# Microsoft Teams incident workflows

Better Stack can run the whole incident in Microsoft Teams. It opens a channel for the incident, tags the people who fix it, and keeps Teams and the incident timeline in sync until it's resolved.

Pick one of three ways in the settings of your [Microsoft Teams integration](https://betterstack.com/docs/uptime/microsoft-teams/):

| | Channel-based | Thread-based | Single channel |
|---|---|---|---|
| **A new incident** | Gets its own Teams channel, announced in your main channel | Posts one message in your main channel | Posts a message in your main channel |
| **Updates** | Go into the incident channel | Go into the message's thread | Each one is a new message |
| **Who's involved** | Everyone alerted, plus the people you always add | The people you always tag | Whoever watches the channel |
| **Plan** | [Paid plan](https://betterstack.com/pricing) | Paid plan | Every plan |

## Channel-based: a dedicated channel for every incident

When an incident's escalation reaches Microsoft Teams, Better Stack:

1. Creates a channel your whole Microsoft team can see, named after the date and the incident, like `inc-26-10-24-checkout-api`.
2. Tags everyone it alerted, so the on-call responders know where to go from the first minute.
3. Tags the people you always want there: a team lead or whoever is on call in a schedule.
4. Posts the incident with **Acknowledge** and **Escalate** buttons.
5. Posts the incident in your main channel too, so everyone sees it started.

From then on, the channel is the incident's war room:

- Every message in the channel is added to the incident timeline as a comment. Edits and deletions sync too.
- Comments added in Better Stack are posted to the channel.
- Acknowledging, resolving and reopening post to the channel as they happen.
- Click **Start Zoom** or **Start Google Meet** on the incident message to open a call, once you've added the [Zoom](https://betterstack.com/docs/uptime/integrations/zoom/) or Google Meet integration.

## Thread-based: one thread per incident

Better Stack posts a new incident to your main channel and tags the people you choose in its thread. Every status change and comment goes into that thread, so the channel shows one message per incident.

Reply in the thread to add a comment to the incident timeline.

## Single channel: a message for every update

Better Stack posts each update as a new message in your main channel: the new incident, who acknowledged it, and when it was resolved. Reply under the incident message to add a comment to the incident.

## Switch to channel-based or thread-based

1. Go to [Integrations](https://incidents.betterstack.com/team/0/integrations ";_blank") and click your channel on the **Microsoft Teams** card.
2. Under **How do we notify you?**, select **Channel-based**.
3. In **Who should we always invite into the Microsoft Teams channel?**, add the people or on-call schedules you always want there. On-call responders are tagged automatically.
4. Click **Save changes**.

![Channel-based selected under How do we notify you?, with a team lead and an on-call schedule always invited](https://imagedelivery.net/xZXo0QFi-1_4Zimer-T0XQ/2d7fbe9e-ee4c-4346-25a3-c5fdf6ab3f00/md2x =2128x806)

For a thread per incident, select **Thread-based** instead. Its **Who should we always tag in the thread?** field takes the same people and schedules.

## Do more without leaving Microsoft Teams

- Mention `@Better Stack incident` to report a new incident.
- Mention `@Better Stack oncall` to see who's on call.
- Tag **@Better Stack** with a question in a thread to start an [AI SRE](https://betterstack.com/docs/ai-sre/welcome/) investigation of the incident.
- Mention `@Better Stack cover` to [ask colleagues to cover your shift](https://betterstack.com/docs/uptime/oncall-scheduling-and-alerting/request-cover/).

## Need help?

Please let us know at hello@betterstack.com.  
We're happy to help! 🙏