External User cannot be added to breakout session

Question

External User cannot be added to breakout session

HBN 70

Hello folks,

one of our clients raised an issue during a Teams meeting: an external guest user was unable to be added to a breakout room. The guest joined the meeting via a browser.

I tested this myself and was able to join a breakout room when entering the meeting through Microsoft Edge. Until now, I actually assumed that using the Teams desktop client was a prerequisite for participating in breakout rooms.

Is there an official source that clearly explains the requirements for external users to join breakout rooms?

Looking forward to your insights.

Best regards, Hisham

The notifications is "This person cannot enter breakout sessions"

Screenshot 2025-09-19 092037

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Answer 1

Tina L 12,330 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello @Hisham Bastian Nazmy ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Q&A!

For your concern, I will explain in detail:

Only meeting organizers and presenters from the same organization can manage breakout rooms. Attendees and external participants may not be able to access breakout rooms depending on how they join the meeting and the policies in place.

External users can join breakout rooms if:

They are signed in with a guest account that has been added to your organization’s Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD).
They join the meeting using a supported browser (e.g., Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome) or the Teams desktop app.

Note: Because Microsoft Edge is a Microsoft product, it tends to offer better compatibility and performance with Teams.

Your organization has enabled guest access in Teams, and the user is properly authenticated.

Even though some external users can join meetings via browser, breakout room access requires that they be authenticated as guests in your organization. If they are not signed in properly or are joining anonymously, Teams will block them from entering breakout rooms.

While there isn’t a single article that specifically outlines the requirements for external users to join breakout rooms, I found some related official Microsoft documentation you can refer to better understand the context and limitations:

Once again, thank you again for raising this issue; it’s helped broaden my understanding. I hope you understand that I want to help as much as I can within the scope of this forum.

Look forward to hearing from you!

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HBN 70 Reputation points

2025-09-20T07:13:25.1933333+00:00

Hello Tina,

Thank you for your response.

However, to be honest, it doesn’t fully address my question. I wasn't looking for a guide on how to organize breakout sessions, nor was I asking about guest access in general.

As I mentioned, I’ve already tested this myself by joining a meeting with a guest account that isn’t part of our organization’s Entra directory—so that doesn't seem to be the issue either.

What I’m specifically looking for are the prerequisites defined by Microsoft for participating in breakout sessions. Based on your response, I can only assume that using a supported web browser or the desktop client is necessary. But I’d prefer not to make recommendations based on assumptions. I find it hard to believe that there aren’t any official guidelines available on this.

Still, I do appreciate your effort and the time you took to help.
Tina L 12,330 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-22T10:30:56.34+00:00
Hello @Hisham Bastian Nazmy ,

Thank you for detail responding.

I conducted an extensive search across Microsoft’s official documentation. I can confirm that there is currently no single, dedicated article from Microsoft that outlines the exact prerequisites for external users to join breakout rooms in Teams.

Instead, the relevant information is spread across multiple documents and community discussions I share before.

Because of this gap, I highly recommend submitting feedback directly through the Microsoft 365 Feedback Hub

Go to Help => Feedback => Send Feedback

Describe your suggestion in detail.

Your feedback has value and helps the product team prioritize publishing clearer, more focused articles on breakout room access for external users, rather than relying on general guest access documentation.

Every submission is reviewed, and many improvements to Microsoft Teams have come directly from user feedback. I’ll also be submitting feedback myself, as it’s clear that many users are encountering the same concern.

Once again, I appreciate your patience and curiosity; and I’d be glad to keep an eye out for any official updates as they become available.

If you've already submitted feedback, please share the link here. That way, not only me but others who share the same idea will know how to raise their own feedback and can support yours, helping the Microsoft team become aware of it.

Waiting for your reply!

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