Using Connections and Microsoft Teams together

Post links to HCLConnections content in a Microsoft Teams channel, add an app from any of your Connections communities as a tab in a Teams channel, or start a Teams chat from Connections.

Note: These features are available to you only if your organization has customized the environment (for actions within Connections) and deployed services for Microsoft Teams (for actions within Teams).

Post links to Connections content in a Teams channel

Whether you're in Connections or Teams, it's easy to share links to Connections files and other content as posts in your channels.

Note: The Internet Explorer 11 browser is not supported when you're using Connections with Microsoft Teams.
  • Share a link to Connections content
    1. From the Connections page that you want to share, click Share to Microsoft Teams Share to Microsoft Teams button.
    2. Type the name of the channel that you want to post the link to.
    3. If you want, add more text to the message containing the link.
    4. Click Share.
  • Find Connections content and post the link from Teams
    1. From a Teams channel, click New conversation.
    2. Click the Messenger extensions icon in the toolbar, and then click Connections.Apps selection window being displayed when Messenger extensions icon is clicked
    3. Do one of the following actions:
      • In Recent History, type to filter your recently visited Connections content and select the content that you want to share a link to.
      • In Files, from your files select the content that you want to share a link to.
    4. Click Post to Teams.
    Note: Posting links to Connections content from Teams is available only in a team channel, as Microsoft restricts messenger extensions from sharing content in direct chats.

Add a Connections community app to a Teams tab

In organizations that have deployed services for Microsoft Teams, you can add any of the following community apps as a channel tab: Files, Wiki, Blog, Forums, Recent Updates, or Highlights.

Note: Team Channel members must also be members of the Community in order to see the content in a Connections App tab.
  1. In Teams, click Teams in the navigation, and then click the channel to which you want to add an app from a Connections community that you belong to.
  2. Click Add a tab Add a tab icon.
  3. Find the Connections button and click it.
    Add a tab window showing "conn" typed in filter field bringing the Connections option to the top

  4. Find and select your Connections community, and then select an app from the list (you can add only one app per Teams tab). Unless you customize it, the new tab's name will be in the format "Community name - App name."
  5. To add another app as a tab in the channel, repeat steps 2 to 4
  6. Click Save.

Start a Teams chat from Connections

You can start a one-to-one chat with a person in Teams from several convenient locations in Connections:

Table 1. Starting your chat
Connections Location Steps
The organization directory
  1. From the menu bar, click Profiles > Directory.
  2. Start to type the person's name, hover over their name in the business card, and click Chat.
    Directory screen showing Chat button on a person's business card
    Tip: To chat with a person that you follow, try finding them by clicking My Network and then clicking Following from the views.
The person's profile On the person's profile page, click Chat.
Profile screen showing Chat button
The Orient Me home page

If your company uses Orient Me, you can chat with people that you've added to the Important to Me bar.

From the menu bar, click Home, hover over the person's image, and click the chat icon.
Chat icon over person's image in orient me