Use contacts from O365 in Teams

[Alex_SOV]

Hi There,

I have read some information on this already however I am quite confused and need some clarification to understand what is possible.

All our employees are in O365 with a dedicated Teams account. Everyone has in addition contacts in Outlook which (I thought) are part of the O365 Ecosystem. It's automatically synced with mobile clients for example. In Teams however it's different. Everyone sees the personal calendar and of course all members of the same organization are visible.

However, the address book and contacts where the phone numbers are stored are not visible. Obviously, this is handled in a different way.

The plan was, that everyone gets an additional Teams phone license and can directly call his/her contacts in teams. This seems not possible from what I tested so far.

My question is: Is there any possibility to also integrate these contacts and use it in Teams? I am not looking for a possibility to start a call from outlook but only from Teams to use this as the primary communication tool.

Thank you very much for help and support

S 

[#2]

Hi,

any ideas? Happy to get some ffedback on this.

Thanks S

[#3]

See this table for possibility to access Outlook contacts https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/exchange-teams-interact

With the disclaimer "(6) Only contacts in default contacts folder. Access to other contacts folders or sub-folders is not supported."

[#4]

HI Christian,

thanks - The contacts are in the default location. There is no subfolder so according to the table it should work.

However - see my screenshot. I see contacts in the “teams” desktop client but with no access to Phone Numbers. I have a phone license but cannot use it.

I wonder how to use the phone license if it is not possible to dial a phone number from address book or do i Misunderstand something?

[#5]

Not sure I understand. Do you want to use internet calls or are calling plans involved? Are you using Microsoft as provider? Calls to other Teams users are free, but if you want your users to be able to call phones outside of your business, get a Domestic Calling Plan or an International Calling Plan. Perhaps start with some reading? And look at some calling settings in TAC.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/calling-plans-for-office-365
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/here-s-what-you-get-with-phone-system

[#6]

HI Christian,

I am pretty new to all this and did not expect that degree of complexity in a cloud but OK will try my best to describe what I did.

My User is in Office365. It's all up and running including Teams. I can use the service and call other Teams users.

To enable (Phone) calling I bought the Phone System Licence for the users. My provider is not Microsoft but NFON in Germany. After setting up everything on both sides - it is now possible to dial. So far so good. Now....I want to use my adress book where all the phone numbers are stored. And here is the problem.....I cannot use the phone numbers in Teams as there is no possibility to use my (office365) contacts. Of course it is possible to add a contact in Teams but then I would have 2 phone books.

Hope this helps to understand my issue

Thanks a lot

S

[#7]

@Alex_SOV Yes, a really good description. I know the sync of Outlook contacts and Teams is a bit of an issue and that you need the above prerequisites in the link too (the table).

Let me add some "calling experts" to see how they have done in these kind of scenarios to populate the contacts in Teams @Steven Collier @LinusCansby 

[#8]

@ChristianJBergstrom 

Hi Christian,

a bit of a sucess today. Together with my phone provider we found a mistake in the config and now it is possible to initiate a call from Teams using the contacts.

(Just click on the number and the call is intiated)

However this is very elementary. See Screenshot attached. YOu only get one number (usually the mobile). All the other details are not presented. Moreover about 30% of the contatcs are missing.

In the mobile APP it looks a lot better. There you find all contacts which are presented as "Contacts form device"

This confirms what I fear. The contacts in O365 are not synced with the Teams contacts. The only thing you see on the devices are local data (e.g. from Outlook or Mobile device)

Can someone confirm?

Thanks S

 

[#9 · Accepted solution]

@Alex_SOV The contacts that you see in the Calls app in Teams should be the same as you have in your personal outlook mailbox.

If you have multiple numbers assigned to a contact you should be able to right-click on the number and select one of the other numbers to call from the drop-down list.

If you added the contact to Speed dial you should see all numbers when you click the the down arrow next to the phone icon.

[#10]

@LinusCansby 

Thank you very much for support and help.

You are absolutly right, the click on the mouse button did it and I can see all numbers assigned to it.

The contacts that you see in the Calls app in Teams should be the same as you have in your personal outlook mailbox.

---

Ok just to confirm: That means it is a local sync between outlook and Teams on this specific device - right? I wonder why this is not synced between the O365 contacts (of the user) like it is done with the calendar?

I am asking this because I also have a Teams Phone here (it's a certified Teams device from Crestron). The Teams phone of course does not have a local Outlook installed to sync with. So there's no chance to also use the contacts here. I assume that's the case with all Teams Phones/devices which are not on Windows.

Thanks S

[#11]

Hi,

It is synced from Outlook to Teams, not depending on your client. You can open Teams web app too, https://teams.microsoft.com, and see the same contacts.

That you can't see contacts on your Deskphone is lack in the Teams deskphone software. There are a couple of uservoice requests about this.
https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/38200054-access-to-personal-ou...

[#12]

@LinusCansby 

Ok thank you very much - after reading the USer Voice I now understand.

However (and I can just confirm the USer Voice) - this is  totally useless. Of course I want to have my personal contacts on my personal phone. Not the contacts from GAL (at least not as the only option) or any contact I have to manually add in Teams.

I will return the device and try in a few month again - but I fear this is not really focus of Microsoft as the USer voice already exists since 2019 and nothing changed for about 2 years.

Thanks S

[#13]

@LinusCansby 

Hi,

i just found this in the manual of another Teams Phone (AudioCodec C448HD)

If a user creates a contact within Microsoft Outlook, their information appears under the
People app on the phone screen. Contacts in Microsoft Outlook are available in read-
only mode. While only phone numbers currently appear, users can search on the phone
for contacts and easily call the people they may email or meet with, using Outlook

You can read this here:

https://www.audiocodes.com/media/15946/c448hd-c450hd-ip-phone-for-microsoft-teams-users-and-administ...

So I wonder if it's really Microsoft that did not implement the contacts or if the vendor of the Phone did not integrate all features.

Any idea? Did someone thest this phone?

Another qestion that came up:

It is synced from Outlook to Teams, not depending on your client. You can open Teams web app too, https://teams.microsoft.com, and see the same contacts.

I am not sure but I do not find any contacts in the web app.

Thanks S

[#14]

@Alex_SOV What was the mistake in the config?  Which config?