A decision lives in a Teams chat, but a customer, supplier or colleague without Teams needs to see it too. No need to copy and paste: with Share to Outlook you send a Teams message and its replies as an email. This article explains how it works, what exactly the recipient gets, why the option is sometimes missing and which alternatives you have.
Share a message via Outlook
- Hover over the message in a chat or channel.
- Select More options (...) > Share to Outlook. In some versions the option sits in a submenu; the exact name can differ slightly.
- An email window opens with the message and the replies. Fill in the recipient, add some text if you like and select Send.
The email is sent from your own mailbox and appears in your Sent Items. Attachments go along as links, so check that the recipient has access.
What does the recipient get?
The recipient gets a regular email with the text of the message, the sender's name, the time and the replies. The email is a snapshot: replies added later in Teams don't appear in the mail. If the recipient replies, that reply lands in your mailbox, not in the Teams chat.
Before you send, you can still edit the content in the email window. Remove replies that aren't meant for the recipient and add a short introduction, so the reader knows why they're getting the mail.
Watch out with attachments and confidential information
- Files from a chat are stored in the OneDrive of the person who shared them, files from a channel in the team's SharePoint site. An external recipient can only open them if they've also been shared with that person. How to arrange that is explained in share files in Teams or via a link.
- Check that the conversation contains no internal or personal information that shouldn't go outside.
- If your organization uses sensitivity labels or DLP policies, they can also apply to the email.
Don't see the option?
- You need an Exchange Online mailbox.
- An admin can turn the feature off. Ask your IT department whether Share to Outlook is allowed.
- The option isn't always in the mobile app; use the desktop or web version instead.
- Update Teams to the latest version and restart the app.
- For some types of messages, such as system notifications or messages from certain apps, the option isn't available.
Other ways
- Forward: via More options > Forward you send a message to another chat or person in Teams. Handy for colleagues, not for people without Teams.
- Copy link: handy for colleagues with Teams who want to see the message in its original chat. Anyone without access to the chat can't open the link.
- Copy and paste: the simplest way for one short sentence, but you lose the context and the replies.
- Summary with Copilot: with a Copilot license you can have a long conversation summarized and review that summary before you email it.
- External chat: if your organization allows external access, you can chat directly with people in another organization. Read set up external access in Teams.
Need it the other way around and want an email in Teams? Then share an Outlook email to Teams, email a Teams channel directly, or forward emails automatically to a channel.
Frequently asked questions
Does the recipient see that it comes from Teams? Usually yes: the mail shows the messages with the senders' names and times, as in Teams. The layout can differ slightly by version.
Can I email a whole chat in one go? You share one message at a time with the replies below it. For a long conversation, a summary is usually clearer.
Can external contacts reach me directly in Teams later? Yes, if external access is turned on. You can also add a Chat with me in Teams link to your email signature.
Nederlandstalige versie: Een Teams-bericht delen met mensen zonder Teams