MS Teams

Set up Microsoft Teams as a channel in ClearFeed

ClearFeed integrates with Microsoft Teams to bring customer requests from Teams directly into your Slack Triage Channels. This creates a unified workflow where your support team can manage and respond to Teams messages without leaving Slack.

Requirements:

• Authorization: An Azure organization admin (not just a Teams admin) must authorize ClearFeed

• Installation: By default, only MS Teams admins can install apps like ClearFeed (this is configurable in your Teams settings)

How It Works

When customers send messages in Microsoft Teams:

1. Messages automatically appear in your Slack Triage Channel

2. Support agents respond from Slack

3. Responses sync back to Teams in real-time

4. Conversations remain synchronized across both platforms

5. Requests can be converted to trackable tickets

Ways to Connect Your Customers via Teams

There are two common patterns for using Microsoft Teams channels with external customers. Understanding which approach you're using will help you set things up correctly.

Option 1: Shared Channels (Teams Connect)

Create shared channels that bridge your Team with the customer's own Microsoft Teams tenant. Customers participate using their existing work identity — no account switching needed, and no guest accounts are created in your directory.

• Customers must have their own Microsoft 365 / Teams tenant

• Customers see the shared channel natively in their own Teams client, alongside their own org's channels

• The channel is isolated — only members explicitly added to the shared channel can see it; other members of your Team cannot

For enabling shared channels with external organizations, refer to Microsoft's shared channels guide.

Option 2: Guest Access (Standard Channels)

Create a Team in your MS Teams workspace and invite customers as guest users. Guests join using any email address — no Microsoft 365 tenant is required on the customer's side.

Recommended structure: Create one Team per customer (e.g., "Acme Corp Support") and add channels within it for different topics. Because guests added to a Team can see all standard channels in that Team, keeping each customer in a separate Team ensures they cannot see each other's conversations.

• No Microsoft 365 tenant needed on the customer's side

• No IT admin action required on the customer's side — a simple invite is enough

• Customers must switch to a guest account in your tenant when using Teams

Which option is right for you?

Use guest access if your customers may not have Microsoft 365 tenants, or if you prefer a simple invite-based setup with no admin action on their side.

Use shared channels if you want to give a more hands-on support experience to your customers and they are already working from Microsoft Teams.

Setting Up Teams Channel

Step 1: Connect Teams Integration

1. Go to Settings → Integrations in ClearFeed

2. Find and select Teams

3. Click Connect to start the 2-step process

   

Step 2: Authorize ClearFeed

1. Click Authorize in the pop-up window

2. Sign in with your Microsoft credentials

3. Complete the OAuth authorization flow

Step 3: Install ClearFeed Bot in Teams

1. Download the ClearFeed Teams App Package from the link shown

1. Open Microsoft Teams → Apps → Manage Your Apps → Upload an app

1. Upload the downloaded App Package

2. Review the Overview & Permissions pop-up

3. Click Add

1. Select which Microsoft Teams channels to sync with Slack

2. Click Go

If you're unsure about app permissions, check with your MS Teams administrator.

Step 4: Add ClearFeed to your Team or channels

First, add ClearFeed to the Team where your customer channels live:

1. In Microsoft Teams, open the Team

2. Click More options (three dots) → Manage team

   
3. Open the Apps tab

4. Click Get more apps button

   
5. Search for ClearFeed and click Open

Then, follow the instructions below depending on whether you use shared channels or standard channels:

Shared channels

For shared channels, add ClearFeed in each shared channel you want to monitor. Installing the app at the Team level alone is not enough—without adding it per channel, ClearFeed cannot post messages back to that channel.

1. Open the shared channel in Microsoft Teams

2. Click the + icon in the channel header

3. Click Apps

   
4. Select Manage your apps

   
5. Select ClearFeed from the list of apps

6. Click Add

   

Shared channel support for existing customers

Shared channel monitoring is supported natively for new ClearFeed customers. If you are an existing customer and shared channels are not appearing or syncing correctly, you may need an app update. Please contact ClearFeed support and we'll get you updated.

Standard channels

Adding ClearFeed to the Team is usually sufficient—the app is then available across all standard channels in that Team. If channels are missing in ClearFeed or messages are not syncing, open the Team → Manage Team → Apps and verify that ClearFeed is installed for that Team.

Step 5: Create Teams Collection

Configure which Teams channels route to Slack:

1. Go to Collections in ClearFeed dashboard

2. Create a new Teams Collection

3. Select Teams channels to monitor

4. Choose a Triage Channel in Slack

5. (Optional) Enable ticketing integration (Zendesk/Freshdesk/HubSpot) to auto-create tickets

Configure Workflows for your Teams Collection to get reminders for no response, SLA breaches, etc.

Working with Teams Requests

Once configured, Teams conversations automatically appear in your Triage channel:

• Customers create conversations in Teams channels

• Conversations appear in Slack Triage channel

• Agents respond from Slack

• Replies sync back to Teams

• ClearFeed keeps both platforms synchronized

Starting conversations proactively: You can use the /cf-start-thread command from your Slack Triage Channel to create requests in Teams channels proactively. See From Triage Channel for details.

Note on sync delays (shared channels only)

When syncing shared channels, after installing the app or selecting channels, new Teams messages and message updates may take up to 1 minute to show up in ClearFeed/Slack.

Troubleshooting: Teams Channels Not Showing in ClearFeed

If your Microsoft Teams channels do not appear in the Select Channels dropdown—especially after reinstalling or reconnecting the integration—this is typically caused by the ClearFeed app still being installed inside individual Teams.

This can happen if:

• You recreated your ClearFeed account

• You reinstalled the ClearFeed app in Teams

• ClearFeed was previously added to Teams/channels in an older setup

Fix: Remove ClearFeed from All Teams Where It Was Previously Installed

Follow these steps for every Team where ClearFeed may have been added:

1. Open Microsoft Teams

2. Select the Team

3. Click Manage Team

4. Go to the Apps tab

5. Find ClearFeed

6. Click the three dots → Remove

After removing the app from all relevant Teams:

1. Reinstall the ClearFeed app/bot using the steps in the setup guide

2. Add the bot again to the Teams or channels you want to sync

3. Return to ClearFeed → Collections → Teams Collection

4. The channels should now appear in the dropdown

Why This Happens

Microsoft Teams retains app associations at the Team level even after an account is deleted or the app is re-uploaded. These stale associations prevent ClearFeed from fetching the channel list correctly until the old app installations are removed.

FAQs

1. Can ClearFeed monitor private or shared channels? Answer: We support shared channels. However, we do not currently support monitoring of private channels.

2. Can we use ClearFeed with our customer's Teams account? Answer: ClearFeed monitors channels in your MS Teams workspace — not your customer's. There are two ways to bring customers into your workspace:\

   • Guest access: Invite customers as guest users to a Team you create in your workspace. No Microsoft 365 tenant is needed on their side. Best practice: Create one Team per customer so guests cannot see each other's channels.\

   • Shared channels: Create shared channels that connect your Team with the customer's own Microsoft 365 tenant. Customers participate using their existing work identity without switching accounts, but this requires IT admin configuration on both sides.

3. Why do I see an error when reinstalling ClearFeed? Answer: ClearFeed may still exist in Teams Admin Center even after removal from Teams interface. Go to Teams Admin Center – Manage Apps, search for ClearFeed, and remove it. Contact your Teams admin if you don't have access.

4. What happens if a customer replies to a closed ticket thread? Answer: ClearFeed automatically creates a follow-up ticket in your ticketing system (e.g., Zendesk), ensuring new activity is captured without manual intervention.

5. Why can’t I see my Teams channels in the ClearFeed channel selector? Answer: ClearFeed may have been installed previously in certain Teams (even from an older or deleted account). Remove the ClearFeed app from Manage Team → Apps for each affected Team, then reinstall the app. After this, Teams channels will appear correctly in the ClearFeed dropdown.

6. Do I need to upload the ClearFeed app package every time I create a new Team? Answer: No. Once the ClearFeed app is uploaded to your Microsoft Teams tenant, you do not need to upload the app package again for each new Team. Simply add the ClearFeed app to the new Team from the Teams UI.