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Teams SMS – Different name display between Calls history and SMS chat

Lupea, Catalin 40 Reputation points
2025-12-01T13:22:19.9766667+00:00

Teams SMS – Different name display between Calls history and SMS chat

This is a follow-up question to the ticket below, which has already been resolved and closed:

https://dori-uw-1.kuma-moon.com/en-us/answers/questions/5638405/teams-sms-chats-are-apps-message-extensions-and-gr

In that ticket, it was confirmed that:

  • Apps, bots and message extensions are not supported in native Teams SMS chats.
  • SMS conversations are not exposed as standard /chats resources in Microsoft Graph.
  • The SMS experience is intentionally limited to plain-text A2P messaging.

I now have a related clarification about how names are resolved for external phone numbers, which might affect what (if anything) we can do purely with Teams and/or Contacts configuration.

Scenario

For the same external phone number, we see different behaviour in two places in Teams.

  1. Calls → History / Recent calls view
  • The external party appears with a person’s name, for example: John Smith (External).
  • This suggests Teams is able to resolve the number to a name (for example via caller ID, Outlook contacts, Azure AD contacts, or another directory source).
  1. Chat → SMS conversation with that number
  • When we open the SMS chat with that same phone number, the header and the left-hand chat list only show the raw phone number, for example: +1 555-0100 (SMS).
  • The standard SMS banner is shown: "<number> is outside your org and is using SMS. Some Teams features aren’t available in this chat." We understand from the previous answer that no apps, extensions or Graph APIs are available in SMS chats and that we cannot customise or extend the SMS chat UI with code.

However, this behaviour makes us wonder whether the built-in Teams name resolution that is clearly used in the Calls history could also be applied to SMS chats.

Questions

  1. Where does the display name in the Calls → History view come from for an external number?
    • Is it caller ID / CNAM from the carrier,
    • a personal or organisation contact (Exchange / Outlook / AAD),
    • or something else?
  2. For a given external phone number that is already resolved to a name in Calls history, is it expected by design that the SMS chat header and chat list still show only the phone number, with no name?
    • Or should SMS chats also benefit from the same contact/name resolution in some scenarios?
  3. Is there any supported way (purely via Teams / Exchange / Contacts configuration, not via custom apps or Graph) to make the SMS chat list and header display a contact name instead of just the number, when a matching contact exists and Teams already shows that name in the Calls view?

We fully accept that we cannot extend SMS chats with custom apps or code; this question is only about understanding:

  • whether the behaviour we are seeing is expected by design, and
  • whether there is any supported configuration path that would allow users to see a contact name in SMS chats when Teams already shows that name in the Calls / Recent history.
Microsoft Teams | Development
Microsoft Teams | Development
Building, integrating, or customizing apps and workflows within Microsoft Teams using developer tools and APIs
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  1. Kudos-Ng 10,550 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-12-01T15:03:54.2866667+00:00

    Hi Lupea, Catalin,

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

    After reviewing Microsoft documentation and community discussions, I’ve summarized the key points to address your questions:

    1) Where does the display name in the Calls → History view come from for an external number?

    According to https://dori-uw-1.kuma-moon.com/en-us/microsoftteams/caller-id-policies#inbound-caller-id-behavior, the display name (caller ID) is resolved in the following image:

    User's image

    2) For a given external phone number that is already resolved to a name in Calls history, is it expected by design that the SMS chat header and chat list still show only the phone number?

    Current Microsoft documentation and community posts indicate that SMS in Teams is a limited A2P (Application-to-Person) experience. It does not share the same name-resolution logic as PSTN calling. Microsoft has not published detailed technical design for SMS, but based on available information and user reports, the behavior you are seeing—SMS chats showing only the phone number—is consistent and cannot be changed through configuration. While we cannot confirm this as an explicit “by design” statement from Microsoft, all evidence suggests this is the current expected behavior.

    3) Is there any supported way (purely via Teams / Exchange / Contacts configuration, not via custom apps or Graph) to make the SMS chat list and header display a contact name instead of just the number?

    Unfortunately, no supported configuration exists today to achieve this as Q&A Assist has clarify previously. Therefore, even if the number resolves to a name in Calls history, SMS will still display the raw number.

    I hope this information helps clarify the current capabilities and limitations.

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

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  1. Q&A Assist
    2025-12-01T13:22:33.72+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more
    1. The display name in the Calls → History view for an external number typically comes from a combination of sources. It could be derived from caller ID (CNAM) provided by the carrier, or it may be sourced from personal or organizational contacts stored in Exchange, Outlook, or Azure Active Directory (AAD).
    2. Yes, it is expected by design that the SMS chat header and chat list show only the phone number without a name, even if the name is resolved in the Calls history. The SMS experience in Teams is intentionally limited to plain-text A2P messaging, and it does not utilize the same name resolution mechanisms as the Calls feature.
    3. Currently, there is no supported way to configure Teams, Exchange, or Contacts to display a contact name in SMS chats when a matching contact exists. The behavior you are observing, where SMS chats only show the phone number, is consistent with the design limitations of SMS messaging in Teams.

    In summary, the difference in name resolution between Calls and SMS chats is expected, and there are no available configurations to change this behavior.

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  2. Lupea, Catalin 40 Reputation points
    2025-12-01T15:37:54.87+00:00

    Thanks for the clear explanations , i have no further questions on this matter. this can be closed.

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