Chat with Teams will extend collaboration support by enabling Teams users to chat with team members outside their work network with a Teams personal account. Customers will be able to invite any Teams user to chat using an email address or phone number, and remain within the security and compliance policies of their organization. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 88381.
Teams users will be able to chat with team members who are outside their work network and have a Teams personal account. This is expanding on external access capabilities, enabling Teams users to invite for a 1:1 or group chat any other federated Teams users using an email address or phone number and remain within the security and compliance policies of their organization.
Key Points
- Will rollout on web, desktop and mobile.
- Timing: begin roll out in early December and expect to complete in mid-January (previously mid-December)
- Control: Admin control via PowerShell and Teams admin center
- Action: Review and assess for your organization.
How this will affect your organization
With this update Teams users in your organization will be able to start a 1:1 or a group chat with Teams users who are using their personal accounts and vice-versa. IT Admins will have the option to enable/disable this at a tenant and individual user level with two possible controls:
Control to enable or disable the entire functionality. If disabled neither users in your organization and users in their personal accounts will be able to chat with each other.
Control to define if Teams users with a personal account can start a chat or add users from your organization to a chat. If disabled, only users in your organization will be able to start a chat or add users with their personal accounts.
Note: Settings will rollout default on.
What you need to do to prepare
If you would like to opt-out from this functionality you would be able to do so via the Teams admin portal under the External Access section. Optionally you could use PowerShell commands to opt-out all users or individual users from this functionality.
Settings to update:
Tenant level: CsTenantFederationConfiguration
- AllowTeamsConsumer
- AllowTeamsConsumerInbound
User level: CsExternalAccessPolicy
- EnableTeamsConsumerAccess
- EnableTeamsConsumerInbound
Message ID: MC296208
Published: 03 November 2021
Updated: 04 January 2022
Effective: 17 January 2022
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Plan for Change
Alex Lim
Alex Lim is a certified IT Technical Support Architect with over 15 years of experience in designing, implementing, and troubleshooting complex IT systems and networks. He has worked for leading IT companies, such as Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco, providing technical support and solutions to clients across various industries and sectors. Alex has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the National University of Singapore and a master’s degree in information security from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also the author of several best-selling books on IT technical support, such as The IT Technical Support Handbook and Troubleshooting IT Systems and Networks. Alex lives in Bandar, Johore, Malaysia with his wife and two chilrdren. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Website | Twitter | Facebook
