Microsoft Teams

Connecting Microsoft Teams puts your assistant inside your Teams workspace. Anyone who opens a chat with the app, or @mentions it in a group chat or a channel, gets an answer from your assistant right there. Everything appears in the same Inbox as your other channels, with the same assistant, the same Knowledge, and the same Memory.

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Before You Start

You need:

1. A Microsoft 365 account in the Teams workspace you want to connect. The connection is created by signing in with Microsoft, and the channel list is read from the teams you belong to.
2. The Invent app added to Teams. Your Teams admin adds it from the Teams app store, or you add it yourself if your organization lets members install apps. Without the app, Teams has nowhere to deliver messages.
3. Assistant manager access in Invent, so you can open the assistant’s Channels tab.

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Step 1: Open the Teams Connect Dialog

From your assistant’s Channels tab, find Microsoft Teams in the list and click Connect. The connect dialog opens. The dialog has two fields:

• Connection: the link to a Teams workspace, created by signing in with Microsoft. If this is your first Teams connection, the field shows a Connect Microsoft Teams button that starts the sign-in (covered in the next step). If you have already connected Teams for another assistant, your existing connections are listed in the dropdown, with a + New Connection button at the top to add another; reuse one and skip to Step 4.
• Channel: where the assistant listens. Disabled until a connection is selected.

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Step 2: Sign In with Microsoft

Click Connect Microsoft Teams (or + New Connection in the dropdown when a connection already exists). Microsoft’s standard sign-in opens in a popup. Sign in with the account that belongs to the Teams workspace and accept the permissions: Invent reads your profile, the teams you are in and their channel names. It does not read your messages through this sign-in; messages arrive through the Teams app. When you are done, the popup closes and Invent asks you to name the connection (for example, “Acme Teams”). Click Create. The connection is stored in Settings → Connections, where you can rename or disconnect it at any time.

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Step 3: Add the Invent App to Teams

Open Teams, go to Apps, search for Invent and click Add. Add it to yourself for direct messages, or to a team so it can be mentioned in that team’s channels. A Teams admin can also add it for the whole organization from the Teams admin center.

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Step 4: Pick a Channel

Back in the connect dialog, your new connection is already selected. Open the Channel dropdown:

• Any channel (the default): the assistant answers direct messages, and any group chat or channel where it is mentioned.
• A specific channel, listed as Team › Channel: the assistant answers only in that channel, plus direct messages.

Click Connect Channel. Microsoft Teams now shows up in the assistant’s Channels tab with an enable/disable toggle and a Manage button.

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Step 5: Send a Test Message

In Teams, open a chat with the Invent app and send a message. In a channel, @mention the app. The reply arrives in Teams, and the conversation shows up in your Inbox with the Teams badge on the contact avatar.

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How the Assistant Behaves in Teams

• Direct messages: every message reaches the assistant, no mention needed.
• Channels: the assistant answers when it is @mentioned. It then keeps following that thread, so replies inside the thread reach it without a new mention.
• Group chats: only messages that @mention the app reach the assistant.
• Buttons: Options arrive as tappable buttons, up to 6 per message.
• Formatting: Teams shows bold, italic, code, links, lists and quotes. Headings and images in a reply are rewritten into text that Teams can show.
• Typing indicator while the assistant writes, and emoji reactions on messages, limited to the emoji Teams supports.
• Files sent by the assistant arrive as attachments.

The people writing to the assistant appear as contacts in your Audience, one per Teams user.

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Reusing a Connection Across Assistants

Once a Teams connection exists in your workspace, any assistant can pick it up from the Connection dropdown without signing in again. Give each assistant its own channel with the Channel field, or bind one assistant to Any channel: two assistants on the same channel both reply, see Step 4. Manage every connection centrally from Settings → Connections:

• Rename a connection to something more descriptive.
• Disconnect a connection to revoke access. Every assistant channel bound to it stops.

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Troubleshooting

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Next Steps