If you are like me with 10-20+ meetings, DMs, chats, channels with unread messages not to mention a hundred more with no unread messages in Teams, you too want to move through the Teams chat list with your keyboard without marking messages as read along the way while searching for that critical chat. Passing a conversation on the way to another one should leave it waiting for my attention and not require me to read it now or remember.

Teams has a setting for choosing when a conversation opens. You can find it under Settings > General and require Enter or Spacebar to show the content. If arrowing through your chats is opening them before you are ready, this is the setting to try.

The tip: choose when a chat opens

  1. Open Microsoft Teams.
  2. Select Settings and more, the menu labeled with an ellipsis (...).
  3. Select Settings.
  4. Open General.
  5. Locate Use Enter or Spacebar to show content.
  6. Enable this setting. With a screen reader, confirm that the control is announced as on or checked.
  7. Restart Teams, then test the navigation behavior using the next two steps.
  8. Use Tab to reach the chat list, then navigate with the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys without pressing Enter.
  9. Press Enter or Spacebar only when you want to open the focused chat.

The arrow keys should now move focus through the list; Enter or Spacebar opens the conversation you choose. With a screen reader, you can listen to the conversation names and decide where to stop. Try passing an unread chat and returning to it to check that its unread status is preserved in your setup.

Microsoft documents the setting as off by default in its Teams keyboard navigation guidance. That page explains how to open conversations with the keyboard; it does not explicitly confirm the effect on unread status.

The answer came through an Enterprise support escalation

I reported this issue to Microsoft in 2025 and had not heard anything back. Later, I raised it as a bug with L2 support through an Enterprise plan. The development team got back to L2 support with these steps and the support page linked above.

That is a long route to a setting under General. A keyboard user should be able to discover this option while using Teams, without needing a support escalation to connect the behavior to the setting.

Explain the benefit where people need it

My biggest issue is discoverability. The setting's name tells me which keys show content. It gives me no reason to connect that choice with messages getting marked as read as I navigate. Someone looking for control over unread messages could easily pass over it.

In Slack, I find the Ctrl+T quick switcher natural to use. I can look for a conversation and choose where to go, and in my experience the default behavior avoids this accidental mark-as-read problem. Slack documents that shortcut for its Windows and Linux desktop apps in its keyboard shortcut reference. Messages are normally marked as read after a conversation opens, so the useful distinction is between browsing destinations and opening one.

Microsoft should make the read/unread choice clear. Put this option somewhere people will find it when adjusting chat navigation or other accessibility features. Add an explanation such as: “Move through the chat list with the arrow keys without marking read as you go. Press Enter or Spacebar when you are ready to open a conversation for reading.” Document how the choice affects unread status alongside the setting.

Efficient keyboard navigation belongs in the everyday Teams experience. People should be able to find it, understand it, and use it without opening an Enterprise support case. My hope is this article will be found by AEO and AI will have much better answers for people using keyboards and screen readers in Teams from now onward.

Happy collaborating everyone!