(Updated) Contact Unification across Outlook and Teams

Message Center ID: MC695487
Exchange Online Microsoft Teams
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Feature update User impact
December 2024 January 2024 September 2025

Summary

Starting December 2024, Teams and Outlook will have a unified contact experience for Entra ID accounts, syncing contacts and edits across both apps. Migration began in January 2024, with completion expected by September 2025. Organizations should update documentation and advise users to back up contacts if needed.

Details

Updated September 10, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 

 Today, users can see Outlook contacts created with their Entra ID (AAD) account in Teams, but contacts created in Teams are not available in Outlook. To provide a consistent experience we are making changes to allow Teams contacts, created with a user's Entra ID (AAD) account, to be visible in Outlook as well.

Upcoming changes to contacts in Teams and Outlook:

Currently, Teams and Outlook maintain separate contact lists for enterprise users. Based on your feedback, we plan to introduce a unified contact experience, ensuring a consistent contacts experience across Outlook and Teams. In future, changes to contacts in users’ organization (Entra ID) account in Teams will reflect in Outlook and vice versa. 

What's Happened so far: 

  • We have completed one round of migration of all Teams contacts to Outlook in January 2024. 
  • As a result, users may see more contacts in Outlook, namely those created in Teams and potentially Skype for Business contacts (if enabled). 
  • Existing Outlook contacts may also be enriched with additional details from corresponding Teams contacts. 
  • Teams users can see Outlook contacts but cannot edit them inside Teams. 

What's Coming: 

Users will gradually upgrade to the new unified experience from December 2024. The new experience will be enabled for each user across all endpoints (Desktop, Mobile, Devices etc.) simultaneously. Once the new experience is enabled for a user, they will see same set of contacts in Outlook and Teams. Any change in Outlook will reflect in Teams and vice versa. 

All Teams contact changes (creations and edits) made since January will be included in the unified store. During creations, a small set of users may see duplicate contacts in the unified store. To help users navigate the transition, category label ‘Teams Conflict’ will be applied to duplicate contacts. This label will help users see any conflicts (duplicates or inconsistencies) that need their attention. 

[When this will happen:]

This activity is expected to be completed for all active users by September 2025 (previously August) tentatively (previously June). Once this activity is complete, users will work with a single contact list across Teams and Outlook. 

[How this will affect your organization]

Once this change is complete, users will be able to see created contacts across both Outlook and Teams and vice versa.

[What you need to do to prepare]

Action Required: Update your organisation documentation and training materials to reflect the upcoming changes for the new unified contact experience.

You may consider updating your training and documentation as appropriate. If users wish to retain a snapshot of their existing contacts in Outlook, please encourage users to back-up their existing contacts using the export capability in Outlook.

Change History

September 10, 2025 at 4:30 PM Updated
Summary
Previous
Teams and Outlook contacts will be unified by August 2025, allowing changes in one to reflect in the other. Migration began in January 2024, with a full unified experience rolling out from December 2024. Users may see duplicate contacts labeled ‘Teams Conflict’ during transition. Update training and documentation accordingly.
New
Starting December 2024, Teams and Outlook will have a unified contact experience for Entra ID accounts, syncing contacts and edits across both apps. Migration began in January 2024, with completion expected by September 2025. Organizations should update documentation and advise users to back up contacts if needed.
Last Updated Date
Previous
2025-07-31T14:09:19.277Z
New
2025-09-10T15:39:00.720Z
Body Content
Previous

Updated July 31, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Today, users can see Outlook contacts created with their Entra ID (AAD) account in Teams, but contacts created in Teams are not available in Outlook. To provide a consistent experience we are making changes to allow Teams contacts, created with a user's Entra ID (AAD) account, to be visible in Outlook as well.

Upcoming changes to contacts in Teams and Outlook:

Currently, Teams and Outlook maintain separate contact lists for enterprise users. Based on your feedback, we plan to introduce a unified contact experience, ensuring a consistent contacts experience across Outlook and Teams. In future, changes to contacts in users’ organization (Entra ID) account in Teams will reflect in Outlook and vice versa. 

What's Happened so far: 

  • We have completed one round of migration of all Teams contacts to Outlook in January 2024. 
  • As a result, users may see more contacts in Outlook, namely those created in Teams and potentially Skype for Business contacts (if enabled). 
  • Existing Outlook contacts may also be enriched with additional details from corresponding Teams contacts. 
  • Teams users can see Outlook contacts but cannot edit them inside Teams. 

What's Coming: 

Users will gradually upgrade to the new unified experience from December 2024. The new experience will be enabled for each user across all endpoints (Desktop, Mobile, Devices etc.) simultaneously. Once the new experience is enabled for a user, they will see same set of contacts in Outlook and Teams. Any change in Outlook will reflect in Teams and vice versa. 

All Teams contact changes (creations and edits) made since January will be included in the unified store. During creations, a small set of users may see duplicate contacts in the unified store. To help users navigate the transition, category label ‘Teams Conflict’ will be applied to duplicate contacts. This label will help users see any conflicts (duplicates or inconsistencies) that need their attention. 

[When this will happen:]

This activity is expected to be completed for all active users by August 2025 tentatively (previously June). Once this activity is complete, users will work with a single contact list across Teams and Outlook. 

[How this will affect your organization]

Once this change is complete, users will be able to see created contacts across both Outlook and Teams and vice versa.

[What you need to do to prepare]

Action Required: Update your organisation documentation and training materials to reflect the upcoming changes for the new unified contact experience.

You may consider updating your training and documentation as appropriate. If users wish to retain a snapshot of their existing contacts in Outlook, please encourage users to back-up their existing contacts using the export capability in Outlook.


New

Updated September 10, 2025: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 

 Today, users can see Outlook contacts created with their Entra ID (AAD) account in Teams, but contacts created in Teams are not available in Outlook. To provide a consistent experience we are making changes to allow Teams contacts, created with a user's Entra ID (AAD) account, to be visible in Outlook as well.

Upcoming changes to contacts in Teams and Outlook:

Currently, Teams and Outlook maintain separate contact lists for enterprise users. Based on your feedback, we plan to introduce a unified contact experience, ensuring a consistent contacts experience across Outlook and Teams. In future, changes to contacts in users’ organization (Entra ID) account in Teams will reflect in Outlook and vice versa. 

What's Happened so far: 

  • We have completed one round of migration of all Teams contacts to Outlook in January 2024. 
  • As a result, users may see more contacts in Outlook, namely those created in Teams and potentially Skype for Business contacts (if enabled). 
  • Existing Outlook contacts may also be enriched with additional details from corresponding Teams contacts. 
  • Teams users can see Outlook contacts but cannot edit them inside Teams. 

What's Coming: 

Users will gradually upgrade to the new unified experience from December 2024. The new experience will be enabled for each user across all endpoints (Desktop, Mobile, Devices etc.) simultaneously. Once the new experience is enabled for a user, they will see same set of contacts in Outlook and Teams. Any change in Outlook will reflect in Teams and vice versa. 

All Teams contact changes (creations and edits) made since January will be included in the unified store. During creations, a small set of users may see duplicate contacts in the unified store. To help users navigate the transition, category label ‘Teams Conflict’ will be applied to duplicate contacts. This label will help users see any conflicts (duplicates or inconsistencies) that need their attention. 

[When this will happen:]

This activity is expected to be completed for all active users by September 2025 (previously August) tentatively (previously June). Once this activity is complete, users will work with a single contact list across Teams and Outlook. 

[How this will affect your organization]

Once this change is complete, users will be able to see created contacts across both Outlook and Teams and vice versa.

[What you need to do to prepare]

Action Required: Update your organisation documentation and training materials to reflect the upcoming changes for the new unified contact experience.

You may consider updating your training and documentation as appropriate. If users wish to retain a snapshot of their existing contacts in Outlook, please encourage users to back-up their existing contacts using the export capability in Outlook.

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