Meeting Options and Features (Teams)

To access the full Teams Training for Business Use Manual, please visit Inside.Sierra

This article pertains to the Teams desktop application, not the mobile app.

Scheduled meetings

There are several different ways to get to Meeting options for a scheduled meeting:

  • In Teams, go to Calendar, select a meeting, and then Meeting options.
  • In a meeting invitation, select Meeting options.
  • During a meeting, select More actions at the top of the meeting window, and then Meeting options. A panel will open on the right, and you can change your options right from there.     
  • Another way to get there during a meeting is to select Show participants in the meeting controls. Then, above the list of participants, choose Manage permissions.

 

Instant meetings

Once you've started a meeting by selecting Meet now (whether from a channel or your calendar):

  1. Choose Show participants in your meeting controls. You'll see a list of everyone in the meeting.
  2. Above the list, select Manage permissions to go to Meeting options.

    Another way to get there during your meeting is to select More actions at the top of the meeting window, and then Meeting options. A panel will open on the right, and you can change your options right from there. 

 

Change participant settings

There are several different participant settings a meeting organizer can change. 

 

Choose who can bypass the lobby

As the meeting organizer, you get to decide who gets into your meetings directly, and who should wait for someone to let them in.

If you choose to have people wait, you (and anyone else allowed to admit people) will see a list of people in the lobby. From there you can choose whether to admit or deny them.

Who can bypass the lobby? 

What happens

Recommended when...

Only you

As the meeting organizer, only you can get into your meeting directly. Everyone else will wait in the lobby.

You want everyone else to wait in the lobby until you're ready to admit them.

People I invite*

Anyone who receives the invitation, including those to whom it's forwarded, will join the meeting directly. This doesn't include distribution lists—people must be invited individually. If you don't want people to forward the invite to others, turn off Allow Forwarding in the invitation.

You want a specific, limited group of people to join the meeting directly, and everyone else to wait in the lobby.

People in my organization

Only people within your org can get into your meeting directly. Everyone else will wait in the lobby.

You want all guests and external people to wait in the lobby so you can approve them one by one.

People in my organization and guests

People in your org and guests (including those who have different email domains than yours) can get into your meetings directly.

You want all external people (anyone outside your org, except guests) to wait in the lobby so you can approve them one by one.

People in my organization and trusted organizations, and guests

People in your Teams org, external participants from trusted organizations, and guests can get into your meetings directly.

You want some external people to wait in the lobby so you can approve them one by one.

Everyone

Anyone who has access to the meeting link gets into the meeting directly, including people who call in.

You don’t want anyone to wait in the lobby. You want everyone to be able to join your meetings without specific approval.

Unavailable in channel meetings 

 

Get notified when callers join or leave

You may want to receive an alert when someone calling in by phone joins or leaves your meeting. (Your admin might have enabled these alerts by default.)

To change this setting, select the toggle next to Announce when callers join or leave? 

 

Prevent attendees from unmuting themselves and sharing video

To avoid distractions in large meetings, you may want to decide when attendees can unmute and share their video.

  • To prevent attendees from unmuting, turn off the toggle next to Allow mic for attendees?
  • To prevent attendees from sharing video, turn off the toggle next to Allow camera for attendees?

 

Record automatically

If you turn on this option, recording will begin as soon as the meeting starts. 

 

Allow meeting chat

In general, people who are on the meeting invite can participate in a meeting chat before, during, and after the meeting.

  • If you select Disabled for this option, there will be no meeting chat at any time.
  • If you select In-meeting only, meeting chat will be unavailable before and after the meeting.

 

Allow reactions

You can choose whether or not people are able to use live reactions in a meeting. If you choose not to allow it, they will still be able to raise their hand.