Teams on Windows and Mac
Strikethrough in Teams ~~like this~~
Wrap the words in two tildes on each side and Teams strikes them when you send. Or select the text and use the strikethrough button in the formatting toolbar.
Updated · strikethroughtext.online
Type it with tildes
Teams reads Markdown in chats and channel posts:
- Type two tildes, your words, and two more tildes:
~~old time~~. - Keep the tildes touching the words, with no spaces inside.
- Send. Teams replaces the tildes with a line through the words.
This is the quickest way, and it keeps your hands on the keyboard. It’s the same syntax as Discord, Reddit and GitHub. Slack and WhatsApp use one tilde instead, which is easy to mix up if you use several apps.
Use the formatting toolbar
- Select the words in the message box.
- Open the formatting options. In new Teams, click the Format icon below the box; the toolbar expands.
- Click the strikethrough button. If the toolbar is cramped, look under ··· at the end of it.
The toolbar is the better choice for long messages and channel posts, where you can see the formatting before you send.
Fixing a sent message
Strikethrough is handy for corrections. Hover over your message, choose Edit, and wrap the wrong part in tildes, adding the right version after it:
Meeting at ~~3pm~~ 4pm
Everyone sees what changed without scrolling back through the thread. Teams marks the message as edited.
Status messages, names and meeting titles
Not everything in Teams is formatted text. Your status message, chat names and meeting titles are plain text, so neither tildes nor the toolbar work there. Paste a Unicode version from the tool on this page instead. It’s made of characters rather than formatting, so it shows as struck text for everyone.
Keep it short in places other people search, like chat names. Struck characters don’t match plain-text searches, so a struck name is harder to find.
When the line doesn’t appear
- Spaces inside the tildes.
~~ text ~~won’t render. Remove the inner spaces. - Code formatting. Inside backticks or a code block, tildes are always literal.
- Pasted text. Text pasted from a document keeps whatever formatting came with it. If strikethrough doesn’t stick, retype the tildes.
Accessibility in shared channels
Screen readers may not announce strikethrough, so a correction can sound like two conflicting statements. Pair the line with a word, for example “3pm moved to 4pm”, so the meaning doesn’t depend on seeing it.
Copy-paste version
For the places where Teams formatting won't follow your text, like file names, chat apps or a social bio.
- strikethrough
- short strike
- wavy strike
- slash
- long slash
- double slash
- strike + underline
- strike + overline
- underline
- double underline
- overline
- dotted
- wave
- x below
- redacted
Questions people ask
How do I strikethrough in Teams?
Type two tildes on each side of the words, like ~~this~~, and send. Or select the words in the message box, open the formatting options and click the strikethrough button. It may sit under the ··· menu if the window is narrow.
Is there a keyboard shortcut for strikethrough in Teams?
Microsoft doesn’t list a dedicated one, and different versions of Teams have behaved differently. The tildes are the reliable keyboard route: they work in every version that supports Markdown.
Why do my tildes show up instead of a line?
Either there’s a space just inside the tildes, or only one tilde on each side. Teams needs ~~text~~ with the tildes touching the words.
Can I use strikethrough in my Teams status message?
Status messages are plain text, so formatting won’t work. Paste a Unicode version from this page instead. It shows as struck text wherever your status appears.