Turning off the lobby

Copper Contributor

Hi,

 

Does anyone know if it is possible in Teams to automatically admit participants who have dialled by phone in without placing them in a lobby? The documentation suggests it is and I think I have setup my policies appropriately but that greyed out option (screenshot) makes me think maybe it doesn't work yet... It is annoying as if the creator of the meeting doesn't join via Teams and joins by phone themselves (so imagine a meeting room with a spider phone) they need to enter a PIN etc to confirm they are the meeting organiser.

 

Many thanks!

 

policy options.JPG

6 Replies

Hi,

 

That setting will allow PSTN callers to join the meeting automatic without waiting in the lobby if a leader has started the conference. If the anonymous PSTN caller is the first one into the meeting they have to wait in the lobby.

 

A organiser calling can enter their PIN to open the meeting when calling in, and that should bypass the lobby.

 

There are Teams certified "spiderphones" that you can use that will join the conference as a room account, then you will be inside the organisation and it will open the meeting.
https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/across-devices/devices/category?devicetype=16&page...

@Linus CansbyThanks for the quick response. Unfortunately that is not my experience at the moment, if I create a meeting and then join that meeting first from my laptop any pstn callers are still being placed in the lobby... Unfortunately as a not for profit buying new equipment is not something we want to hear (given that we have already equipped one room as a fully functional teams room with video etc and we'll have to outfit our boardroom again as the SRS system is not Teams compatible). Ultimately if we have to buy new spider-phones that is what we'll do but I can't believe this is the intended functionality as the documentation suggests otherwise (screenshot).

 

policy2.JPG

@lukem175 That setting "Let anonymous people start a meeting", I'm not sure if it is working. I read somewhere (can't find it now) that that feature is coming soon. But accoring to the documentation it is supposed to work.

 

When I dial into a meeting without a leader joined to the meeting, I'm placed in the lobby. But if I dial in after a leader started the meeting, I get direct into the meeting without a  lobby.

@Linus CansbyThanks again. I've logged a support call with MS on this one. I'll report back once they get back to me.

@Linus CansbyJust to update this. The issue ultimately turned out to be that a small subset of our users was not receiving the global policy for meetings and had the restricted anonymous access policy applied instead. It is unclear why this was the case though as the accounts don't appear to be similar in any way (so some old and some newer accounts etc). I should of course have checked this first! Thanks for taking the time to respond to my query :)

@lukem175

Hello,

 

We are having the same issue with the lobby and callers being admitted.

What steps did you take to ensure all users were receiving the Global policy?

I created a custom policy and assigned it but it did not resolve the issue.

Any assistance here is greatly appreciated.