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Use Winston in Microsoft Teams

Connecting Microsoft Teams takes three parties: you, in Winston; whoever administers your Microsoft 365 tenant; and then everyone who wants to use it. Each step below shows what you should be looking at.

Check the current Connections catalog, or ask Support, to confirm Teams is available to your workspace before you start. Channel support and rollout can change.

Connect it in Winston

Open Settings → Connections and find the Microsoft Teams card. An Owner or Admin makes the connection.

The Connections screen in Winston, with the Microsoft Teams card outlined and its Connect button marked as step one — Settings → Connections. Find the Microsoft Teams card and choose Connect.

The Winston connection dialog for Microsoft Teams, showing the OAuth 2.0 badge and the Connect with Microsoft Teams button — The dialog explains what it is about to authorize. Choosing Connect opens a separate window.

Your Microsoft tenant has to approve it

Winston asks for permissions that only a Microsoft 365 administrator can grant. If you are not one, Microsoft stops here and tells you so. This is a Microsoft control, not a Winston one; nothing is wrong with your workspace.

Microsoft's Need admin approval screen, with the link to sign in with an admin account highlighted — Not an admin? Send this to whoever administers your Microsoft 365 tenant, or sign in with an admin account.

An administrator sees the consent screen instead. Check the publisher before accepting, and read what is being granted.

The Microsoft consent screen listing the permissions Winston requests, with the Winston publisher name outlined — Check the publisher, read the permissions, then Accept.

Back in Winston, the Microsoft Teams card shows Connected. As with any connection, Connected means the authorization succeeded; it does not by itself tell you which operations Winston supports there. See Connect your tools.

The Connections screen again, with the Microsoft Teams card now showing a Connected badge — Connected. The badge confirms the authorization, not the full list of supported operations.

Make it available to your team

Connecting Winston to the tenant does not put it in anyone's Teams client. A Teams administrator controls that from the Microsoft Teams admin center, under Teams apps → Manage apps.

The Microsoft Teams admin center with Winston found by search, showing an app status of Unblocked — Search for Winston under Manage apps, and confirm its status is Unblocked.

Two separate settings decide who gets it. Available to is permission: who may add Winston themselves. Install app is delivery: it puts Winston in those people's Teams so they do not have to find it.

The Users and groups tab for the Winston app, with the Available to setting and the Install app button marked — Available to grants permission. Install app pushes it out. Setting one does not do the other.

Use it in Teams

Once it is available, Winston appears under Apps → Built for your org.

The Apps section of Microsoft Teams, showing Winston listed under Built for your org — Apps → Built for your org. Open Winston to start using it.

Opening it starts a direct chat. You can instead add it to a channel, so answers are visible to everyone in that channel rather than only to you.

The Let's go dialog in Teams, offering to open Winston as a chat or to add it to a named channel — Open starts a private chat. Choosing a channel puts the answers where the team can see them.

Ask it something

A direct message behaves like Chat in the dashboard: the same workspace, the same connected data, and the same rules about what needs reviewing before it happens. See Asking Winston and Review and approve.

A direct message thread with Winston in Teams, where Winston confirms which workspace it is connected to — A direct message to Winston. Check which workspace it names before you rely on an answer.

In a channel, mention Winston by name. It replies in the thread, where the whole team can read the answer and the evidence behind it.

A Teams channel where a person mentions Winston in a post and Winston replies in the thread — Mention Winston in a channel and it answers in the thread.

A channel answer is visible to everyone in that channel. Keep employee, customer and other sensitive questions in a direct message, and check the channel membership before asking.

To have Winston post into a channel on a schedule rather than on request, see Automation. If a connection stops working, an admin can reconnect it from Settings → Connections.