Microsoft Teams Keyboard Shortcuts
Teams' shortcut set covers both its meeting/calling functions (similar in purpose to Zoom's) and its persistent chat and channel structure (similar in purpose to Slack's), since Teams tries to be both in one app. This dual nature means its shortcuts are organized into two genuinely distinct groups that rarely overlap in practice — you're either actively in a call adjusting mute and camera, or you're navigating chats and channels between meetings, and few users do both simultaneously enough for the shortcut sets to feel unified. Organizations that have standardized on Microsoft 365 tend to push most day-to-day internal communication through Teams by default, which means the chat-navigation shortcuts here earn their keep primarily for people fielding a high volume of channel notifications, while the meeting-controls shortcuts matter most for anyone in back-to-back calls who needs to mute, unmute, or leave without hunting for an on-screen button while sharing their attention with whatever else is happening in the call.
Meeting Controls
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mute/unmute microphone | Ctrl+Shift+M | Cmd+Shift+M | Toggles your microphone during a call, working as a global shortcut even when Teams isn't the focused window, provided the option is enabled in settings. |
| Start/stop camera | Ctrl+Shift+O | Cmd+Shift+O | Toggles your camera feed during a call, the video counterpart to the microphone mute shortcut. |
| Accept incoming call with audio | Ctrl+Shift+A | Cmd+Shift+A | Answers an incoming call or meeting invitation with audio enabled, the fastest way to join when a notification appears without clicking through the popup with the mouse. |
| Decline incoming call | Ctrl+Shift+D | Cmd+Shift+D | Declines an incoming call notification, dismissing it without joining. |
| Leave current call/meeting | Ctrl+Shift+H | Cmd+Shift+H | Leaves the active meeting immediately, equivalent to clicking the red Leave button. |
| Toggle screen sharing | Ctrl+Shift+E | Cmd+Shift+E | Starts or stops sharing your screen during an active call, opening the screen/window selection picker if starting. |
Chat Navigation
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Go to Search | Ctrl+E | Cmd+E | Jumps focus to the global search/command box at the top of Teams, used for finding people, messages, files, or running quick commands. |
| Open the Chat list | Ctrl+2 | Cmd+2 | Switches the main navigation to the Chat section, listing all individual and group conversations. |
| Open the Teams (channels) list | Ctrl+3 | Cmd+3 | Switches to the Teams section showing all teams and their channels you belong to, distinct from the flatter Chat section. |
| Start a new chat message | Ctrl+N | Cmd+N | Opens a new chat compose window, ready to search for a recipient and start a fresh conversation. |
| Open Activity feed | Ctrl+1 | Cmd+1 | Switches to the Activity section showing mentions, reactions, and notifications across all your teams and chats in one consolidated feed. |
| Open Calendar | Ctrl+4 | Cmd+4 | Switches to the Calendar section, Teams' integrated meeting scheduler synced with Outlook calendar data. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why doesn't Ctrl+Shift+M mute me when I'm working in another app during a call?
Global keyboard shortcuts in Teams need to be explicitly enabled under Settings > Privacy (the exact location has shifted slightly across Teams versions), since by default some shortcuts only respond while the Teams window itself has focus. Once enabled, mute and camera toggles work system-wide regardless of which application is active.
What's the difference between the Chat and Teams sections?
Chat (Ctrl+2) is a flat list of one-on-one and group conversations, similar to a messaging app's conversation list. Teams (Ctrl+3) is the structured hierarchy of teams you belong to, each containing multiple channels for organized topic-based discussion — conceptually similar to Slack's workspace-and-channel model, while Chat is more like a direct-message inbox.
Can I customize Teams' keyboard shortcuts?
Teams offers relatively limited shortcut customization compared to something like VS Code or Obsidian — most of its keybindings are fixed defaults rather than user-remappable, though Microsoft has gradually added more accessibility and customization options across updates, so checking Settings > Accessibility for current options is worthwhile if a specific default conflicts with another tool you use.
Why do I sometimes get a different result pressing Ctrl+E versus expecting it to go to Activity?
Ctrl+E is bound to Go to Search in Teams, not Activity — the numbered shortcuts (Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+4 or 5 depending on version) handle switching between the main navigation sections like Activity, Chat, Teams, and Calendar, while Ctrl+E specifically jumps to the search/command box. Mixing these up is a common early mistake for anyone expecting search and section-navigation to share a single mental model.
Do meeting control shortcuts work the same in the Teams desktop app and the web browser version?
Mostly, but the browser version is subject to whatever global-shortcut restrictions the browser itself imposes, meaning a shortcut that works system-wide in the desktop app (muting even while a different application has focus) may only work while the Teams browser tab itself is the active tab, since browsers generally can't claim global OS-level hotkeys the way a native desktop app can.
Is there a shortcut to raise your hand in a Teams meeting?
Yes, though it's less universally memorized than mute/camera toggles — the Raise Hand feature is typically triggered from the in-meeting toolbar and doesn't have as consistently documented a default keyboard shortcut across all Teams versions as the shortcuts listed here, so checking the in-meeting three-dot menu or hovering the Raise Hand icon for its current binding is the most reliable way to confirm it on your specific version.
Why do some organizations disable certain Teams keyboard shortcuts entirely?
IT administrators managing Teams through Microsoft 365 admin policies can restrict specific features (like global shortcuts that work outside the app) for security or compliance reasons in regulated environments, meaning a shortcut documented here as a default binding may simply be unavailable on a specific organization's managed deployment regardless of your personal settings.
Can I mute a specific participant in a meeting with a keyboard shortcut, or only myself?
The mute/unmute shortcuts covered here act only on your own microphone; muting another participant requires using the meeting's participant list panel and clicking that specific person's mute control with the mouse, since Teams doesn't expose a keyboard-bindable shortcut for controlling someone else's audio state, both for usability and permission reasons tied to meeting roles.
Do these shortcuts differ between the classic Teams client and the newer rebuilt Teams app Microsoft has been rolling out?
Microsoft's newer Teams client (built on a different underlying architecture for improved performance) has generally preserved the same core keyboard shortcuts documented here, but as with any major rebuild, isolated bindings can shift or temporarily regress during the transition period, so checking Settings > Keyboard shortcuts within whichever specific version you're running is worth doing if a shortcut listed here doesn't behave as expected.