Formatting bot messages
Important
This article is based on the v3 Bot Framework SDK. If you are looking for current documentation version 4.6 or later of the SDK, see the conversational bots section.
You can set the optional TextFormat
property to control how your message's text content is rendered.
Microsoft Teams supports the following formatting options:
TextFormat value | Description |
---|---|
plain | The text should be treated as raw text with no formatting applied at all. |
markdown | The text should be treated as Markdown formatting and rendered on the channel as appropriate; see Formatting text content for supported styles. |
xml | The text is simple XML markup; see Formatting text content for supported styles. |
Formatting text content
Teams supports a subset of Markdown and XML (HTML) formatting tags.
The following limitations apply:
- Text-only messages do not support table formatting.
For information on formatting in cards, see Teams Card Reference.
Cross-platform support
To ensure that your formatting works across all platforms supported by Teams, be aware that some styles aren't supported across all platforms.
Style | Text-only messages | Cards (XML only) |
---|---|---|
bold | ✔ | ✖ |
italic | ✔ | ✔ |
header (levels 1–3) | ✖ | ✔ |
strikethrough | ✖ | ✔ |
horizontal rule | ✖ | ✖ |
unordered list | ✖ | ✔ |
ordered list | ✖ | ✔ |
preformatted text | ✔ | ✔ |
blockquote | ✔ | ✔ |
hyperlink | ✔ | ✔ |
image link | ✔ | ✖ |
Support by individual platform
Support for text formatting varies by type of message and by platform.
Text-only messages
Style | Desktop | iOS | Android |
---|---|---|---|
bold | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
italic | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
header (levels 1–3) | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
strikethrough | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
horizontal rule | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
unordered list | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
ordered list | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
preformatted text | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
blockquote | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
hyperlink | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
image link | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Examples of text formatting
Style | Example | Markdown | XML (HTML) |
---|---|---|---|
bold | text | **text** |
<strong>text</strong> |
italic | text | *text* |
<em>text</em> |
header (levels 1–3) | Text | ### Text |
<h3>Text</h3> |
strikethrough | ~~text~~ |
<strike>text</strike> |
|
unordered list |
|
* text * text |
<ul><li>text</li><li>text</li></ul> |
ordered list |
|
1. text 2. text |
<ol><li>text</li><li>text</li></ol> |
preformatted text | text |
`text` |
<pre>text</pre> |
blockquote | text |
>text |
<blockquote>text</blockquote> |
hyperlink | Bing | [Bing](https://www.bing.com/) |
<a href="https://www.bing.com/">Bing</a> |
image link | ![Duck on a rock](http://aka.ms/Fo983c) |
<img src="https://aka.ms/Fo983c" alt="Duck on a rock"></img> |
Platform Docs