Microsoft Teams Notifications

Overview

Microsoft Teams notifications deliver alerts directly to your Teams channels. Keep your whole team informed with color-coded cards and action buttons.

Setting Up Microsoft Teams

Step 1: Configure Incoming Webhook

Open Microsoft Teams
Click channel name where alerts should appear
Select ⋯ More options (top right)
Click Connectors
Search for Incoming Webhook
Click Configure
Name: StatusApp Alerts (or your choice)
Optionally upload icon image
Click Create
Copy webhook URL
Click Done

Keep the webhook URL secret - treat it like a password.

Step 2: Add to StatusApp

Go to Notifications → Add Channel
Select Microsoft Teams
Paste webhook URL
Click Test to verify
Name: Teams #incidents (or your choice)
Click Save

Message Format

Incident Down Alert

🔴 Website Down

Service: Website - HTTPS Check
Status: Down
Time Down: 2 minutes ago
Last Response: Connection timeout
Severity: Critical

Affected Regions: US-East, EU-West
Monitor URL: [View in StatusApp]
Acknowledge: [Button]

Incident Up Alert

🟢 Website Up

Service: Website - HTTPS Check
Status: Resolved
Duration Down: 15 minutes
Response Time: 150ms
Resolution Time: 2 minutes

Healthy Regions: All
Monitor URL: [View in StatusApp]

Incident Acknowledged

🟡 Acknowledged by John Doe

Website Down
Status: Being investigated
Time Acknowledged: Just now
Incident started: 30 minutes ago

[View in StatusApp]

Channels and Strategy

By Service Criticality

#production-alerts (Critical):

Revenue-impacting incidents
Database/API outages
Payment system issues
Requires immediate response

#alerts (Production):

Production feature breakage
API endpoint failures
Database performance
Typical response time: 15 min

#monitoring (Informational):

Non-critical alerts
Performance degradation
Maintenance windows
No immediate action needed

#on-call (Private):

Only on-call team sees alerts
Private channel for escalation
Real-time incident management
Fast communication

By Team

#engineering-alerts: All technical incidents #devops-alerts: Infrastructure and deployment issues #frontend-team: UI/website issues #backend-team: API and database issues #security-alerts: Security and compliance issues

By Environment

#prod-alerts: Production only #staging-alerts: Staging environment #dev-monitoring: Development environment

Use separate webhooks for each environment to avoid waking team for dev issues.

Assigning to Monitors

Single Teams Channel

Monitor: Production API
Notifications: Teams (#production-alerts)
Incident Down: Alert sent to channel
Incident Up: Resolution sent to channel

Multiple Teams Channels

Monitor: Payment Service
Notifications:
  - Teams (#production-alerts)
  - Teams (#on-call-private)
  - Email (formal log)
  - PagerDuty (escalation)

Incident Down: All channels notified

Escalation Path

5 min down   → Teams #alerts (awareness)
15 min down  → Teams #on-call (escalation)
30 min down  → SMS (urgent)
60 min down  → Phone call (critical)

Best Practices

1. Test Your Webhook

Before using in production:

1. Go to notification channel settings
2. Click "Test Notification"
3. Verify message appears in Teams channel
4. Check formatting looks good
5. Confirm no errors

2. Reduce Alert Fatigue

Too many channels = alerts ignored:

Good: 2-3 channels max
- Production (urgent)
- Staging/Dev (informational)
- Archive/Logs (reference)

Bad: 10+ channels
- Creates notification chaos
- Important alerts missed
- Team disengages from alerts

3. Use Threads for Context

After incident alert:

Initial Alert:
└─ Website Down (posted in channel)

Team Discussion:
├─ Reply 1: "Restarting deployment..."
├─ Reply 2: "Database is fine, checking app logs"
├─ Reply 3: "Found memory leak in new version"
├─ Reply 4: "Rolling back to previous version"
└─ Resolution: "Website back online"

Threads keep context organized.

4. Archive Alert History

Keep channels clean:

After incident resolved:
- Review incident in StatusApp
- Post summary to #incidents-archive channel
- Keep alert channel focused on current issues
- Document lessons learned separately

5. Set Clear Channel Topics

Describe what each channel contains:

#production-alerts
Topic: Revenue-impacting incidents requiring immediate response

#staging-alerts
Topic: Staging environment issues for testing and validation

#on-call-private
Topic: Active incident coordination (private, team only)

#monitoring-archive
Topic: Historical alerts and resolved incidents (reference only)

6. Mention Appropriately

Use @mentions strategically:

@channel or @here:
- Only for critical incidents
- Only during business hours
- Risk of overuse = alerts ignored

@oncall or specific person:
- For normal production incidents
- Doesn't disturb entire team

No mention:
- Informational alerts
- Scheduled maintenance
- Non-urgent updates

Common Patterns

Production Incident Routing

Tier 1 Alert (5 min down):
├─ Teams: #production-alerts (no mention)
├─ Email: ops@company.com
└─ Time: Post immediately

Tier 2 Alert (15 min down):
├─ Teams: #on-call (with @oncall mention)
├─ SMS: on-call number
└─ Time: Escalate if not acknowledged

Tier 3 Alert (30 min down):
├─ Phone call to escalation lead
├─ All hands notification
└─ War room initiated

Multi-Team Development

Monitor: API Endpoint

Service Team:
└─ Teams #backend-team (implementation details)

Operations Team:
└─ Teams #production-alerts (service status)

Executives:
└─ Teams #exec-summary (impact summary only)

Each team gets relevant level of detail.

Shift Handoff

Before End of Shift:
├─ Post summary to #handoff channel
├─ Highlight: Critical issues, ongoing investigations
├─ Include: Runbooks, contacts, escalation info
├─ Alert: Incoming team to check message

New Shift Arrives:
└─ Reviews handoff summary before starting

Troubleshooting

Message Not Appearing

Verify Webhook URL:

1. Check webhook URL in StatusApp
2. Compare with Team's connector settings
3. Copy fresh webhook URL if changed
4. Verify URL is complete and correct

Check Channel Permissions:

1. Right-click Teams channel
2. Select "Manage channel"
3. Check bot can post (Connector permissions)
4. Verify you have access to channel
5. Check if channel is archived

Test Webhook Manually:

curl -X POST <WEBHOOK_URL> \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"text":"Test message"}'

Should see message appear in Teams channel.

Webhook Might Be Expired:

If messages stopped working:
1. Delete old connector
2. Create new webhook
3. Update URL in StatusApp
4. Test notification

Formatting Issues

Card Not Rendering:

Teams sometimes needs refresh
Try switching channels and back
Check Teams app is updated
Try on web version

Colors Not Showing:

Check Teams theme (Dark vs Light)
Colors render differently per theme
Message should still be readable

Truncated Messages:

Teams limits character length
StatusApp auto-truncates long messages
View full details in StatusApp web UI

Duplicate Messages

Check Settings:

1. Go to monitor settings
2. Verify Teams channel assigned once
3. Check no global/default notifications
4. Verify no duplicate notification routing

Too Many Notifications

Reduce Frequency:

1. Increase check interval (5 to 15 minutes)
2. Require more failed checks before alerting
3. Filter non-critical services from Teams
4. Send only P1/P2 to Teams

Route by Severity:

P1 (Critical) → Teams + SMS + Phone
P2 (High) → Teams + Email
P3 (Medium) → Email + Dashboard only
P4 (Low) → Dashboard only

Security

Protect Your Webhook

Do Not:

Share URL in email or chat
Commit to GitHub
Log to files
Include in error messages
Put in documentation

Do:

Store in StatusApp secure storage
Treat like password
Rotate if exposed
Delete old webhooks

Regenerate Webhook

To rotate/replace webhook:

In Teams: Create new connector with new webhook
Update StatusApp: Use new URL
Test: Send test notification
Delete old connector in Teams
Done: Old webhook no longer works

Old webhooks are deactivated immediately.

Webhook vs Teams Bot

Incoming Webhook (Used by StatusApp):

Simple, one-way notifications
Posts to channel as webhook
No interactive features
Good for: Status updates, alerts

Teams Bot (Alternative):

More complex, two-way communication
Can respond to commands
Interactive cards with buttons
StatusApp uses webhooks, not bots

For StatusApp, webhooks are sufficient and simpler.

Integration with Slack

Some teams use both Teams and Slack:

Primary Notification: Teams #production
Secondary: Slack #production-alerts
Backup: Email

Each platform notifies via StatusApp notification channel

Use different notification channels to route to each platform.

Next Steps

Slack - Slack alternative
Discord - Discord alternative
Notification Overview - All channels