conversation. Other people's replies wait for your team.
• A thread is read by several people. So there Fynn never shares account details, such as orders or payments, and never makes a change for anyone: he gives general answers and hands such questions to your team. In a private chat he first confirms the person with a link to their email address, as in any chat. When a member of your organization (not a guest) writes and their Microsoft user name is the contact's email address, that counts as confirmed for 24 hours, without a link.
• Only Fynn's answers and the status note go into a thread: no greeting, away message, automation message or survey.

Disconnect

Disconnect on the Microsoft Teams tab deletes the inbox. Its conversations stay. Then remove the Deskwoot app in the Teams admin center. People who write to the app afterwards get a note that it is not connected.

Frequently asked questions

Which plan do I need?

Microsoft Teams works on every plan, the Free plan too, where it uses the plan's one inbox. Fynn answers in Teams on every paid plan, starting with Startup, and a 7 day trial includes that. Connecting Teams costs nothing extra in Deskwoot.

What does Deskwoot read and keep?

To follow the replies in a thread, the app may read the messages of the channels in a team it was added to. Deskwoot keeps only the messages of private chats with the app and of threads in channels you switched on, and drops everything else without storing it. It keeps no Microsoft password and no access to your organization.

Only posts that mention Deskwoot arrive. Why?

Then the app may not read the channel messages: the team owner did not allow it when adding the app, or your Microsoft 365 admin turned that permission off for all apps. Replies without a mention then never reach Deskwoot. Ask the owner to add the app again and allow it, or your admin to allow it again.

Can people from other organizations write to us?

Yes, in channel threads: guests of your organization in the channels they belong to, and people from other organizations in a shared channel the app was added to. Deskwoot never starts a chat on its own: people write first.

Can I connect more than one organization?

Yes, each as its own Microsoft Teams inbox. The Free plan has one inbox, so there it is one organization. One organization can be connected to one Deskwoot workspace only.