Goodbye Microsoft Teams bar... Hello Productivity

Do you know those videos that say "How old were you when you found out..."? Well... How old were you when you realized you can hide the Microsoft Teams share box with a shortcut key?

Oh, you didn't know that could happen?

Keep reading 😅

#Context

For those of you who might be wondering what I'm talking about... maybe you use slack instead of Microsoft Teams or maybe you're 1 of those tabs on the left types of people

but anyway... The Microsoft Teams share bar if the random behavior is in your favor shows

Now... if your cursor goes anywhere near this area, and most of the time really (sometimes it never shows like above), you'll see this share bar

This share bar can do everything... including never move out your way so you can access the tabs behind it. In a browser this is easier to solve, because you can ctrl + tab your way to glory switching between each tab... but in your IDE or some other applications, that just isn't going to cut it

#The Solution

And now that I've done all this backstory that most people probably skipped over and just came to the solution part anyway... or likely what happened is a bing search and you never landed here anyway

The way to remove the Microsoft Teams share bar is to

1. Click on the time (mainly to focus the panel)
2. Press cmd + W (on mac) or ctrl + W (on windows)

The bar will now disappear... I have not figured out how to make it come back again... although to be honest I've only used it a handful of times in my life 😅

🚨 Important note, which if you found this through a bing search you likely won't see... don't press this keyboard shortcut while the main Microsoft Teams window has focus as this will drop you off the call using an express code path that's quicker than click Leave (or at least it feels like it)

#Cheers

If you found this useful let me know on X (@GordonBeeming) or LinkedIn (gordon-beeming)... I'm convinced it wasn't just me that knew this and it would be cool for you to reach out and show the love 👀