# A chat is not an email

Teams and Outlook: what each is for, what is kept, who can find it later.

7 screens, about three minutes. Pictures, almost no words.

## They feel the same.

*Picture: Two boxes side by side, one labelled a chat and one labelled an email.*

You type, you send, it arrives.

## One is a corridor. One is a letter.

*Picture: Two panels. On the left two people close together with a short line. On the right two people with a document travelling between them.*

A corridor is for now. A letter is for the record.

## Both are kept.

*Picture: Three steps in a row: written, kept, and findable, with the last in green.*

Chat feels like talking. It is not.

## Somebody can go looking.

*Picture: A dashed frame labelled the record holding a green box labelled every message, with a magnifying box beside it labelled anyone who is allowed.*

A tribunal, an audit, a freedom of information request.

## Pick on how long it matters.

*Picture: Two boxes labelled needs an answer today and needs to be found in a year, the second in green.*

Not on which window is already open.

## Do today

Find the oldest message in your Teams chat and note the date.

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