[Update]: This blog post was updated on November 19, 2024 to include information about new deep link types.
Are you using Microsoft Teams? Advertised as “the ultimate messaging app for your organization”, in most cases it allows employees to communicate and collaborate with high efficiency. If you are using it as a primary means of communication, it is vital to direct your co-workers to this channel. So, is there an easy and efficient method to link to Teams? There is! The secret is to use the so-called deep links.

Teams deep links can make both your email signatures and Teams even more useful. You don’t know what deep links are? I’ll be happy to explain.
Deep links are most commonly used by developers who want to integrate Teams with other applications. It does not mean, however, that it takes a power user to use deep links in practice. In this article, I will show how to use deep links in email signatures to:
These are the most popular use cases. If you’d like to learn about other Teams deep link types (where some of them can get really complex), explore the Microsoft’s documentation you can find here.
Finally, as an extra treat, I will present how to distribute those features to all employees without them lifting a finger.
Add a team chat link to your email signature
Who does not love emails? In the business world, it is the bread and butter of communication. However, in some cases, it is more efficient to discuss some matters in a group chat. Microsoft Teams allows creating such chats and deep linking makes it possible to do this directly from an email. First, let’s look at the deep link’s format:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=<user1 UPN/email>,<user2 UPN/email>&message=<message content>
Such a link, when clicked or pasted into a browser, will open a Teams chat window with the comma-separated users, identified by their UPNs. In simple terms, a UPN is the basic identifier of a user in an organization. In most cases, it’s the same as their email address (learn more). Additionally, the <message content> will appear in the chatting window, ready to be sent.
As you may know, URLs are not happy with all characters. While it is perfectly fine to type in a message with spaces (they will be converted to their URL value %20), question marks and all other punctuation marks need to be inserted manually by using their codes. W3schools offers a good reference point for that.
So, for example, the following link will open a chat window with Alex Wilber and Allan Deyoung, with the message “Hi guys! How are the preparations for the event going?”
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=a.wilber@example.com,a.deyoung@example.com&message=Hi
guys%21How are the preparations for the event going%3F
At the time of writing, there’s a problem with handling the &message=
parameter in the Teams web app. In short, the message content gets duplicated if somebody clicks your link and the chat starts in the browser-based version of Teams.
Start a Microsoft Teams call from an email signature
Microsoft Teams has come to be known as one of the most popular videoconferencing tools, with that fame getting traction in the Covid-19 times in particular. Consequently, it’s hardly surprising that Teams users can also share links that start either an audio-only or an audio & video call.
Audio call
To get a link that starts an audio-only call in Microsoft Teams, personalize this generic deep link, replacing the parts in angle brackets:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/call/0/0?users=<user1 UPN/email>,<user2 UPN/email>,<userX UPN/email>
As you can see, the link can also initiate a group audio call – just provide users’ UPNs and separate each with a comma. If you’d like to start a 1:1 audio call, provide just one user’s UPN and do not use any commas.
Here’s a sample personalized link that starts an audio call with 2 users:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/call/0/0?users=a.wilber@example.com,m.bowen@example.com
After clicking the link, to start an audio call, click Start Call in a popup that opens.

Audio & video call
To start an audio & video call in Teams, use the same deep link format that additionally includes the &withVideo=true
parameter:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/call/0/0?users=<user1 UPN/email>,<user2 UPN/email>,<userX UPN/email>&withVideo=true
The rules are basically the same – you need to add as many users as you want to videoconference with, separating them with commas. The sample customized link below initiates a 1:1 audio and video call with Adele Vance:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/call/0/0?users=a.vance@example.com&withVideo=true
After clicking the link, to start an audio&video call, click Start Call in a popup that opens.

One more thing to be aware of: Before the call starts, each videoconference participant will need to confirm they want to enable their camera.
Send links to a scheduling dialog
Another kind of Teams’ deep link that might come in handy in email signatures is a scheduling link. Clicking such a link will bring up a scheduling dialog with the person who clicks as the organizer and the attendees specified in the link. The format is as follows:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meeting/new?subject=<subject>&startTime=<date>&endTime=<date>&content=<content>&attendees=<list of comma-separated user UPNs/emails>
I would not recommend using the time-related attributes in email signatures. I explain why in the Limitations section of the article.
A sample link below will open a scheduling dialog with the meeting subject “Afternoon tea” and “Created from an email signature” as the content. Adele Vance, Allan Deyoung and Megan Bowen are selected as the attendants of the meeting. The Scheduling assistant lets you choose a good time for the meeting.
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meeting/new?subject=Afternoon tea&content=Created from an email signature&attendees=adelev@example.com,alland@example.com,meganb@example.com

Limitations
Let’s begin this ‘less pleasant’ section on a positive note. With the introduction of the new Microsoft Teams, deep links tend to work much more reliably. What I mean is that all the carefully prepared attributes (such as attendants, title, details) are no longer lost after clicking a link. The experience is also smoother, giving you plenty of options such as open or install the desktop app, or use the web one instead. On mobile, on the other hand, you’ve got no choice – the mobile Teams app has to be installed to handle deep links.
Now, on to specific issues… When it comes to the scheduling dialog, the startTime and endTime attributes look like they might come in handy, but rather not for static links in email signatures. Here is why:
First, according to a Microsoft article on deep links, you need to enter the date in the “long ISO 8601 format”. Add to it that URLs do not support all special signs, and the right formatting becomes a very troublesome task.
Secondly, think about using a specific date and time in such a link. In most cases, you would need to update the link on a regular basis. And what if the time you specify is already taken? It is much more reasonable not to use those optional attributes and let your co-workers use the Scheduling assistant to pick the right time.
Still, despite those problems, deep links in email signatures might come in handy. Fortunately, there is a way to make them appear in email signatures automatically, without any action on the user’s end.
Add personalized links to everyone’s signatures
Now, if you want every user in your organization to use those links, you will encounter some obstacles:
- Creating deep links with the right attributes for each user.
- Distributing those links to Outlook, OWA, and whatever other email client your users might be having, or guiding users to do so.
- Making sure those links will be sent only inside the organization, since they do not work for external recipients.
Bring all those things together and it turns out that adding those links into users’ signatures is an extremely time-consuming or even nearly impossible task. Fortunately, you can avoid all these hurdles by using CodeTwo Email Signatures 365.
CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 is an email signature management tool which ensures all your email communication is signed with professional email signatures. Here is how to use it to automatically deploy email signatures with personalized deep links:
- Create a new email signature rule, only for internal emails. Here’s the generic guide that might come handy.
- Pick one of the designs from the signature template library. Since it is an internal email signature, it is a good idea to create a short and simple template.
- Now, in the email signature editor, place the cursor where you would like your deep link to be and click the Meeting link button on the ribbon.

- In the Insert meeting link window, choose Custom as the link type (1). Using the Add image and Add label buttons (2), you can decide which element will be clickable – it can be either a text, a picture or both. Next, click the edit (pencil) button (3) next to the URL field to specify your link.

- In the window that opens, paste the deep link in its general form and substitute <user UPN/email> with the {E-mail} placeholder and specify the <message content>. You can personalize the message content with standard user placeholders, like {First name}, or personalize the whole message using custom attributes (learn more). You can also apply those changes to other links (for example, a scheduling link) as well. When you are done, click OK in both windows and apply the changes made to your signature template.

When you save the rule, every employee associated with this rule will have a deep link (that starts a chat, an audio or video call, or schedules a meeting with this person) in their email signature.
It took me 5 minutes to add this rule. 5 minutes and all employees have unified email signatures with their contact details, photos and personalized deep links to a Teams chat and a meeting dialog:

That is only a slight fraction of what the software can do. Learn more about its features
Useful links: