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When building an Automation, you may choose the "Send MS Teams message" action. When the automation runs successfully, a corresponding Microsoft Teams message will be sent, containing the customizable information of your choosing during the automation configuration process.
Setting up an automation to send a Teams message
Note
This automation is not available for personal accounts due to limitations from Microsoft. Additionally, the current message size limit for an MS Teams message is 28KB.
To create an automation to send an MS Teams message:
Open your Airtable home screen.
Open the base where you want to create an automation.
Click Automations.
Click + Create new.
Click + Create automation.
Click + Add trigger.
Add a “Microsoft Teams: Send message” action
Click the + Add advanced logic or action option.
Scroll down in the menu that appears and find the “Microsoft Teams” section.
While hovering over that option, click the Send message option.
Configure the “Microsoft Teams: Send message” action -
Feel free to enter a description of what the action will do. You can always add one later if you prefer to skip this step.
Under “Configuration,” click the dropdown below the “Microsoft Teams account” section. From here, either select a previously connected account or connect a new account.
Once you have connected an account, choose "Send to users" or "Send to a channel."
For "Send to users," click on the icon next to the input to configure it statically or dynamically.
For “Send to a channel”, select a “Team” and a “Channel.”
After configuring Recipient, configure the message.This message can include a mix of static information including text and emojis, as well as dynamic information from records in Airtable using the blue and white plus button to add those tokens. You can also use rich text formatting, like bold, italics, and links. Select a piece of text and the rich text formatting options will show up automatically.
After your action configuration looks the way you want it to, click Test action to ensure the message is looking the way you want it to. Feel free to adjust the configuration before moving on to the final step below.
Test and turn on the automation - Be sure to test all of the steps in the automation that you are building. Once every part of the automation has tested successfully, you’ll likely be ready to turn the automation on. Find the red colored “OFF” toggle and click it so the automation now appears as “ON” in green.
Project completion notification example
For this example, we will be setting up an automation that sends a notification to a team in MS Teams when a project in our Project Tracker template is completed.
Choose a trigger - First, we will set up a trigger to fire when a project enters a "Completed" view. In our Project Tracker base, we have previously created a filter that only allows projects from a completed checkbox field to enter the "Completed" view. To do this, choose the corresponding table and view within the base and test the trigger.
Add an action - After testing successfully, we can move on to setting up the action. After successfully connecting your MS Teams account to Airtable you can proceed with configuring the action. Choose the preferred Microsoft Teams account, specific Team, and specific Channel that you would like the message to be sent to. You can now set up your message to include custom information including emojis, information from records in Airtable, as well as some XML (HTML) tags.
Test the automation - After your message looks the way you want it to you must test it to ensure the action is working properly. If the test runs successfully, then at this point it's a good idea to check your MS Teams Channel to make sure everything looks the way you want it to. If so, you can now turn on the automation so that your custom notification sends out each time a project is completed.
Dynamically messaging channels and users
To send messages to users:
To send a dynamic message to a user based on record information from previous steps in your automation, click the icon next to the "Recipient" field in the automation's configuration window on the right and select the "Dynamic" option.
Click the + icon.
Select a "User" field from a previous automation step and select the ID value from that field.
This will dynamically message a user/group of users in MS Teams. Typically, this is sourced from a trigger record's related user field, but your automation may differ in how you choose to message dynamically. Additionally, you can select a user's email address as an input token, and we match that email with the user's MS Teams account.
If your base contains a table with multiple user fields—a project DRI user field, a Product manager user field, and an Engineering user field—you can add multiple user field ID tokens to notify multiple MS Teams users dynamically. However, you need to separate each user field ID token with a comma, like this:
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What happens when I try to dynamically message a channel?
Sending a dynamic, actionable message to a channel in MS Teams is not supported.
When selecting "Send to a channel," you can search or browse for the individual channel you want to message. The automation messages the same channel each time it runs.
@Mentioning MS Teams users
To @mention MS Teams users in a message, you can enter the username associated with the user's MS Teams account or the individual Airtable user's ID. Specified users can be mentioned statically—in all MS Teams messages—or dynamically—only certain records associated with certain individuals.
Check out the Dynamically messaging channels and users section to learn how message a user.
@mention using a MS Teams username
To mention an MS Teams user in the message's body, enter their username.
Example: The following username refers to the email address username: test-username@example.com, meaning their username is "test-username." (This example assumes the user mentioned has the same domain name as the sender.)
Dynamic @mentioning
To dynamically @mention specific users based on the record referenced in Airtable, enter the user field’s Airtable record ID into your MS Teams message action.
Example: We add the value from the trigger record as a dynamic greeting so that the user associated with the record in Airtable is @mentioned in MS Teams.
FAQs
Can I mention someone in an MS Teams message?
Yes. You can mention a user by typing "@" followed by their MS Teams username or Airtable user ID. See @Mentioning MS Teams users for more details.
Can I direct message (DM) a team member with the MS Teams automation action?
Yes. To send a direct message to a team member, select "Send to users."
Can I include a link in the MS Teams message sent by the automation?
Yes. You can add a link by selecting text and configuring it using the rich text options. You can also use tag formatting—<a href="URL">link</a>— to send a clickable link.
Can I dynamically send messages to different MS Teams users?
Yes. Select “Send to users” and click the icon next to the input to configure it statically or dynamically. See Dynamically messaging channels and users for more details.
Why did I receive an error message saying I don’t have permission to send a message?
If you receive the error that you don't have permissions to send a message, try reconnecting the Microsoft Teams account. Airtable requires additional permission to direct message (DM) to MS Teams users. Reconnecting your account grants the necessary permissions for direct messaging.
Which XML/HTML tags can I use in an MS Teams message automation?
You can reference this Microsoft support article for a comprehensive list of supported tags.
Can I dynamically send messages to different MS Teams channels?
No, the MS Teams channel where the automated message will be sent is only available as a static choice in the "Channel" field during the setup process. However, you can create duplicate MS Teams automation actions that message different channels.