External users having issues with accessing Teams channels in our org

Question

Users from outside our organization are experiencing issues with our Teams channel. They can access the channel, but they have to keep switching between different Teams accounts. When they are in their own organization's Teams, they receive a pop-up window; however, it only remains visible for about five seconds. After that, they need to switch into our organization's Teams to respond.

We would like to have a channel that external users can access through their own organization's Teams without having to switch accounts. This way, they won’t miss messages and will see a pop-up notification whenever a message is sent in the channel.

Can someone help or guide us on how to fix this.

Thanks

Answer 1

Dear @Matthew Hardman,

Good day! Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

We apologize for any inconvenience you may encounter when using our services/ products. Based on your description, kindly try these following steps:

If you are an IT Admin:

Enable B2B Direct Connect in Azure AD (Entra ID):

• Go to Microsoft Entra Admin Center > External Identities > Cross-tenant access settings.
• Configure inbound and outbound settings to allow collaboration with the external organization.

Create a Shared Channel:

• In Teams, go to the desired Team and create a Shared Channel.
• Use the “Share with people” or “Share with a team” option to invite external users or team owners.

Verify External Access Settings:

• In the Teams Admin Center, navigate to Users > External Access.
• Ensure external domains are allowed (either all or specific ones).
• Confirm that Guest Access is also enabled if needed for fallback.

 If you are an end-user, please contact your IT Admin for the above steps.

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