Question About Recent Change to Notes Layout in Teams (macOS)

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Question About Recent Change to Notes Layout in Teams (macOS)

Bailey N 10

Previously, I was able to keep 'Notes' docked in a panel on the right side of a chat, allowing me to view the conversation and my notes simultaneously. Recently, the Notes icon disappeared from the side panel, and when I access Notes from the menu instead, it opens in a much larger view that covers or replaces the chat rather than remaining docked.

Can you confirm whether this is an intended design change as part of a recent Teams update, or if there is a way to restore the previous side-by-side Notes experience?

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Answer 1

Kai-L 17,480 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Dear Bailey,

Good day, and thank you for reaching out to the Q&A Forum.

I understand that the Notes panel you previously had docked alongside your chat is no longer appearing in the side panel, and now opens in a larger view that covers the conversation instead.

As a forum moderator, I genuinely wish I could inspect your Teams environment to confirm this directly. Unfortunately, my role here is limited to providing general guidance and solutions that can be applied by users. To be upfront, I am not aware of any recent Teams update that specifically changed the Notes layout or removed it from the side panel, and I was not able to find anything documented in the public release notes or roadmap either. That said, Teams features do roll out gradually and sometimes vary by tenant, so it is possible this reached your environment before being widely documented. To help me look into this properly, could you please clarify a few details?

Which Notes feature are you referring to? Teams has several, and the behavior differs between them:

Meeting notes (accessed from within a meeting or the meeting details)
Chat notes or the notes pinned within a chat
The standalone Notes app in the Teams left navigation rail
OneNote, added as a tab or app within Teams
Or something else

Where were you accessing it from previously, and where are you accessing it from now?

When did you first notice the change, and did a Teams update install around that time?

Is anyone else in your organization seeing the same change, or is it only on your device?

If possible, please also share a screenshot showing how Notes currently opens, and ideally where the icon used to appear in the side panel. Please remember to mask or obscure any sensitive information, such as names, message content, or email addresses, before uploading.

Once I have a clearer picture, I will do my best to confirm whether this is an intended design change or something that can be restored. Thank you for your patience and understanding. I look forward to your reply.

Note: Please follow the steps in the forum documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Bailey N 10 Reputation points

2026-08-03T21:02:58.44+00:00
Hi,

Thank you for your response.

This is regarding Notes within individual Teams chats.

Previously, there was a pencil and paper icon in the upper-right corner of each chat. Selecting that icon would open Notes in a panel docked to the right side of the conversation, allowing me to view both the chat and my notes simultaneously.

That icon has now disappeared. The only way to access Notes is by selecting Notes from the menu at the top of the chat, which opens in a much larger view that covers or replaces the conversation instead of remaining docked on the right.

I first noticed the change this morning, and another member of our team noticed the same behavior last week, so it does not appear to be isolated to my device.

I've attached two screenshots for comparison:

Teams Previous.png shows the previous experience, including the pencil and paper icon and the docked Notes panel.

Teams New.png shows the current experience, where the icon is no longer present and Notes opens in a larger view.

I hope this helps clarify the issue. Please let me know if there is any additional information I can provide.
BS 0 Reputation points

2026-08-03T21:24:39.77+00:00

I have also found this missing in chats. The feature is called Chat Notes. It is also missing from mine and my colleagues Teams. On the Microsoft website it is located at https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/teams/chat/use-collaborative-notes-in-microsoft-teams-chats
Kai-L 17,480 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-03T21:58:55.24+00:00
Dear Bailey,

Thank you for the detailed clarification and the screenshots, that makes the change much clearer.

To be upfront, I am not able to confirm with certainty whether this is an intended design change. I can tell you that I am seeing the same new layout on my end, so this is clearly not isolated to your device or your organization. That said, Microsoft's current documentation for Collaborative notes in Teams chats still describes the experience you had previously, where you select the Open notes icon at the top right of the chat window, and select the same icon again to close it. That matches your "Teams Previous" screenshot exactly. Since that documentation has not been updated to reflect the tab-based view you are now seeing, I cannot rule out that this is either a newer change that has not yet been documented, or an unintended regression in a recent Teams build.

For reference: Use collaborative notes in Microsoft Teams chats | Microsoft Support

Given that, this is worth raising through your organization's IT administrator so they can open a service request with Microsoft Support. A support engineer can confirm whether this is an intentional change, a staged rollout, or a defect, which is unfortunately something I cannot determine from here.

When raising it, it would help to include:

Both screenshots you shared, showing the before and after.

The dates you and your colleague each noticed the change.

Your Teams client version (Teams > About in the macOS menu bar).

A link to the Collaborative notes documentation above, since it still describes the previous behavior.

That last point in particular is a useful argument, as it demonstrates the current experience does not match Microsoft's own published guidance. For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to Get support - Microsoft 365 admin. If you don't know who your IT administrator is, please refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support

I am sorry I cannot give you a definitive answer on this one. Please let me know if you need anything else, and if you do hear back from support, I would be genuinely interested to know the outcome.