Microsoft Teams‘ Saved Messages feature, combined with Microsoft 365 Copilot, simplifies how you manage and organize important discussions. By bookmarking key messages and using Copilot to summarize them, you can create clear, actionable weekly digests without the hassle of combing through endless chats. Here’s what you need to know:
- Save Important Messages: Bookmark chats with the Save this message option to track deliverables, decisions, and deadlines.
- Summarize with Copilot: Use Copilot to process saved messages and generate summaries highlighting tasks, priorities, and follow-ups.
- Streamline Workflows: Share digests with teams, integrate them into reports, or sync with project management tools for better tracking.
For teams managing multiple projects, this workflow ensures nothing slips through the cracks. Tools like nBold can further automate and organize tasks, making collaboration more efficient. Start by enabling Copilot, saving messages, and testing the process with one project to see the difference.
AI Simplified | Catch up on chat threads with Copilot in Microsoft Teams
Setup Requirements and Initial Configuration
Want to turn your Teams chats into weekly digests? Here’s how to configure Saved Messages and Microsoft 365 Copilot to make it happen.
How to Use Saved Messages in Microsoft Teams
Saving important messages in Teams is simple. Just hover over the message you want to bookmark and click the bookmark icon. Once saved, you can find all your bookmarked messages in the Saved collection on the left sidebar of Teams. You can even add a note or context to help organize them better.
How to Enable and Access Microsoft 365 Copilot
First, you’ll need the right license and admin setup to enable Copilot in Teams. It works across desktop, web, and mobile platforms, but it performs best on desktop. Once enabled, Copilot can process your recent chat history to create summaries. It also supports various content types, including file attachments, meeting recordings, and shared documents, all while adhering to your organization’s data governance policies.
What You Need for Automation
Before diving into automation, ensure you have the necessary permissions and access:
- Channel and Conversation Access: Confirm you have read access to all channels and conversations where you plan to save messages. Keep in mind that organizational policies might limit visibility across channels.
- Data Retention Settings: Check your company’s data retention policies, as these may influence how often digests can be generated.
- Privacy Considerations: Copilot can only summarize conversations you have full access to. Guest or external user privacy settings might restrict certain details.
Make sure your Teams app is up to date to use the latest features. Also, verify that your Microsoft 365 account has enough storage space for any digest files created during the process. Proper setup ensures Copilot can effectively summarize your saved messages into accurate and useful digests.
How to Create Weekly Action Digests from Saved Messages
Once your setup is ready, you can turn your saved messages into organized weekly summaries using Copilot.
How to Save Messages for Action Items
When you come across important discussions or tasks, save those messages thoughtfully to build effective weekly digests.
To save a message, hover over it in a chat or channel, click the "More options" menu (the three dots), and select "Save this message." This keeps action items visible only to you.
Focus on saving messages that include specific deliverables, deadlines, or decisions. For example, save messages where team members commit to tasks with due dates, when project requirements are updated, or when there’s key client feedback, budget approval, or resource allocation details.
You can find your saved messages in the "Saved" section at the top of your chats and channels list. These are organized separately for chats and Teams channels, making it easier to categorize action items. Plus, saved messages remain linked to their original conversations, so if the original message gets updated, your saved version reflects those changes.
Using Copilot to Create Message Summaries
After gathering your saved messages for the week, let Copilot turn them into a structured summary. Open Copilot in Teams and use a clear prompt to generate your weekly digest.
For example, you could say:
"Create a weekly action digest from my saved messages from the past 7 days. Highlight key items, decisions, and deadlines."
Copilot will analyze your saved content and provide a summary that organizes priorities, decisions, and upcoming deadlines.
Use these summaries to keep your daily workflow on track and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
Adding Action Digests to Your Workflow
Once Copilot generates your weekly summary, integrate it into your workflow. The formatted summary can be included in email updates to stakeholders, project status reports, or shared in Teams channels where your team tracks progress.
You can share the digest via email or post it in a dedicated Teams channel as a weekly update. This not only boosts accountability but also creates a searchable archive of weekly priorities, keeping everyone aligned on goals. When referencing dates, use the MM/DD/YYYY format, and for budgets, apply the dollar sign ($) to match US business standards.
For better project tracking, export the digest to your project management tool. Copy key action items, deadlines, and responsibilities to bridge the gap between casual Teams discussions and formal project tracking systems. This way, your team can stay organized and focused on what matters most.
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Practical Applications for Weekly Action Digests
Weekly action digests make staying organized and accountable much easier. Here’s how different departments can use this approach to tackle everyday workflow challenges.
Project Management Applications
Project managers face a constant flood of communication across various channels, which often makes it hard to keep track of important decisions. Weekly action digests can gather these scattered conversations and turn them into clear, actionable updates.
For example, in software projects, you might save messages about scope changes, timeline shifts, or resource requirements. If a developer mentions that a feature will take three extra days due to API limitations, that note can be saved. At the end of the week, Copilot can compile these details into a comprehensive project status report.
These digests are particularly handy during sprint planning meetings. Instead of sifting through endless chat logs to recall what was discussed, project managers can rely on their weekly summaries to pinpoint blockers, track completed tasks, and outline upcoming priorities. This is especially helpful for Agile teams that need quick, well-documented decisions.
For budget tracking, you can save messages about unexpected costs or cost-saving opportunities. Copilot can then organize these updates, giving you a clear picture during financial reviews.
Sales Team Applications
Sales teams can also reap major benefits from weekly digests by capturing key client insights and market trends.
Sales professionals often juggle multiple prospects, and valuable information can emerge in casual team conversations. Weekly action digests ensure these insights – like client feedback, competitor updates, or deal progress – don’t get lost. For instance, if a teammate mentions that a prospect raised concerns about pricing during a demo or shares news about a competitor’s new feature, those details can be preserved in the digest.
These summaries become powerful tools for pipeline management. Sales managers can review the week’s saved messages to identify deals that need extra attention, prospects showing buying signals, or team members who may need support. This adds depth to traditional CRM entries.
For territory management, digests can capture regional market trends or competitor activity. Messages about local industry events, regulatory changes, or economic factors can be compiled into summaries that help sales leaders make smarter decisions about resource allocation and strategy.
Weekly digests also streamline handoffs between sales and customer success teams. Instead of lengthy transition meetings, the digest can provide a snapshot of key client preferences, implementation needs, and relationship nuances uncovered during the sales process.
Employee Onboarding Applications
Weekly digests aren’t just for projects and sales – they can also make employee onboarding more effective by consolidating insights and tracking progress.
HR teams and managers can use these digests to create smoother onboarding experiences. For instance, during the first few weeks, save messages where new hires ask questions, share concerns, or provide feedback. These insights can highlight gaps in training materials or areas where additional support is needed. Copilot can organize this information into summaries, helping HR refine onboarding programs.
For training coordination, messages about schedule conflicts, technical issues, or resource requests can be saved. If a new hire mentions they’re struggling to access a system or need extra help with specific software, these notes can be addressed systematically instead of being overlooked.
This approach is especially effective for remote onboarding, where casual check-ins often happen through Teams or other virtual platforms. Managers can save messages that reveal how new hires are adjusting to the company culture, their comfort level with tools, or any challenges with isolation or connection.
Weekly summaries also make it easier to track progress milestones. For example, save messages when new employees complete training modules, handle their first client interaction, or demonstrate key skills. This creates a clear record of their growth, which can support performance reviews and help identify top talent early on.
For compliance tracking, you can save messages related to certifications, safety training, or policy acknowledgments. With a digest in place, you can ensure no critical compliance requirements are missed during the crucial first 90 days on the job.
Improving Collaboration with nBold
nBold takes the functionality of Microsoft Teams’ Saved Messages and Copilot a step further, offering tools to simplify your workflow while maintaining organizational governance. While Saved Messages and Copilot lay the groundwork for creating weekly action digests, nBold enhances collaboration by automating processes and enforcing structured policies across your organization.
With nBold, managing large-scale collaboration becomes easier through advanced templates, automated Planner tasks, site provisioning, and governance policies – all seamlessly integrated into Microsoft 365. This transforms your weekly digest process into a part of a larger, organized framework for teamwork.
Using nBold Templates for Better Workflows
nBold’s strength lies in its ability to standardize how teams manage action items from the get-go. For instance, when your weekly digest identifies a new project, you can use a pre-configured template to set up a structured workspace in no time. These templates come with ready-to-use Teams spaces, including channels, apps, Planners, and SharePoint sites.
To further streamline workflows, nBold offers Planner templates that ensure tasks identified by Copilot are organized consistently. These templates automate the creation and deployment of Planner boards and tasks, aligning them with your organization’s preferred methods. Additionally, governance features enforce naming conventions, approval workflows, guest-access controls, and lifecycle policies, helping to maintain order and prevent unnecessary clutter in Teams.
Adding Third-Party Apps for Better Collaboration
nBold also makes it easy to integrate Teams with your existing business tools. Whether it’s CRMs, project management platforms, or IT service management systems, nBold connects Teams to a variety of third-party applications. This integration ensures that action items from weekly digests automatically sync with tools like project trackers, customer databases, or ticketing systems, boosting overall productivity.
For example, nBold integrates with popular platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce through native connections, ready-to-use solutions, and Power Automate Connectors. These connectors enable automated team creation based on triggers from other apps, complete with pre-configured channels, tabs, apps, and files. This seamless integration lays the foundation for even more automated collaboration, which we’ll explore next.
Benefits of Automated Collaboration
By incorporating nBold into your workflow, you can automate repetitive tasks and ensure that insights from weekly digests are well-organized. This automation reduces the risk of errors and provides team members with clear guidance on where to find information and how to contribute. With standardized collaboration frameworks in place, nBold helps maintain governance and improves task management across the organization. For teams juggling multiple projects, these automation features translate into higher efficiency and better compliance.
Summary and Next Steps
Microsoft Teams’ Saved Messages feature, when paired with Copilot, offers a practical way to turn scattered chat threads into actionable takeaways. This setup ensures that key decisions, follow-ups, and responsibilities are captured without losing valuable details in lengthy conversations. It’s a smart approach for organizing effective weekly reviews.
With Copilot, your saved messages are transformed into prioritized action items. This eliminates the hassle of digging through old chats and helps ensure that critical tasks don’t get overlooked during hectic times.
To get started, enable Copilot and establish a habit of saving important messages. Test the process with one team or project before rolling it out more broadly. Dedicate a short weekly session to review the digest and assign action items based on the insights gathered.
For organizations aiming to scale this system across multiple teams, nBold can take automation to the next level. When your digest highlights new projects or recurring tasks, nBold’s templates can instantly create well-organized workspaces – complete with channels, files, and governance policies – ready for immediate use. Seamlessly integrating these tools into your workflow can make an immediate difference.
By combining Saved Messages, Copilot, and nBold, teams can shift from reactive communication to proactive task management. This ensures that insights from weekly reviews are not just noted but translated into actionable steps with measurable outcomes.
For added efficiency, consider nBold’s Pro plan at $3 per user/month. It simplifies template creation and IT governance, helping teams maintain consistency while reducing the manual effort required to organize and track action items from Teams chats. This small investment can deliver big results for your team’s workflow.
FAQs
How does Microsoft 365 Copilot make Saved Messages in Microsoft Teams more useful?
Microsoft 365 Copilot takes the Saved Messages feature in Microsoft Teams to the next level by automatically organizing and summarizing important chats into actionable insights. It simplifies the process of turning saved messages into clear summaries or specific action items, helping you manage tasks and priorities more effectively.
With Copilot, you can easily extract key points from conversations and create structured weekly action digests. This not only saves time but also improves collaboration by reducing the need for manual effort, ensuring that no critical details from your chats slip through the cracks.
How can I set up Microsoft 365 Copilot to create weekly action digests from saved messages in Teams?
To get Microsoft 365 Copilot up and running for creating weekly action digests from saved Teams messages, start by confirming that Copilot is enabled in your organization. This means assigning the required licenses and configuring it as part of your Microsoft 365 environment. After that, head to Teams and enable Copilot by tweaking the app settings to support features like message saving and transcription.
Once it’s active, take advantage of Copilot’s automation tools to turn saved messages into weekly summaries. You can set this up in Copilot Studio by designing custom workflows that link saved chats to automated processes. This setup ensures that key information is efficiently organized into actionable digests, helping you stay on top of tasks and boost productivity.
How can teams like project management and sales use weekly action digests to streamline their work?
Weekly action digests in Microsoft Teams are a handy tool for keeping teams like project management and sales on track. They take saved messages and turn them into clear, actionable summaries that make staying organized much easier.
For project management, these digests can spotlight key updates, track progress on milestones, and outline priority tasks. This makes handling projects smoother and helps tackle challenges before they escalate. Sales teams, on the other hand, can use these summaries to monitor client interactions, manage proposals, and stay on top of follow-ups. This ensures timely communication without the hassle of constant manual updates.
By automating these summaries, teams not only save time but also streamline task management and improve communication across the board. The result? A boost in productivity and smoother collaboration.