Guest experience in Teams

When a guest is invited to join a team, they receive a welcome email message. This message includes some information about the team and what to expect now that they're a member. The guest must accept the invitation before they can access the team and its channels. They can do this in the Teams client or by selecting Open Microsoft Teams in the email message.

Note

After a guest is added to a team, it may take a few hours before they have access.

Screenshot showing an example of a welcome email message.

All team members see a message in the channel thread announcing that the team owner has added a guest and providing the guest's name. Everyone on the team can identify easily who is a guest. A tag in the upper-right corner of the channel thread indicates the number of guests on the team and a (Guest) label appears next to each guest's name.

Screenshot showing tag that indicates number of guests on the team.

Check out these videos about the guest experience in Teams:

Comparison of team member and guest capabilities

The following table compares the Teams functionality available for an organization's team members and its guests. Teams admins control the features available to guests.

Capability in Teams Teams user in the organization Guest
Create a channel
Team owners control this setting.
Participate in a private chat
Participate in a channel conversation
Post, delete, and edit messages
Share a channel file
Access SharePoint files
Attach files
Channel posts only
Download private chat files
Search within files
Share a chat file
Add apps (tabs, bots, or connectors)
Create meetings or access schedules
Access OneDrive for Business storage
Create tenant-wide and teams/channels guest access policies
Invite a user outside the Microsoft 365 or Office 365 organization's domain
Team owners control this setting.

Create a team
Discover and join a public team
View organization chart
Use inline translation
Become team owner

The following table shows the calling and meeting features available to guests, compared to other types of users.

Calling feature Guest E1 and E3 user E5 and Enterprise Voice user
VOIP calling Yes Yes Yes
Group calling Yes Yes Yes
Core call controls supported (hold, mute, video on/off, screen sharing) Yes Yes Yes
Transfer target Yes Yes Yes
Can transfer a call Yes Yes Yes
Can consultative transfer Yes Yes Yes
Can add other users to a call via VOIP Yes Yes Yes
Can add users by phone number to a call No No Yes
Forward target No Yes Yes
Call group target No Yes Yes
Unanswered target No Yes Yes
Can be the target of a federated call No Yes Yes
Can make a federated call No Yes Yes
Can immediately forward their calls No No Yes
Can simultaneously ring their calls No No Yes
Can route their unanswered calls No No Yes
Missed calls can go to voicemail No No1 Yes
Have a phone number that can receive calls No No Yes
Can dial phone numbers No No Yes
Can access call settings No No Yes
Can change voicemail greeting No No1 Yes
Can change ringtones No No Yes
Supports TTY No No Yes
Can have delegates No No Yes
Can be a delegate No No Yes

1 This feature will be available soon.

Note

The Guest user access restrictions policy in Microsoft Entra ID determines permissions for guests in your directory. There are three policy options.

  • The Guest users have the same access as members (most inclusive) setting means guests have the same access to directory data as regular users in your directory.
  • The Guest users have limited access to properties and membership of directory objects settings means that guests don't have permissions for certain directory tasks, such as enumerating users, groups, or other directory resources using Microsoft Graph.
  • The Guest user access is restricted to properties and memberships of their own directory objects (most restrictive) setting means guests can only access their own directory objects.

To learn more, see What are the default user permissions in Microsoft Entra ID?

Leave an organization as a guest

Use guest access and external access to collaborate with people outside your organization