23-06-2023 A question came up on the tech community from someone who had seen a new icon in the tenant switcher that she couldn’t place. First of all, you need to know what the tenant switcher is. The Tenant Switcher in Microsoft Teams is a feature that allows you to quickly switch between tenants that you manage. You can find this feature in Microsoft Teams. To switch between tenants, select the name of the organization and choose the desired tenant from the Tenant Switcher.
Now that you see and know this function you see a red circle with 2 in it above. This means there are 2 messages for you but there is another icon that I had to search for what this means and I could not find any information about it. So I started testing what this is. First of all what does this icon look like?
As you can see above it is as if you have received new mail. What it really is is that the icon indicates that you have been added to an external microsoft 365 environment. So suppose you are going to collaborate with KbWorks as in the above case. Then someone from the team invites you to join the team. Underwater it is first checked whether you are already a member of that Microsoft 365 environment. If that is not the case you will see this icon. When you then click on the link the following window is shown:
When you agree with the conditions that are set, you can click Accept. Only accept invites from companies that you actually expect or know. After you have clicked accept, you will be admitted to the environment and automatically added to the team.
In the above piece you will see another message, namely the request for additional information. It is possible that you have to enter this immediately or that you will be asked to agree to an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).
If you agree to everything, you will enter the Microsoft Teams environment of the person who invited you. Then you will see which team you have ended up in. From then on, this environment will also remain in your switcher.
Conclusion
When you see an envelope with a dot above it, it is an invitation to a new Microsoft365 environment. If it is a red dot with or without numbers, there are messages in which you are mentioned.