Microsoft Teams FAQ

1. Within a Channel or Chat: If you share a file in a specific channel or in a chat, members of that channel or participants in the chat will have access to the file. They can view, and depending on permissions, edit or download it.
2. Within the 'OneDrive' tab in Teams: On the left sidebar, you can open OneDrive (called Files in some versions of Teams) and securely store files where nobody else can see them. This space is your personal, private storage and cannot be viewed unless you share content with others.

Learn all about file sharing in Microsoft Teams (video)

Teams App

A straightforward method of scheduling a Teams meeting is from the Calendar tab within the Microsoft Teams app. Learn how to schedule a meeting in the Teams app.

Scheduling from Outlook

When scheduling a calendar item normally, simply check the 'Teams Meeting' switch in the location field of your invite. Learn more about scheduling a Teams meeting from Outlook.

Microsoft Teams meetings have a time limit of 30 hours.

Learn more about the limits and sepecifications for Microsoft Teams meetings.

You may have up to 1,000 people in the same meeting. Up to 1,000 invitees can join your Teams meeting and interact by using chat, audio, and video. Invitees can also join a meeting that already has 1,000 participants (up to 10,000) as view-only attendees.

Learn more about the best practices for a large meeting in Microsoft Teams

Yes. In Microsoft Teams, Hosts and Co-hosts are referred to as Organizers and Co-organizers. Overall, Teams has four separate roles in meetings: Organizer, Co-organizer, Presenter, and Attendee. 

• Organizers: This role creates the meeting and has full control to set up the meeting, manage settings, and invite participants.
  • To assign this role, simply create or schedule a new meeting in Teams.
• Co-organizers: Assigned by the organizer, they assist in managing the meeting and have many of the same options as organizers..
  • An organizer can designate co-organizers by including them in the meeting invite, then selecting them in the meeting options before or during a meeting.

Two additional roles are present in MS Teams meetings, mainly large meetings like webinars or formal presentations

• Presenters: Chosen to speak or present, they can share their screen and manage their own audio/video.
  • The organizer assigns presenters by selecting them in the meeting options prior to the meeting.
• Attendees: Regular participants with limited control, primarily there to listen and watch.
  • This is the default role for meeting participants if the meeting has been configured to restrict sharing and participation.

Learn more about roles in Microsoft Teams, including assignment and specific options available to each role.

Yes, Teams does use meeting IDs and links for every meeting, similar to Zoom. Every scheduled or spontaneous meeting in Teams is assigned a unique meeting ID, link, and passcode. You can find and share this information from within the meeting interface or beforehand, allowing others to join spontaneously or at a scheduled time.

However, unlike Zoom, every Microsoft Teams meeting has a passcode. When joining a meeting in Teams solely with the meeting ID, you must also enter the passcode to the meeting. Joining with the link will not require passcode entry.

Yes, you can still join a Microsoft Teams meeting via a phone call. By default, Teams meetings provide a dial-in number that allows you to join the meeting audio by phone. This is particularly useful if you don't have access to the Teams app or a stable internet connection. Keep in mind that the availability of this feature may depend on the meeting organizer's meeting settings.

Yes. In Microsoft Teams, the Waiting Room is referred to as the 'Lobby'. The meeting lobby keeps participants from joining a meeting until they're admitted by an organizer, co-organizer, or presenter. When people are in the lobby, organizers, co-organizers, and presenters are notified and can choose when to admit them to the meeting.

Learn about using the lobby feature in Microsoft Teams meetings.

Yes. There is an option to 'Allow Attendance Report' that's optional for each meeting. The attendance report can be downloaded after the meeting, or viewed from within the persistent meeting chat in Teams. If you're scheduling a class, the 'Class' and 'Lecture' meeting templates have this option turned on automatically.

• Learn how to manage meeting attendance reports in Microsoft Teams.
• What does an attendance report look like? View an example attendance report in Microsoft Teams (excel file)

Yes. However, you can't create breakout rooms if there are more than 300 people in a meeting. Only meeting organizers on the desktop versions of Teams (Windows and macOS) can create and manage breakout rooms. Organizers or presenters must first join the meeting to create or manage breakout rooms.

Learn how to use breakout rooms for Microsoft Teams meetings.

Yes. As an organizer, you can choose to have a moderated or un-moderated Q&A. In Q&A settings, you can enable replies, anonymous posts, and more. Responses to questions are threaded in a conversation with the original question and as an organizer, you can assign the role of co-organizer to someone in the meeting, and they can also help screen questions as moderators.

• Learn how to enable and use the Q&A feature in your Teams meeting or webinar.
  • Learn how to use Q&A in Microsoft Teams (video)

Yes, you can assign and use an interpreter in a Microsoft Teams meeting. Language interpretation can be added to any scheduled meeting. After you organize a meeting**, you can enable language interpretation to it and invite interpreters to join.

Learn how to use language interpretation in Microsoft Teams meetings.

**If the interpreter is an external guest, they will need to be added from within the meeting after it starts. You cannot add external interpreters prior to the meeting start.

How do recordings work in Teams?

In Microsoft Teams, any participant with permission can record a meeting. Depending on the type of meeting, recordings are immediately uploaded to the organizer's OneDrive or the Team's SharePoint site. This automated process saves time for meeting organizers, and all meeting recordings benefit from the wonderful features of Microsoft Stream. Following the meeting, the recording link is shared in the meeting chat or channel conversation, though, access to the recording can be managed for privacy purposes.

Learn all about recording a meeting in Microsoft Teams.

Do meeting recordings expire?

By default, meeting recordings will delete themselves after 60 days.

Where do they go after deletion?

Recordings that are deleted automatically can be found within the respective location's recycle bin. If this meeting was within an organizer's personal OneDrive (a meeting they recorded) then it can be found in their recycle bin through OneDrive via Cardinal Apps. If the meeting was hosted in a channel, the recording can be found via the recycle bin on the Team's SharePoint site.

Can this expiration date be changed?

Yes! You may extend the date by 7, 30, 60, or a custom date range. Or, you may choose to remove the expiration date entirely. This has to be done manually, after the recording is completed. 

• Learn how to extend the expiration date of a Teams meeting recording.

Yes. Sharing content in meetings and calls is a great way to quickly collaborate and get participants to understand what they're looking at.

Learn how to share content in a Microsoft Teams meeting.

Yes. By default, Teams has a larger capacity limit than Zoom (300 vs 1,000) but teams also offers structured webinars similar to Zoom. In Teams, the webinar feature is available to everyone and not limited like in Zoom. In these sessions, participants have specific roles: experts or presenters share insights while an audience, referred to as attendees, listens. Attendees will have their audio and video permissions disabled, by default.

Learn how to get started with webinars in Microsoft Teams.

Yes. Non-UIW personnel are referred to as 'guests' in Teams. You do not need a Microsoft Teams account to join a Teams meeting. While external users can join and participate in a Teams meeting without an account, some features may be limited, such as the ability to view certain shared file content or the meeting chat history. If an external guest has received a meeting invite, they can join the meeting in a few different ways:

1. Through a Web Browser:
   1. Click on the meeting link provided in the invitation.
   2. The link will open in a web browser, giving the guest an option to join via the web or desktop app.
   3. Guests will have the option to join anonymously without signing in, or they can sign in with a Microsoft account.
2. Using the Teams App:
   1. Although guests don't need a Teams account, they might be prompted to download the Teams desktop or mobile app, which can offer a more comprehensive experience.
3. Dial-in:
   1. If the meeting invite includes a dial-in phone number, guests can join the meeting by calling that number and entering the conference ID provided in the invite.
   2. Joining by phone is useful if someone is unable to access the internet or prefer to use a telephone.

For guests joining a meeting, the meeting organizer may have set up lobby entry settings. If so, guests might need to wait to be admitted by someone already in the meeting. This is a security measure to control who can join the meeting.

Learn more about joining a Teams meeting as an external guest or without a Teams account through the links below.

• Join a meeting without an account in Teams.
• Meet with external partners with Microsoft Teams (video)