Microsoft just made Teams even more of a hassle to use

By Judy Sanhz Published March 10, 2025

A Home screen in Microsoft Teams showing the different Communities to choose from. — microsoft

In a Microsoft support article, the software giant says that starting in April 2025, Microsoft Teams will no longer support sending or receiving SMS from Android devices. This change pushes users to switch to the Phone Link app for SMS messaging.

If you attempt to send an SMS using Teams, you’ll be greeted with an alert notifying you of the change. The SMS feature is one of the lesser-known features, and you may not have even known it existed, but Microsoft will soon remove it from Teams. For now, you can still view SMS messages under Recent and send texts, but this feature will soon be removed. Currently, the “Link your phone” feature lets you manage your text messages without having to switch to another app, thus making you go through fewer steps.

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With Skype shutting down soon, some users may turn to Teams as an alternative, meaning that Teams might be getting a bigger audience. But now, new users will be greeted with the need to use the Phone Link app to do something they could once do on Teams. You can use the feature on a Windows 11 PC and any Android device with version 7.0 or above. You will also need the Link to Windows app, but if your Android device has version 9.0 or later, it should be preinstalled.

It’s not that bad since the Phone Link app is helpful. You can view your phone battery level, your pictures, and more. Using another app may seem inconvenient, but switching to Phone Link could be beneficial.

Former Computing Writer

Judy Sanhz is a Digital Trends computing writer covering all computing news. Loves all operating systems and devices.

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