NextPlane App Users Guide for Microsoft Teams Federation

Not everyone is on Microsoft Teams. Increasingly your colleagues, inside or outside your enterprise, can be on other collaboration platforms such as Cisco Webex or Slack. Others may be on legacy platforms such as Cisco Jabber.

The nextplane App lets you connect with colleagues that are on different platforms. You can stay on your Teams and be able to:

• Invite and add each other as contacts
• Send one-to-one chat messages with rich text, GIFs, and emoji reactions
• Share presence status*
• View each other's profiles
• Find non-Teams chats
• Join and participate in Slack channels
• Pin, mute, or hide chats with your non-Teams contacts
• Mark chats with your non-Teams contacts as unread
• Block your non-Teams conversations

*Coming soon.

Go to Apps  and in the Search box , start typing nextplane. In the search results, select the nextplane App and click Add.

The nextplane App is added to More added apps  and appears in your Recent chats on the Chat  tab.

In the Search box  at the top of the app, start typing nextplane, and then select the nextplane App.
In the message box, enter your non-Teams contact's user ID, e.g., john.doe@gomaxine.com, and click Send  or press Enter.

The nextplane App will notify you when the non-Teams contact accepts your invitation to connect.
When you receive the notification, click Connect . In the message box, compose your first message and click Send  or press Enter. This starts the chat.

Important! You must send the first message to activate chat with your non-Teams colleague.

Go to Chat  > Recent and select the recently added non-Teams contact. In the message box, compose your message and click Send  or press Enter. This starts the chat.

If you lost your chat with a non-Teams contact, type your contact's name in the Search box  at the top of the app and press Enter. In the search results, on the Messages tab, you will see all the chats the contact is a part of. Select the contact's name to go to the necessary chat with them.

What commands can I use with the nextplane App?

With the nextplane App, you can use the following commands:

• invite – to invite non-Teams contacts
• help – to show help guidelines on how to use the nextplane App
• echo – to check the connectivity with the nextplane App

Where can I find the nextplane App?
You can find the nextplane App in your Teams Apps .

Do I need to invite non-Teams contacts if my colleagues have already added them to my team?
Yes. You need to invite the non-Teams contacts to establish unique communication channels with them.

Can non-Teams contacts invite me from their client applications?
Yes, if their companies belong to the NextPlane ConverseCloud Network. To invite you, they need to have your user ID.

What if the contacts I need to invite do not belong to the NextPlane ConverseCloud Network?
Please provide them with the NextPlane contact details to establish federation between your companies.

What if I haven't received the confirmation that the invited contact accepted my invitation?
It might take some time for the non-Slack contact to accept your invitation. Please wait until the nextplane App confirms that your invitation is accepted. If the confirmation won't come,  you can try to invite the contact once again.

Can my non-Teams contacts see my profile?
Yes. After you add non-Teams contacts to your Teams, your profile details can be viewed by them.

What does it mean if I receive the notification that the non-Teams contact is temporarily unavailable?
It means that chatting with the non-Teams contact you last communicated with is not available due to some technical issues on their side.

Can I @mention my non-Teams contacts?
NextPlane is currently working to provide the possibility to @mention your non-Teams contacts.

Can I remove non-Teams contacts from my team?
You can hide non-Teams chats from your chat list or block conversations with non-Teams contacts.