When Teams Manager provisions a new Team based on a Template Team, the Template Team's data has to be read out via the API in the name of the user who is approving/creating the team.
In order to make that happen, the respective user (approver/team-creator) has to be added to the template team temporarily, in order to read out the necessary data. Afterwards, that user is automatically removed again.
This approach is necessary on a technical level, however, it comes with one slightly annoying side effect: Whenever a user is added to the Template Team, they receive a notification email from Microsoft. As you might guess, depending on the number of teams that you approve/create throughout the day, the number of emails you'll receive can become overwhelming.
Sadly, Microsoft doesn't offer a way to programmatically disable these notification emails, however, they can be disabled manually for every template team.
🛡️ Disabling Welcome Emails Through PowerShell
This step can be performed by M365 Administrators using PowerShell.
Open PowerShell as an Administrator.
Type in "Connect-ExchangeOnline" and hit Enter.
Log in to your Admin account.
Run the command specified below, replacing "Template Name" with the name of the Template you're trying to disable the message for.
# Connect to Exchange Online
Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName [email protected]
# Define variable for M365 group name
$GroupName = "Template Name"
# Disable the welcome message
Set-UnifiedGroup -Identity $GroupName -UnifiedGroupWelcomeMessageEnabled:$false
# Check if welcome message enabled
# Check if welcome message enabled Get-UnifiedGroup -Identity $GroupName | Select-Object Name, DisplayName, PrimarySmtpAddress, WelcomeMessageEnabled
💡 Keep in mind that these changes might need a couple of hours to take effect, so don't panic if it doesn't work right away.
📧 Filtering Welcome Emails Through Outlook
If you can't utilize the PowerShell method or do not have Admin Privileges, you can also disable the welcome emails by filtering them directly in Outlook.
💡 Keep in mind that the web version of Outlook doesn't support body text filters, which are a key part of this workaround, thus, this method is only relevant for desktop users who access Outlook through the corresponding app.
Here's how you can do it:
1. Click on … in the top right corner of your Outlook client and select Rules > Manage rules.
2. Click on Add new rule in the pop-up.
3. Select a name for your rule. We suggest something along the lines of "Template WelcomeMail Filter" so it doesn't get mixed up with anything else.
4. Select Subject or body includes from the Add a condition box.
5. Enter "[Template Name] Group" into the text box below it, replacing [Template Name] with the name of the Template you'd like to stop receiving messages for.
6. You can click Add another condition to do this across several Templates.
7. Select Delete from the Add an action box.
8. Click Save.
⛑️ Need more help?
Get further assistance with Teams Manager through our support chat widget within the app, or reach out to us at [email protected].