{"id":3088,"date":"2020-08-20T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-automate\/trigger-flows-from-any-message-in-microsoft-teams\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T07:57:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T14:57:53","slug":"trigger-flows-from-any-message-in-microsoft-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-automate\/trigger-flows-from-any-message-in-microsoft-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Trigger flows from any message in Microsoft Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Teams can help bridge geographic and organizational gaps through capabilities like chat, meetings, and calling, but users often ask how it can help streamline the work they do. Fortunately, Teams and Microsoft Power Automate<\/a> work seamlessly together to simplify how you and your team work.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re excited to share a new way to use this integration to automate and simplify work, starting from a conversation in Teams.\u00a0 The new \u201cfor a selected message\u201d trigger enables any Teams user to create a custom message action to start a flow from any message in Teams. \u00a0Even more powerful, is that flow creators can build this capability for their entire team, so everyone can easily benefit from some automation in their workday.<\/p>\n

Example scenarios:<\/h2>\n

Below are four great examples of how teams can automate critical processes right from chat, but thanks to the flexibility of Power Automate, the possibilities are endless. Each of these flows are available as templates for you to use or modify to fit your needs right away!<\/p>\n

Set a message reminder<\/a><\/h3>\n

There are times you might want to be reminded of a message from a colleague or your manager at a later time, like after your Teams meeting, or before the next upcoming meeting in a week. \u00a0With a \u201cfollow-up later\u201d flow, Teams users will simply have to click the \u201c\u2026\u201d on the right-hand side of a message to set a reminder and specify when they want to be reminded. \u00a0The Flow bot will send a reminder and a link to the message right in Teams.<\/p>\n

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Create a SharePoint item<\/a><\/h3>\n

We all need to keep lists \u2013 whether that\u2019s a store inventory, project status, or the plan for an event.\u00a0 SharePoint lists are a great way to organize information and rich file types for you and your team, and now Teams users can easily add content to their SharePoint lists directly from chat with this new Power Automate trigger.\u00a0 Once the flow laid out below has been created, users will be able to add critical data to their list right from the chat \u2013 for example, if they learn that new inventory has been received.<\/p>\n

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Sales teams: Convert a chat to a Sales opportunity<\/a><\/h3>\n

Creating a customer opportunity is a critical step in any Sales process, and often that opportunity starts with a conversation.\u00a0 So why not capture that information right from that conversation where it began.<\/p>\n

When you build the flow below using the \u201cfor a selected message\u201d trigger, anyone in your team can easily create a sales opportunity just by clicking the \u201c\u2026\u201d on the right side of a message in Teams and selecting \u201cCreate a Sales opportunity\u201d.\u00a0 Simply fill out a custom form right in Teams, and the information you enter is automatically sent to your CRM system.<\/p>\n

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Create a work item in Azure DevOps<\/a><\/h3>\n

With so much collaboration and planning happening over chat now, messages can be a great way to request or report new work items to your development team. By combining the \u201cfor selected message\u201d trigger with the Azure DevOps \u201ccreate a work item\u201d action, you can now use the message as the starting point to create a work item. All the details from the message, such as the message contents or who the sender was can be used to provide more details as part of creating the work item.<\/p>\n

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These templates are just scratching the surface you can always create your own to fit your business needs. Check out below for specific instructions on creating custom message actions for Teams, and check back here often for updates on what we\u2019re rolling out next!<\/p>\n\n

Creating your own Teams actions<\/h2>\n

To create a custom Teams message flow, choose the “For a selected message” trigger from the Teams connector. You can even configure the trigger to collect information from the user when its run from within Teams. For instance, if the flow is creating a task, you can use the adaptive card to collect information like the title of the task and the description.<\/p>\n

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Collecting information from the user<\/h3>\n

To collect information as part of the flow, you can quickly and easily create a custom form right from within the flow editor using the embedded card designer experience.<\/p>\n

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Using message details within the flow<\/h3>\n

There are a number of message elements that are available as a trigger output for use within the flow. Some of the more useful properties include:<\/p>\n