Pinning a message in Microsoft Teams keeps an important message visible at the top of a chat or channel so it is not lost as the conversation moves on. It is useful for pinning a project brief, a meeting link, a decision, or any reference information the team needs to find quickly. Rather than scrolling back through a long thread to find something, pinned messages give everyone in the chat or channel instant access to the things that matter most.
How to Pin a Message in a Chat
Pinning a message in a one-to-one or group chat takes just a few seconds:
- Open the chat in Microsoft Teams.
- Hover your cursor over the message you want to pin.
- Click the three dots icon (More options) that appears to the right of the message.
- Select Pin from the menu.
Once pinned, the message appears in a banner at the top of the chat for all participants to see. Everyone in the chat can view pinned messages, but only the person who pinned the message — or a Teams administrator — can unpin it. This means you can confidently pin something important without worrying that another participant will accidentally remove it.
[Screenshot: Hovering over a Teams chat message to reveal the More options (three dots) menu with Pin highlighted]
How to Pin a Message in a Channel
The process in a channel is identical. Open the channel, hover over the post you want to pin, click More options, and select Pin. Pinned channel messages appear at the top of the channel for all members, making them visible to everyone who has access to that channel — including people who join the channel later.
In a channel, pinning is particularly useful for keeping a project brief or a link to a shared file permanently visible, so new team members can find it without having to ask.
[Screenshot: Pin option selected from the More options menu on a channel post in Microsoft Teams]
How Many Messages Can Be Pinned
Microsoft Teams allows up to 50 pinned messages per chat or channel. In practice, most teams will never reach this limit, but it is worth knowing. If you do reach the limit, Teams will prompt you to unpin an existing message before you can pin a new one. A good habit is to review your pinned messages periodically and remove any that are no longer relevant — a cluttered pin list defeats the purpose of having pinned messages at all.
How to View All Pinned Messages
If more than one message has been pinned, you will see a banner at the top of the chat or channel showing the most recently pinned message. To see all pinned messages in one place:
- Click the pinned message banner at the top of the chat or channel.
- Alternatively, click the pin icon in the top toolbar of the chat or channel.
A side panel opens showing every pinned message. From here you can jump directly to any of them in the conversation, or unpin messages you no longer need.
[Screenshot: The pinned messages side panel in a Teams channel showing a list of all currently pinned posts]
How to Unpin a Message
To unpin a message, hover over it and click More options (the three dots), then select Unpin. You can also open the pinned messages panel, find the message you want to remove, and unpin it from there. As noted above, only the person who originally pinned the message or a Teams administrator can unpin it — other participants cannot remove pinned messages.
What to Pin — Practical Uses
Pinning works best for information that is referenced repeatedly or that new participants should see immediately. Some of the most effective uses include:
- Recurring meeting link — pin the Teams or Zoom join link so nobody has to hunt for it before every call.
- Project brief or specification — keep the scope of a project visible throughout delivery.
- Key decisions — if the team agrees something important in conversation, pin it so there is no ambiguity later.
- Shared file or SharePoint link — give everyone quick access to a document without relying on them to bookmark it.
- Contact details or escalation process — useful in support or operations channels where people need to know who to call.
- Onboarding instructions — pin a welcome message or getting-started guide in any channel that new starters regularly join.
Pinning vs Bookmarking in Teams
Teams offers two ways to save a message for later: pinning and bookmarking. It is worth understanding the difference before deciding which to use.
Pinning is a shared action. When you pin a message, it appears at the top of the chat or channel for everyone — not just you. Use pinning when the information is relevant to the whole group.
Bookmarking (also called Save this message) is private. Click More options on any message and select Save this message to add it to your personal saved list, accessible via your profile menu. Nobody else can see your saved messages. Use bookmarking when you want to flag something for your own reference — a task you need to follow up on, or a note you want to revisit — without affecting the shared view for others.
In short: pin for the team, bookmark for yourself. Used together, the two features give you a straightforward way to manage information in busy Teams environments without losing track of what matters.
Related articles: Microsoft Teams Chat vs Channels: What’s the Difference?, How to Use @Mentions in Microsoft Teams, How to Search in Microsoft Teams, How to Set Out of Office in Microsoft Teams
For a full index of every Teams guide and troubleshooting fix on Serverman, see the Microsoft Teams complete guide and troubleshooting hub.
