How to change a User's name in MS Teams only, when in a Microsoft 365 business environment?

Question

I am admin for a business using Microsoft 365 environment. We have a couple of users where we'd like to change their Display Name for MS Teams only due to them having the same name, causes confusion in group chats.

I've found instructions on how to change the display name in MS Teams: https://helpdeskgeek.com/office-tips/how-to-change-your-name-in-microsoft-teams/, but seems to work only for individual MS Teams instances, and doesn't work for users in an organization environment. Or maybe that option has been removed. I've tried both classic Teams and new Teams, and the pencil/edit icon just isn't there next to user's name, as described in that article.

Other answers to this question here on learn, such as this one (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1282479/how-do-i-change-my-teams-display-name?source=docs) advise to change the user's Display Name in Admin Center > Users > Manage Contact Information, but that changes the Display Name throughout the organization, including Outlook, which we don't want.

We only want to change the users' names to a nickname in Teams only.

Answer 1

Hi @Anthony Guillen

Based on our research, there is no way to change user's nickname in Teams. you can send your feedback in Microsoft Teams, and then select Help at the bottom lower-left of Teams and then choose Suggest a feature or Give feedback to tell us what you think.

Meanwhile, to get this feature more quickly, we also recommend you give the feedback in Teams UserVoice and help us make improvements and build new products. Many features of our current products are designed and upgraded based on customers’ feedback. With requirements like this increase, the problem may well be released in the future. Thanks for your understanding and support!

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