Not able to forward Teams messages

Dear @RaGau, 

Good day, and I appreciate the clear explanation of your concern. I understand you’re using Microsoft 365 Business Basic and, in Teams on the web, you don’t see the “Forward” option when you click the message menu (…). 

The “Forward” option may be missing because message forwarding is not controlled by admin settings, or a sensitivity label is blocking it in a Team or channel. 

The domain being only verified does not impact this feature. 

Please see the following workarounds that will help you verify the issue:  

Step 1: Check whether the issue happens only in channels or also in chats 

Open a 1:1 chat or a group chat in Microsoft Teams. 

Hover over a message. 

Select More options (…). 

Check whether Forward appears. 

If Forward is available in chats but missing in a specific Team channel, this strongly indicates a restriction on that Team or channel, most commonly caused by a sensitivity label. 

Step 2: If Forward works in chats but not in a channel 

Please go to Microsoft 365 admin center > Show all > Open the Microsoft Purview portal. 

Go to Solutions > Information Protection > Sensitivity labels. 

Find the sensitivity label currently assigned to the Team. 

The label name can be confirmed in the Teams Admin Center. 

Select the label and choose Edit label in Purview portal. 

Confirm the label applies to Teams meetings or chats.

In the label configuration wizard, check whether the label includes scope for Meetings or Teams chat. 

Labels that protect Teams meetings and chats typically include Meetings and show a step called Protect Teams meetings and chat. 

Open Protect Teams meetings and chat and look for the setting 

Prevent copying and forwarding of meeting chat, live captions, and transcripts. 

If this setting is enabled, it is the expected reason why Forward messages is unavailable. 

This setting blocks message forwarding, as well as Copy link and Share to Outlook, and it also applies to channel chats, even outside of channel meetings. 

Use sensitivity labels to protect calendar items, Teams meetings, and chat | Microsoft Learn 

Step 3: If Forward is missing everywhere 

If the Forward option does not appear in any chats or channels, I recommend creating a support request through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Support > Help & Support for further investigation.  

A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.    

As a moderator, I don't have the tools to investigate your specific account directly because this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas. However, I will try my best to guide you as clearly as possible.    

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any questions or need further support, please don’t hesitate to reach out at any time. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

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Teams message forwarding is a client feature and not controlled by a per‑user toggle in the Teams admin messaging policies. In the Teams client, forwarding works only when the feature is available in that chat or channel and not blocked by sensitivity labels.

Key points based on current behavior:

1. How forwarding is supposed to work
   • In a chat or channel message, hover over the message.
   • Select More options (⋯) > Forward.
   • Optionally choose Forward > Multiple messages to select up to five messages.
   • Choose the person, group chat, or channel to forward to, add context text, then select Forward.
   • You can forward chat messages, files, Loop components, app cards, and images, up to five messages or five images at a time.
2. Why the Forward option might be missing
   • Team administrators can apply sensitivity labels to teams/channels that block forwarding. If a team has such a label, the Forward option will not appear for messages in that team’s channels.
   • In that case, forwarding is not something that can be enabled by the end user; it must be changed by the admin by adjusting or removing the sensitivity label that restricts sharing/forwarding for that team.
3. Domain verification vs. forwarding
   • The fact that the custom domain is only verified and not fully configured for all Microsoft 365 workloads does not affect the Teams in‑client message forwarding feature. Forwarding in Teams is independent of email domain MX/DNS configuration.
4. What the admin should check
   • In the Microsoft 365 environment, the Teams/tenant admin should:
     • Review any sensitivity labels applied to the affected team(s) that might restrict content sharing/forwarding.
     • If such a label is in use, adjust its settings or use a less restrictive label for that team if forwarding is required.
   • There is no separate “message forwarding” toggle in Teams messaging policies; absence of such a toggle is expected.

If forwarding works in some chats but not in specific channels, that strongly indicates a sensitivity label or similar policy on those teams/channels.

References:

• Forward messages in Microsoft Teams