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Microsoft 365 Insider Blog
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Mute and unmute yourself from Windows taskbar in Microsoft Teams

Linda_C's avatar
Linda_C
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Aug 25, 2024

(Originally published on June 5, 2024 by Teams Public Preview team)

 

Hi, Microsoft 365 Insiders! We’re excited to share with you that you can now mute and unmute yourself in Microsoft Teams by clicking the microphone icon in the Windows taskbar, making it even easier to control your input.

 

Mute and unmute yourself from Windows taskbar in Microsoft Teams

 

We know there are times during a Teams call when you need to switch to a different screen on your device. In the new Teams experience on Windows, thanks to your feedback, you can now check and see if you’re on mute right in the Windows taskbar. You can also easily mute and unmute yourself by clicking the mic icon.

 

How it works

You can mute and unmute your microphone during a call or meeting in Teams from the Windows taskbar in one of two ways:

 

  1. Click the microphone icon on your taskbar.  NOTE: The microphone icon only appears when you’re in a Teams call or a meeting.

    Microphone in Teams

  2. You can also mute and unmute yourself by selecting Windows logo key+Alt+K.

 

Availability

To use this feature, you must be a member of the Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted release and use the new Teams client for Windows. Other meeting participants aren’t required to be members of the Teams Public Preview.

To enable your Teams client for the Public Preview, IT administrators must enable Show preview features in their update policy. Learn more.

 

For Targeted release, global admins can go to the Microsoft 365 admin center and give access to a select set of individuals or the entire organization. Learn more.

 

Features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as an Insider, have had the opportunity to try it.

 

Feedback

We want to hear from you! Select Settings and more > Help in the top right corner of the Teams app, and then select either Give feedback or Suggest a feature to share your thoughts about this feature.

 


Learn about the Microsoft 365 Insider program and sign up for the Microsoft 365 Insider newsletter to get the latest information about Insider features in your inbox once a month!

Updated Aug 25, 2024
Version 1.0
  • MichaelRhode's avatar
    MichaelRhode
    Copper Contributor

    While this feature was working, in the past 3 weeks, it has quit working.

    Tried uninstalls and repairs and the taskbar shows the mute/unmute activation, Teams refuses to work properly.

     

    Version

    You have Microsoft Teams version 24243.1309.3132.617.
    You've got the latest version. It was last checked on 9/23/2024.
    The client version is 49/24081700421.
    Early AccessthroughPublic Preview
  • eric_deviq's avatar
    eric_deviq
    Copper Contributor

    I am experiencing the same behavior as MichaelRhode. It was working but has since stopped.

    Version

    You have Microsoft Teams version 24243.1309.3132.617.
    You've got the latest version. It was last checked on 9/27/2024.
    The client version is 49/24081700421.

     

  • eric_deviq's avatar
    eric_deviq
    Copper Contributor

    As of today, my Windows 11-Teams taskbar mute is working (again) as expected:

    Version

    You have Microsoft Teams version 24277.3507.3205.5228.
    You've got the latest version. It was last checked on 10/28/2024.
    The client version is 49/24091221318.
  • dbx-aloiseau's avatar
    dbx-aloiseau
    Copper Contributor

    Linda_C - Can you address all the responses (including reddit threads, etc.) highlighting the fact that this feature has been broken *again* for the past several weeks?

    For the sake of transparency, could you tell us when you plan to resolve this issue -- once and for all?

     

    Needless to say, this appears crazy to me. Mute/Unmute is probably the most frequent operation people do while on call, and the Win+Alt+K shortcut is a core Windows 11 feature. What gives?