Summary

Invite external participants, or guests, to a Teams meeting that are not part of your organization (in this case, UT Dallas). Without a login, and without having to download the Teams application, guests can participate in a meeting with the following abilities:

Can

  • Video Chat
  • Voice Chat
  • Access the meeting chat
  • Post, delete, and edit own messages in the chat
  • Share screen
  • See participants of meeting

Can't

  • Invite participants
  • Record meeting
  • Share files


Invite a Guest

Invite a guest the same way you would invite someone from your organization.

  1. In the Teams app, under the Calendar section, create a “New Meeting”.
  2. Enter a participant’s email address in the box “Add required attendees.
    1. Although participants can use a phone to dial-in into a meeting, note that you can’t invite anyone using a phone-number; an email is required.
  3. Fill in any relevant meeting details and click “Send” to send the invite.
  4. If you need to edit the meeting to update add/remove participants, change the time, or adjust meeting details, the “Send” button will appear as “Send Update”. After clicking “Send Update”, a guest will be notified of the change via email. Guests will have to re-accept the invite if the time is changed.
  5. Note that invites can also be sent via Outlook if the Teams integration is enabled.



Accepting an Invitation as a Guest

  • Guests will receive an invitation email with an attached .ics file, allowing them to add the invite to their calendar.
  • If the email platform allows it, like Gmail for example, guests can accept the invitation with the status “Yes, Maybe, or No” and the meeting will be added to their calendar automatically. The meeting organizer will receive an Outlook confirmation of a guest’s acceptance status.
  • The email invite includes a link to join the Teams meeting and a number to call as an alternative to join the meeting.
    • Applicable to both guests and users a part of the organization, dialing-in into a meeting requires entering the included unique meeting PIN. To learn more about how to dial-in into a meeting, click here.


Joining a Meeting as a Guest

  • Guests can join a meeting via a Teams link or by dialing-in using a unique meeting PIN.
  • Applicable to both guests and users a part of the organization, a meeting can be joined 5 minutes early. It is possible to join a meeting at anytime during its duration. For example, if a guest accidentally disconnects from the meeting, they are able to rejoin. 
  • When joining via a Teams link, guests will have the option to download the Teams app or join via a web browser. The quickest way for a guest to participate is using the web browser.

Web Browser

  • Upon clicking the web browser option, guests will be re-directed to the meeting and asked to enter their name. 
  • Once they've entered their name, they have to option to enter the meeting with audio on/off and video on/off before clicking the "Join" button. 
  • In general, guests can join a meeting before the organizer officially joins. There may be instances, depending on how the invitation was setup, where a guest waits in a "lobby" and an organizer must approve their entry. 
  • As guests, there is no significant difference between using the browser or the app version, with the exception of potentially improved connectivity on the app. 

App

  • Upon clicking the option to download the app, the app will download, and launch directly into the meeting. Note that the process described begins when a guest clicks the Teams meeting link provided in the email invite.
  • Before officially joining, guests will enter their name, choose if they want enter the meeting with audio on/off and video on/off  and then must click the "Join" button. 
  • In general, guests can join a meeting before the organizer officially joins. There may be instances, depending on how the invitation was setup, where a guest waits in a "lobby" and an organizer must approve their entry.
  • If a guest wants to use the full features of the free version of Teams, they will have to create a Microsoft account.
  • When guests launch the Teams app outside of a meeting invitation, Microsoft will immediately prompt guests to create an account.


Additional Information

  • Missed calls to a guest to not go to voicemail
  • As a side note for clarity, adding an external participant to a meeting is not the same as granting external participants access to an organization's Team. For more information on granting users access to a Team, read here.
  • Note that the free version of Microsoft Teams is available only to those without a paid commercial Office 365 subscription. Office 365 subscribers who try to sign up for Teams are redirected to a managed account for their existing plan.