In my role as an M365 Tech Lead I see everything under the sun with regards to app problems. And the one we chat about today was one of those bugs that affected a single person. After days of searching for answers on the web, many sleepless nights, and fights with the wife, I found an answer to my GIF dilemma. This little tedious thing, I don’t want to forget. And that is why I am writing this post today. Specifically, for a future me to find via a search engine of some sort should this issue reappear.
The Problem
- Teams GIFs disappeared from a single user, on all of his platforms (Teams Windows Client, Phone, and the Web App).
- The end user was not in any different policies from anyone else.
- For the sake of troubleshooting, I did ensure all the client apps were updated but this isn’t applicable as to why GIFs disappeared for the browser.
Screenshots
As you can see, the GIF option just isn’t there.
The Fix
This is a wild one. Evidently, when one disables the Optional connected experiences found in the settings, they lose the ability to see GIFs or noted here, ‘Giphy’ won’t be visible for them. Sigh… What am I doing with my life.
Enabling this feature fixed the problem. But then I got to thinking, what else does connected experiences do? Below is a summary of the documentation
Further reading | All the items connected to the Teams Optional connected experiences
As of writing, here is a summary of all the items listed. Referenced from here – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/privacy/teams-privacy-oce-overview
- GIPHY: Allows using GIFs in Teams chats, search terms are sent to GIPHY. Subject to GIPHY’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
- Teams app ratings and reviews: Users can provide anonymous feedback, visible to all, but only for installed, publicly available apps. Powered by Microsoft AppSource.
- Search Coach Tab App: Uses Bing API for search requests, returning ad-free SafeSearch results. Licensed under Microsoft Services Agreement.
- Teams apps link previews: Generates a preview snippet when a URL is typed, following tenant admin and user settings.
- Teams device store checkout: Available in Teams admin center and app, sharing basic user and company info with UnifiedCommunications.com. Subject to their terms of service and privacy statement.
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