How can I disable certain message components (like emojis and Loop components) in my Teams bot, while still allowing attachments?

Question

I have a Teams bot that’s published using an app manifest. I want to restrict what users can send to the bot—for example, disable emojis, reactions, or Loop components—but still allow file attachments. Is there any way to configure this behavior through the manifest ?

Answer 1

Hi @Praveen Volety 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

The Teams app manifest cannot control or disable message features such as emojis, reactions, GIFs, or Loop components. It also cannot restrict which components users can send to a bot. The manifest only declares app capabilities, not the user's messaging experience. 

To enforce such restrictions, the bot must inspect incoming messages using the Bot Framework activity payload. You can examine activity.text and activity.attachments to block or reject messages that contain unsupported content. 

Teams delivers reaction add or remove events as messageReaction activities. Your bot can ignore them or reply explaining it doesn't support reactions, but the user interface for adding reactions cannot be disabled.  

Loop components are delivered as file attachments that reference a Fluid-based file in OneDrive or SharePoint. These messages may or may not contain text. If you need to prevent users from sending Loop components, your bot should check the attachment content types rather than rely solely on filtering message text. 

The manifest setting "supportsFiles": true continues to allow standard file attachments to your bot, which you can process normally through activity.attachments. 

I hope this information is helpful. 

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".    

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

Hi @Praveen Volety ,
Unfortunately, the Teams app manifest does not provide any settings to restrict message content types (such as disabling emojis, reactions, or Loop components) for bot interactions. The manifest primarily defines capabilities (tabs, bots, messaging extensions), permissions, and UI elements—not granular message composition rules.

---

Thank you for your suggestion! To better achieve your requirements, we recommend submitting this feature request through the Teams Feedback Portal. This is the best way to ensure your idea is considered for future updates. 

We appreciate your input and encourage you to share any additional thoughts!