View Chats from two different Orgs in one View in Teams

Question

View Chats from two different Orgs in one View in Teams

Nicole Albertson 0

We are in the process of merging two companies. We haven't moved everyone into one domain or put the two domains in one tenant yet for several reasons. We have made them users guest users in each other's domains though. We did this so that we can share files and communicate easier in Teams among other things.

While this all works, the issue we are running into is that if I (a domain A user) start a conversation my user with someone that is a guest user in domain A but logged into Teams as a user in Domain B, they have to switch to Org A in Teams to see it. Likewise, if they start a conversation from their user (a domain B user) with me as a guest user in domain B but logged in to Teams in domain A, I have to switch to Org B in Teams to see it.

I would like to be able to be logged into Teams in domain A and see all chats with the users in domain A as well as the guest users who start chats with me from domain B in one view so that I don't have to switch between the two different orgs all the time. Is this possible or is there a better way to go about all of this until we can get everyone together?

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Vy Nguyen 9,470 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-12T19:42:06.0633333+00:00
Hi @Nicole Albertson,

Thank you for the thorough explanation and for including the screenshot of the Org A and Org B organization switcher.

From your description, you want to stay signed in to Microsoft Teams in Org A and still see, in one chat view, conversations that Org B users start with you while they are signed in to Org B, so you do not need to switch organizations repeatedly.

This happens because guest access works in a tenant specific organization context. When a user is added as a guest, Teams associates their collaboration experience to the organization they are currently operating in, and guests typically need to switch organizations in Teams to interact in the other tenant’s context. As a result, a 1:1 chat started while someone is active in Org B is tied to Org B’s context, so it will not automatically appear in Org A’s chat list unless you open Org B in Teams.

Below are some workarounds that usually work well during mergers, depending on whether your priority is pure chat, full collaboration, or reducing switching as much as possible.

Option 1: Use External access for cross org 1:1 chat so conversations stay in each user’s home tenant

Ask the Teams administrator in Org A to confirm External access is enabled and that Org B is not blocked by domain restrictions.

Ask the Teams administrator in Org B to confirm the same External access configuration so federation is allowed both ways.

When starting new 1:1 chats, search and message the person using their full email address as an external user, rather than selecting the guest identity, so the conversation follows the external access model for chat and calling.

Reference: Use guest access and external access to collaborate with people outside your organization - Microso…

Option 2: Use Shared channels with B2B direct connect for a single collaboration space without tenant switching

In the Teams admin center, confirm the Teams policy allows shared channels, including creating shared channels, inviting external users to shared channels, and joining external shared channels

In Microsoft Entra, configure cross tenant access settings for B2B direct connect between Org A and Org B, and ensure Org B configures the reciprocal settings as well because both sides must enable this relationship.

After the policies and cross tenant settings are in place, create a shared channel for the merger workstream and invite the partner users into that shared channel so they can chat, meet, and work on files while staying signed in to their home tenant.

Option 3: Reduce switching with multi account support and the cross org activity panel in the Teams desktop client

In the Teams desktop app, add the second account from the profile menu using Add another account so both org contexts are available in one client.

In Teams settings, manage which organizations send you notifications under Accounts and orgs so important activity from the other tenant is still surfaced.

Use the Activity in other accounts and orgs experience to open missed cross tenant activity directly, which reduces the need to manually switch tenants just to check messages.

For your information that you can concern:

Collaborate with external participants in a shared channel (IT Admins) | Microsoft Learn

Manage accounts and organizations in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support

Announcing more seamless collaboration in Microsoft Teams for multi-tenant organizations | Microsof…

I hope this response has helped address your question and clarify the behavior you're experiencing. Please feel free to reply if you have any further questions, I would be happy to assist further.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. I look forward to continuing the conversation.

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Answer 1

With the current setup (separate tenants with guest access), a single unified chat list across both organizations in one Teams view isn’t available. Each tenant still has its own chat context, so chats appear only when switched into that tenant/org.

There are two relevant options from the provided information:

Guest access / external access (your current model)
- Users can be members in their home tenant and guests in the other tenant.
- A Teams user can only use Teams in one tenant at a time; to collaborate with people in the other tenant, that user must switch tenants.
- This is explicitly called out as a limitation: a user “can only collaborate with technicians in Tenant Contoso1 if [they are] using Teams in Tenant Contoso1… To switch tenants in Teams desktop, select your profile picture, then select the tenant you'd like to switch to.”
Multitenant organization (MTO) in Microsoft 365
- If the two tenants are under the same organizational control, they can be configured as a multitenant organization.
- In an MTO, users are synchronized between tenants using Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration users.
- With the new Microsoft Teams desktop client, users can:
  - Search for users in other tenants in the multitenant organization.
  - Receive real-time notifications from all tenants in the multitenant organization.
  - Participate in chats, meetings, and calls across all tenants without needing to switch tenants.
- MTO-specific Teams functionality requires full MTO setup, including external access and B2B direct connect policies.

Given this, for a merger scenario where both tenants are under the same company’s control and will eventually be consolidated, the supported way to get closer to a “single view” experience (no constant tenant switching) is to:

Plan and set up a multitenant organization between the two tenants.
Ensure the new Teams desktop client is used, as it supports real-time notifications and cross-tenant collaboration in an MTO without tenant switching.

Until an MTO is configured, the behavior described—needing to switch orgs to see chats started from the other tenant—is expected and cannot be removed just by using guest access.

References:

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View Chats from two different Orgs in one View in Teams

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