External Access in Teams

Question

Hello, I understand that External Access is enabled by default in Teams. Everything I have read says that external access allows you to communicate with external users, by finding, chatting, calling, etc. I want to be able to invite external people to my meetings, but I dont want to be searchable in Teams by external people. If I turn off external access, will I still be able to invite external people to my meetings? What specifically happens when I turn off external access? Thanks.

Answer 1

The External Access is for Direct/Instant Messaging or Collaboration. You can turn that off.

Meetings are a separate feature and you can invite anyone and you get a link for the Meeting. A phone number is included if you have the calling plan. You can also manage whether you allow anonymous access. That setting is in the Teams Admin > Meetings > Meeting Settings. Attached images of the Meeting Settings and how an anonymous user can sign in through a web browser if they get the link from your invite.

Answer 2

Hi HeidiPoffenroth-9890,

You can turn on guest access in your environment. Then configure guest access in Microsoft Teams admin center. You can control the access of guest from calling, meeting and messaging.