Disable Lobby in a Teams Meeting

[Deleted]

Is there a way to turn off the "lobby" feature when creating a meeting in Teams? I don't want to have to "admit" each person as they join the meeting.

[#2]

In the Teams Admin center, under Meetings > Meeting Policies. In the policy at the bottom is option for Participants & Guests, "Automatically admin users", try changing that to Everyone I believe will auto admit anon users to meetings.

[#3]

If that doesn’t work I know I’ve heard this feature is coming soon

Adam

[#4]

Hi Chris,

I had already done this thinking it would do the trick as well, but alas, it did not.

[#5]

Yes, it does not appear to be working.  Need to get this fixed soon.  Not sure why Microsoft is pushing teams so hard when there is still much to fix and get ready.

[#6]

I have asked for similar settings as we have for Skype for Business, where end users can override the default policy for lobby settings, please vote for it: https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/36427201-have-end-users-change...

[#7]

This really needs to be fixed. 

[#8]

Hey Microsoft, any idea when the "automatically admit users" will work like Skype? When someone is stuck in the lobby because they dialed in before someone started the meeting with a computer everyone is automatically added with Skype. In Teams everyone stays stuck in the lobby even though this setting says to admit "Everyone" automatically.

[#9]

Just tested mine which has had everyone set, and I can get in no problem as an anonymous user. I didn't use the default org wide policy thou, I set a custom one and applied to my user starting the meeting. That could be the difference, but I can verify that it is working at least in my instance.

[#10]

Are you dialing in to the meeting over a phone or connecting with the app? When I dial in with a phone I am stuck in the lobby until someone uses the app (mobile, desktop or web) to start the meeting. In Skype when that happens I am then automatically added to the meeting. In Teams I am still in the lobby until the person admits me. If I dial in after the meeting has been started by someone using the app I am still waiting in the lobby until I am admitted. At no time am I automatically added to the meeting without getting stuck in the lobby. My tenant is not on first release, it is on standard release.

[#11]

Ahh, dial in I missed that part. Let me see, but that's probably why, sorry bout that :P.

[#12]

No problem! Thanks for testing it.

[#13]

Just to make sure I understand correctly, the policy to allow anonymous join either has to be applied tenant-wide or at the user-level? That's a bummer, this is something that our users would like to allow for some of the meetings they setup but would prefer to disable for some specific meetings that are a little more sensitive.

[#14]

I got the news that this is being worked upon by Microsoft:

Thanks all for voting on this!

@Deleted 

[#15]

Thank you. Just to post an update for my comments, the issue that I was referencing was that the setting in the global meeting policy did not appear to be working. We disabled the lobby, understanding it was disabling it globally with no opportunity to override at the individual meeting level, but it was still forcing people to wait in the lobby. We discovered that for some reason a good share of our Teams users were not set to use the global policy but instead were set to an older policy that had the lobby enabled. Once we set all of our users to the global policy it appears to be honoring the setting. Will be glad to see the setting allowed for individual meetings but wanted to clear up my comments about it not working globally.

[#16]

@Joost Koopmans 

Thanks Joost!  This is actually preventing me from scheduling 70+ MSFT interviews in the next three weeks, since I'm currently working off my vendor domain until late summer.  Without this ability, the candidate and MSFT interviewer are both considered external users (as they should be), and are shunted into the lobby.  With the number of overlapping interviews, I cannot realistically admit everyone from the lobby.  We're currently looking at other options, but it's definitely more of a "work-around" than a process update at this point. 

[#17]

Currently your only option if you don't want external users to wait in the lobby is to turn it off as @Chris Webb wrote earlier in this thread. Change the Automatically admit people to "Everyone".

[#18]

@Linus Cansby 

Acknowledged, and thanks for the response.  Unfortunately, I am not one of the O365 admins, and isn't that a "global setting?"  Since my vendor supports multiple employers (not just MSFT), having them change it for all their Teams meetings is not realistic.  I'm in the process of submitting a request for a custom user policy, but that may fall outside the scope of our contract agreement.  As a security fan, I'm not big on "one-off" solutions like that either, since they tend to snowball into an avalanche of problems down the road.

[#19]

It is a Policy so you could have different policies for different users, so you don't have to change it for all users.

[#20]

@Linus CansbyCorrect - however, if my company decides that creating said policy falls outside the scope of our contract agreement, it may not get done (unless Microsoft agrees to amend their contract to include it.... for an additional fee, of course). 

It's all the loopholes and stuff that techy folks like us tend to avoid like the plague - and why there's so many lawyers! 

[#21]

Hi Chris

You tried custom policy for “admit automatically for everyone”?
You tested dial in or through web browser from guest user

Thank you:)

[#22]

Last I checked it doesn’t work for dial in. Only joining meeting via web/client as anonymous user.

[#23]

Thank you Chris
I create a custom policy and assigned to my account ,it’s working for web/client join on my test tenant
But when I tired on my production tenant.seems the policy not applied to my account.
Then i check with Microsoft.they told me it will take 24 hours to affect the policy.
How long you take for the policy?

[#24]

@Chris Webb @Linus Cansby 

Good morning all,

     I wanted to drop in and provide an update on the scenario I outlined above.  I managed to track down the O365/Teams admin for my vendor company last week.  He's not a technical manager, and was assigned the role as an additional duty.  Below is the quick walkthrough I created for him; when he initially applied it, our team did a quick test that did not succeed (within about 12 hours of policy creation).  We were not able to continue testing for a couple days due to multiple ongoing events, so the next chance was with two previously scheduled meetings on Monday.  Those meetings (both with >10 participants) included attendees with @microsoft.com accounts, @outlook.com accounts, and our O365 domain.  Worked like a charm, everyone was auto-admitted without issue, including several attendees that had the invite forwarded to them.  I would not recommend these steps to teams/orgs that need to keep a tight handle on privacy / attendee limits, as that would probably be better addressed by a federated solution.

Walkthrough:

• Meeting policy:  Create a custom policy through the https://admin.teams.microsoft.com portal, and apply it to personnel working at Microsoft with an @XXXXX.com account. 
• On the left side of the Admin portal, select “Meetings” ->  “Meeting Policies.”  Select “New policy”, and give it a name like “Admit Everyone.” 
• I’d copy all the existing policy settings, and change only:
• Enable “Allow people that dial in to start a meeting”
• Change “Automatically admit people” to “Everyone”  (NOT “Everyone in organization,” that would still route interviewers to the lobby.)
• Save the policy again, and apply it to the appropriate account(s).
• Feasibility / Likelihood:  High to medium, as it involves only our end for approval(s).
• Source:  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/meeting-policies-in-teams

• Enabling “built-in” communication between @XXXXX.com and @microsoft.com would require a Teams administrator on both ends to allow each other’s domains through the https://admin.teams.microsoft.com portal.  I have no idea on where to begin finding out who that would be on Microsoft’s end.  Source:  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/let-your-teams-users-communicate-with-other-people
• This would eliminate the “Microsoft (Guest)” / Vendor Company account switching
• Feasibility / Likelihood – Low (would require finding out the Microsoft Teams admin, then coming to an agreement to allow cross-domain communication)

My feeling is that the policy takes a bit of time to replicate down to the user level.  Thanks again for all your help, and I'll go back to lurking / occasionally posting.

[#25]

@Joost Koopmans 

Is there a public site where we can get notified when this has been completed?

Thank you

[#26]

@Raul2019 I suppose this will be good to follow for updates: 

• https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/36427201-have-end-users-change...

[#27]

I really want to launch in to a tirade about what a joke this product is but I wont. It was my mistake assuming that it would be a good replacement for Zoom Meetings.  Whatever. 

I Created a meetings policy and then applied it to the users that needed it. I set the Automatically admit people to everyone and set the "let anonymous people start meeting" check box and that should have been it. Well now I can have the meeting setup and the first person who dials in can get in the meeting and thats it. It lets me in and then announces the meeting is closed.  The next person who dials in gets put in the lobby.  We have an office administrator who sets all the meetings for the office and she isnt usually in the meetings so this is a problem.  We would like to set up a meeting and have the room there  ready for anyone to dial in without having to have someone be on the Teams client to open the meeting . Anyone who has the meeting phone number and ID calls in and they are in the meeting with or without the organizer. Its not rocket science.  Its basic as basic can be.  Everytime I try to use anything Microsft Office 365 for anything serious it never fails to disappoint. 

[#28]

Hi @hartgreen1270 - so it sounds like you are trying to use the audio conferencing capability of Teams.  Did you make sure each user in the organization that will be setting up dial-in meetings has an Audio Conferencing license?  A quick search found this article:  Office 365 licensing for Microsoft Teams.

Hope that helps!

[#29]

@hartgreen1270 They just recently released Meeting Join Options for your meeting where you can set this per meet. It's buggy thou (ya ya I know....) cause it'll say you don't have permission if you have any sort of Personal Microsoft account signed in with your browser session so you have to open the link in-private browser and login to force the proper "Meeting organizer" login. Really wish MSA and 

Once you do that thou you can specify the join behavior. 

See if that works. 

[#30]

Cool, I see that now too, is there a way to set this as the default for all future meetings I own or do I have to change this on each meeting?

[#31]

You can set what the default should be it in a meeting policy as an administrator, but as an end user you can't select a default option for your meetings. And the end user can always change for each meeting if they don't like the default setting that the administrator set in the policy.

https://www.lync.se/2019/07/meeting-options-in-teams/

[#32]

@Linus Cansby OK, still good to know there is a default option that can be set at the admin level. I'm not an Admin, but maybe I can work with my company to change the default at least.

[#33]

@Linus Cansby  Hi, I don't find the option participants and guests under Meeting Policies - Meetings of teams Admin Center. 

Where i can find the option otherwise in Teams Admin Center?

[#34]

@Document Controller FACET I should be under Meeting policies.

1. Open Teams Admin Center
2. Open Meetings > Meeting Policies from the left menu
3. Click on one of the policies and scroll down to Participants & guests

https://www.lync.se/2019/07/meeting-options-in-teams/

[#35]

@Linus CansbyHow do I get to these settings? I can not find it in the admin center

[#36]

@ericwalker2022 

1. Open Teams Admin Center
   Open Meetings > Meeting Policies from the left menu
   Click on one of the policies and scroll down to Participants & guests

[#37]

Thank you I changed the settings but when I call in I still get stuck in a lobby. I have the automatic admit people to everyone. @José Pablo Vargas 

[#38]

@ericwalker2022 After you change the policy it can take a couple of hours until you see that change applied. But if you change per meeting with meeting options it should apply direct.

Set meeting options in Teams meetings

[#39]

@Linus Cansby  

the option below isn't there anymore:

1. Open Meetings > Meeting Policies from the left menu

I only see "conference bridges" under Meetings

Is that b/c you perhaps need admin privileges or did the UI change ? 

[#40]

Has this been addressed yet?  I am experiencing the same behavior with call in people not being allowed in automatically, even though global defaults are set to allow.

[#41]

Each organizer can click the meeting in teams And select “meeting options” (or something like that) and set options for lobby

[#42]

@adam deltinger Does that allow call ins to join automatically?

[#43]

Is this what you’re after:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams/Latest-changs-on-Teams-meeting-options/m-p/10...

Adam

[#44]

@jperrin If the meetings options are set to allow everyone to bypass the lobby dial-in users should be able to bypass the lobby if an authenticated user opened the meeting first. So the unauthenticated dial-in user can't be the first one joining the meeting.