Enhance the diagramming experience in Microsoft Teams with the new Visio app

Microsoft Teams is your hub for teamwork, bringing together everything a team needs—meetings, calling, collaboration, chat—and diagramming.

As of today, Visio is available as a personal app or private workspace in Microsoft Teams. With a private workspace, users will be able to view, edit, and create Visio files in a central location without leaving Teams. We’re integrating the Visio app into where work happens to help streamline and improve collaboration on business processes, org charts, product launch timelines, and so much more.

Note: The Visio app is not yet available in the new Teams experience but is coming soon.

Getting started

The Visio app comes pre-installed for enterprise users and can be accessed in several places from within Teams, for instance, in the left pane by selecting More added apps (…). Scroll through the list of available apps and then, select the Visio icon to open the app within Teams.

An image of the More added apps menu demonstrating where to access the Visio app in Microsoft Teams.

From here, users will get a view of all the information their team has saved in the Visio app, including access to available templates, Recommended files, Recently opened files, Shared files, and Favorites.

An image of the Visio app in Microsoft Teams demonstrating how to access available templates, Recommended files, Recently opened files, Shared files, and Favorites.

Pin the Visio app for easy access

Teams enables you to keep your most-used apps right at your fingertips. If Visio is one of those apps, you can pin the app to the left pane by right clicking the Visio icon and selecting Pin.

An image demonstrating how to pin the Visio app in Microsoft Teams by right-clicking the Visio icon. Menu options shown: Pop out app, About, and Pin.

You can change the order in which the Visio app appears in your list of pinned apps by dragging and dropping the icon. Or, if you wish to unpin the app, right-click the Visio icon and select Unpin.

An image demonstrating how to unpin the Visio app in Microsoft Teams by right-clicking the Visio icon. Menu options shown: Pop out app, About, and Unpin.

Pop out the Visio app in a new window

When using the Teams desktop app, users will be able to use the Pop out app option to open Visio in a separate window, allowing users to continue using Teams chat, call, collaboration, and meeting capabilities. To do this, right-click the Visio icon—whether it’s pinned on the left of Teams or from the list of More added apps (…)—and then select Pop out app.

An image demonstrating how to pop out the Visio app in Microsoft Teams in a new window. Menu options shown: Pop out app, About, and Unpin.

An image demonstrating the Visio app popped out as a separate window in Microsoft Teams.

Add a Visio file as a tab

You can also quickly access and manage the Visio files you interact with the most by adding them as a dedicated tab at the top of a Teams channel or chat. To add a new tab, select the plus (+) button at the top of the preferred channel or chat. If you don’t see the Visio icon right away, select the See all icon or type “Visio” in the Search bar. Then, select the Visio icon.

An image demonstrating the app menu that appears after selecting the plus button at the top of a channel or chat in Microsoft Teams.

Here, you’ll be asked to ‘pick an item’ (i.e.: a Visio file) from My files, Recent files, or any file stored in your team’s SharePoint folders. Select the file you want to add as a tab, then select the Save button. After selecting Save, the Visio file will open in Teams and show up as a tab at the top of the channel or chat.

Note: You can add the same Visio file as a tab in multiple channels and chats.

Once the file is open in Teams, you can open it in a new window by selecting the Pop out tab icon from the tab’s drop-down menu. From the drop-down menu, you can also expand the tab, reload the tab, copy the link to the tab, rename the tab, and remove the tab, among other actions.

An image of a Visio file open in Microsoft Teams demonstrating a list of options available from the tab’s drop-down menu. Menu options shown: Pop out tab, Expand tab, Reload tab, Copy link to tab, Rename, Settings, App permissions, About this tab, Remove.

When sharing a Visio file in a chat

It’s important to note that any Visio files shared via a Teams chat will open in the Visio app in Teams by default.

An image of a Visio file shared in a Microsoft Teams chat demonstrating the menu options available to open the file in Teams, the Visio desktop app, or the Visio web app. Menu options shown: Open in, Download and Copy link.

The Visio app in Teams is now available for commercial tenants worldwide and is rolling out soon to GCC, GCC High, and DoD tenants. Microsoft 365 commercial subscribers and Visio Plan 1 and Visio Plan 2 subscribers with a Microsoft Teams license will be able to view, edit, and create Visio files in 31 languages supported by the Visio app in Teams.

We are listening!

We look forward to hearing your feedback and learning more about how we can improve the diagramming experience in Microsoft Teams. Please tell us what you think of the Visio app in the comments below. You can also send feedback via the Visio Feedback Portal or directly in the Visio app in Teams using “Give Feedback to Microsoft” in the bottom right corner.

Did you know? The Microsoft 365 Roadmap is where you can get the latest updates on productivity apps and intelligent cloud services. Check out what features are in development or coming soon on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap or view roadmap item, Visio personal app in Microsoft Teams.