How can I display line breaks/blank lines in a Teams message sent via n8n as an approval-request?

I’m using n8n as an automation tool to send approval requests to Microsoft Teams (using the standard “Send and Wait for Response” node).

I want to send messages that include clear line breaks (blank lines) between sections of text for readability.

I’ve tried:

  • \n, \n\n, regular newlines
  • markdown (double spaces at the end of the line, or \\n\\n)
  • HTML tags like <br> and <p>

But the message always appears in Teams as one solid block of text—line breaks and blank lines are ignored.

Question:
How can I ensure that approval-request messages sent from n8n to Teams show real line breaks/blank lines between sections?

Are there specific settings, message types, or alternate methods (such as Adaptive Cards) I should use?
Or does Teams simply strip all plain text formatting in approval requests by default?

Any tips or solutions are welcome, as long responses are very hard to read now!

Hi @Franklin_Rodriques

This is a very common and frustrating issue when working with Teams messages, especially in the context of approval requests. The “Send and Wait for Response” node, which creates an Adaptive Card behind the scenes, can be very particular about how it handles formatting.

Our suggestion will be to use Adaptive Cards Directly

The most reliable and powerful way to get the rich formatting you need is to bypass the standard “Send and Wait for Response” node and construct your own Adaptive Card JSON. This approach gives you complete control over the layout and formatting of your approval request, ensuring that line breaks, bullet points, and other formatting will be rendered correctly in Microsoft Teams.

Based on the n8n documentation and common user practices, the functionality is achieved by selecting a specific operation and then providing the JSON for the card. The “Send and Wait for Response” node is one option, but it has limitations for formatting. To get full control, you typically need to use the Create operation with the appropriate resource.

Hope this helps

@bridgewaretech

I am having the same Issue
I have tested the Adaptive card designer and I put the json payload into the Message field but the text is all looking like the pay load on teams not right

can you kindly elaborate on the create operation?

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