Setup - Teams Phone Agent

  • Applies to: Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business

Note

Teams Phone Agent is currently only available to customers in the Frontier Public Preview program.

This article is for IT pros and Teams Administrators who want to create Teams Phone Agents.

Planning and licensing review

Planning

Licensing

Known issues

None

What's new for Teams Phone Agent in the past six months

  • June 15
    • Entered Frontier Public Preview

Steps to create a Teams Phone Agent

Note

Quick setup can't be used to configure Teams Phone Agent. Select Advanced setup.

To set up a Teams Phone Agent in the Teams Admin Center, expand Voice, select Auto attendants, and then select Add.

Advanced setup

Note

The setup steps assume that all required Questions and Answer and Appointment tools and any required Microsoft Copilot Studio associated Agents and Queues have been created.


Step 1 - General info (expand to see instructions)

Step 1: General info

Name

Type a name for the Teams Phone Agent in the box at the top.

Teams Phone Agent

Enable the Teams Phone Agent toggle.

  • After reading the splash screen, select Enable to continue.
How do callers reach this auto attendant

For details on how to create resource accounts and ready them for use with auto attendants, see Manage Teams resource accounts.

Through a resource account

Select this option if this auto attendant needs to be called directly.

Through a voice app (no resource account needed)

Select this option if this auto attendant is nested behind another Teams Phone Agent, Auto Attendant or Call Queue that has answered the call.

Language

Specify a supported language for this Teams Phone Agent. This is the default language that Teams Phone Agent uses for the disclaimer message, if the language spoken by the caller isn't recognized, or if Attendant agent isn't able to speak in the same language as the caller.

Expand to see list of supported languages
Locale Language
ar-EG Arabic (Egypt)
ar-SA Arabic (Saudi Arabia)
hy-AM Armenian (Armenia)
bg-BG Bulgarian (Bulgaria)
ca-ES Catalan (Spain)
zh-CN Chinese (Simplified, PRC)
zh-HK Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong SAR) │
zh-TW Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan)
hr-HR Croatian (Croatia)
cs-CZ Czech (Czechia)
da-BE Danish (Belgium)
da-DK Danish (Denmark)
nl-NL Dutch (Netherlands)
en-AU English (Australia)
en-CA English (Canada)
en-GB English (United Kingdom)
en-IE English (Ireland)
en-IN English (India)
en-PH English (Philippines)
en-US English (United States)
en-ZA English (South Africa)
et-EE Estonian (Estonia)
fi-FI Finnish (Finland)
fr-BE French (Belgium)
fr-CA French (Canada)
fr-CH French (Switzerland)
fr-FR French (France)
gl-ES Galician (Spain)
de-AT German (Austria)
de-CH German (Switzerland)
de-DE German (Germany)
el-GR Greek (Greece)
he-IL Hebrew (Israel)
hi-IN Hindi (India)
hu-HU Hungarian (Hungary)
id-ID Indonesian (Indonesia)
is-IS Icelandic (Iceland)
it-IT Italian (Italy)
ja-JP Japanese (Japan)
kn-IN Kannada (India)
ko-KR Korean (Korea)
lt-LT Lithuanian (Lithuania)
lv-LV Latvian (Latvia)
mr-IN Marathi (India)
nb-NO Norwegian Bokmål (Norway)
fa-IR Persian (Iran)
pl-PL Polish (Poland)
pt-BR Portuguese (Brazil)
pt-PT Portuguese (Portugal)
ro-RO Romanian (Romania)
ru-RU Russian (Russia)
sk-SK Slovak (Slovakia)
sl-SI Slovenian (Slovenia)
sr-RS Serbian (Serbia)
es-ES Spanish (Spain, International)
es-MX Spanish (Mexico)
sv-SE Swedish (Sweden)
ta-IN Tamil (India)
th-TH Thai (Thailand)
tr-TR Turkish (Turkey)
uk-UA Ukrainian (Ukraine)
ur-PK Urdu (Pakistan)
vi-VN Vietnamese (Vietnam)

Specify the voice Teams Phone Agent should use. The voice sets the gender and tone that Teams Phone Agent speaks in.

Expand to see list of supported voices

During Frontier Public Preview the following voices are available:

Name Available for all languages Optimized for
Aarti Y en-IN - English (India)
Andrew Y en-US - English (US)
Ava Y en-IS - English (US)
Diya Y hi-HI - Hindi (India)
Florian Y de-DE - German (Germany)
Meera Y hi-HI - Hindi
Xiaoziao Y zh-CN - Chinese (Simplified, PRC)
Ximena Y es-ES - Spanish (Spain)
Yunxi Y zh-CN - Chinese (Simplified, PRC)
Voice inputs

Voice inputs are automatically enabled when Teams Phone Agent is enabled. When Teams Phone Agent is enabled, voice inputs can't be turned off.

Operator (optional)

Tip

Configuring an Operator is recommended.

Specify the destination for calls to the operator.

The auto attendant directs callers to the Operator when callers don't make any selection from the menu or when a call processing error occurs (for example, a call transfer to an invalid phone number). Setting the Operator also gives callers the option to break out of the menus and speak to a designated person.

Note

Make sure to also set up an Operator key on the menu options otherwise the Operator feature isn't enabled.

After setting the Operator, select the Next.


Step 2 - Call handling hours (expand to see instructions)

Step 2: Call handling hours

Time zone

Specify the time zone for this auto attendant.

The time zone is used for calculating business hours if you XXXXX
create a separate call flow for after hours.

Business and after hours
  • If business hours aren't changed, the Business-hours call flow is followed from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (09:00-17:00), and the After-hours call flow is followed outside of these hours, every day of the week.
  • Business hours can be set with multiple breaks in time during the day
  • Any time of day that isn't set as business hours are considered after-hours.
  • You can set different incoming call-handling options and greetings for after-hours.
  1. Next to the weekday in the table, adjust the Start at and End at times.
  2. If needed, select + (add new time) to specify multiple sets of hours for a given day, for example, to specify a lunch break.

The routing options for Business-hours call flow and After-hours call flow are configured in the next 2 steps.

After setting the Business and after hours times, select Next.

Previous steps:
Step 3 - Business-hours call flow (expand to see instructions)

Step 3: Business-hours call flow

Important

On November 1, 2025 Changes to licensing required for Auto attendant and Call queue outbound PSTN calling occurred.

Greeting options

Select the greeting option that callers will receive during business hours.

  • Default Teams Phone Agent Greeting
    • Hello, you've reached Attendant agent. How can we help you today?
  • Play an audio file - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.
  • Add a greeting message - enter the text for the greeting.

The Teams Phone Agent greeting message can be entered in multiple languages. Teams Phone Agent will speak the greeting in each language to callers.

Note

After the greeting message, Teams Phone Agent will always play the following disclaimer message:

Please note that you are engaging with an AI assistant and this call may be monitored for compliance purposes. How can I assist you today?

This announcement will only be played in the default language that was selected in Step 1.

Call routing options

Select what happens to the call after the greeting is played.

  • Disconnect - the call is disconnected. Teams Phone Agent is not engaged.
  • Redirect call - the call is redirected to one of the call routing destinations. Teams Phone Agent is not engaged.
  • Play menu options - the call is presented with a list of options to choose from. Teams Phone Agent is engaged.

The routing options for Redirect call

  • Person in the organization - a person in your organization who can receive voice calls.
  • Voice app - Choose the Auto Attendant or Call Queue when choosing this destination. The call priority can be set when the destination is a Call Queue.
  • Resource account - Choose the resource account associated with the Teams Phone Agent, Auto Attendant or Call Queue when choosing this destination.
  • External phone number - any phone number. See Outbound calling line identification (number).
  • Voicemail - the voice mailbox associated with a Microsoft 365 group that you specify.
    • In Microsoft 365 admin center, enable Let people outside the organization email this team for the Microsoft 365 group that you specify.

The routing options for Play menu options are:

Teams Phone Agent can answer questions, book appointments, provide specialized workflows and redirect calls based on callers' input. The options are:

  • Operator - the operator defined for the Teams Phone Agent.
  • Person in the organization - a person in your organization who can receive voice calls.
  • Tools - access Questions and Answers andAppointments
  • Agents & queues - access Microsoft Copilot Studio (MCS) agents and third party IVRs
  • Voice app - Choose the Teams Phone Agent, Auto Attendant, or Call Queue when choosing this destination.
  • Resource account - Choose the resource account associated with the Teams Phone Agent, Auto Attendant or Call Queue when choosing this destination.
  • Voicemail - the voice mailbox associated with a Microsoft 365 group that you specify.
    • In Microsoft 365 admin center, enable Let people outside the organization email this team for the Microsoft 365 group that you specify.
  • External phone number - any phone number. See Outbound calling line identification (number).
  • Announcement (Audio file) - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.
  • Announcement (Typed) - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.

Note

When redirecting calls to a Person in the organization, that person must be voice enabled.

For details on enabling voice, see Assign Teams add-on licenses to users.

Play menu options
Force listen

This option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent

Setup the greeting and menu options

  • Play an audio file - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.
  • Add a greeting message - enter the text for the greeting.
Set menu options

For dialing options, assign the 0-9, * (asterisk) and # (pound) keys on the telephone keypad to one of the call routing destinations.

Key mappings don't have to be continuous. It's possible to create a menu with keys 0, 1, and 3 mapped to options, while the number 2 key isn't used.

If you configured an operator in Step 1, make sure to map a key to it here. If the operator isn't set to any key, the voice command "Operator" is also disabled.

For each menu option, specify the following settings:

  • Dial key - the key on the telephone keypad to access this option. The caller can press or say this key number and Teams Phone Agent will route the call.
  • Voice command - defines the voice command that a caller can give to access this option. It can contain multiple words like "Customer Service" or "Operations and Grounds."
  • Description - use this field to give Teams Phone Agent detailed information on when to use this option. This should include keywords a caller may use when identifying actions they are looking to perform.
  • Destination - the specific routing or resource for Teams Phone Agent to invoke.

Choose an option for Directory search.

  • Dial by name - If you enable this option, callers can say the user's name they want to speak with. Any online user or any user hosted on-premises using Skype for Business Server, is an eligible user and can be found with Dial by name.
  • Dial by extension - If you enable this option, callers can connect with users in your organization by dialing their phone extension. Any online user or any user hosted on-premises using Skype for Business Server, is an eligible user and can be found with Dial by extension.

Note

If you want to use both the Dial by name and Dial by extension features, you can assign a dial key on your main Auto attendant to reach an Auto attendant enabled for Dial by name. Within that Auto attendant, you can assign the 1 key (which has no letters associated with it) to reach the Dial by extension Auto attendant.

For more information, see the Dial by name or number reference.

After setting the business-hours call flow options, select Next.

Previous steps:
Step 4 - After-hours call flow (expand to see instructions)

Step 4: After-hours call flow

Important

On November 1, 2025 Changes to licensing required for Auto attendant and Call queue outbound PSTN calling occurred.

Greeting options

Select the greeting option that callers will receive during business hours.

  • Default Teams Phone Agent Greeting
    • Hello, you've reached Attendant agent. How can we help you today?
  • Play an audio file - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.
  • Add a greeting message - enter the text for the greeting.

The Teams Phone Agent greeting message can be entered in multiple languages. Teams Phone Agent will speak the greeting in each language to callers.

Note

After the greeting message, Teams Phone Agent will always play the following disclaimer message:

Please note that you are engaging with an AI assistant and this call may be monitored for compliance purposes. How can I assist you today?

This announcement will only be played in the default language that was selected in Step 1.

Call routing options

Select what happens to the call after the greeting is played.

  • Disconnect - the call is disconnected. Teams Phone Agent is not engaged.
  • Redirect call - the call is redirected to one of the call routing destinations. Teams Phone Agent is not engaged.
  • Play menu options - the call is presented with a list of options to choose from. Teams Phone Agent is engaged.

The routing options for Redirect call

  • Person in the organization - a person in your organization who can receive voice calls.
  • Voice app - Choose the Auto Attendant or Call Queue when choosing this destination. The call priority can be set when the destination is a Call Queue.
  • Resource account - Choose the resource account associated with the Teams Phone Agent, Auto Attendant or Call Queue when choosing this destination.
  • External phone number - any phone number. See Outbound calling line identification (number).
  • Voicemail - the voice mailbox associated with a Microsoft 365 group that you specify.
    • In Microsoft 365 admin center, enable Let people outside the organization email this team for the Microsoft 365 group that you specify.

The routing options for Play menu options are:

Teams Phone Agent can answer questions, book appointments, provide specialized workflows and redirect calls based on callers' input. The options are:

  • Operator - the operator defined for the Teams Phone Agent.
  • Person in the organization - a person in your organization who can receive voice calls.
  • Tools - access Questions and Answers andAppointments
  • Agents & queues - access Microsoft Copilot Studio (MCS) agents and third party IVRs
  • Voice app - Choose the Teams Phone Agent, Auto Attendant, or Call Queue when choosing this destination.
  • Resource account - Choose the resource account associated with the Teams Phone Agent, Auto Attendant or Call Queue when choosing this destination.
  • Voicemail - the voice mailbox associated with a Microsoft 365 group that you specify.
    • In Microsoft 365 admin center, enable Let people outside the organization email this team for the Microsoft 365 group that you specify.
  • External phone number - any phone number. See Outbound calling line identification (number).
  • Announcement (Audio file) - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.
  • Announcement (Typed) - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.

Note

When redirecting calls to a Person in the organization, that person must be voice enabled.

For details on enabling voice, see Assign Teams add-on licenses to users.

Play menu options
Force listen

This option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent

Setup the greeting and menu options

  • Play an audio file - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.
  • Add a greeting message - enter the text for the greeting.
Set menu options

For dialing options, assign the 0-9, * (asterisk) and # (pound) keys on the telephone keypad to one of the call routing destinations.

Key mappings don't have to be continuous. It's possible to create a menu with keys 0, 1, and 3 mapped to options, while the number 2 key isn't used.

If you configured an operator in Step 1, make sure to map a key to it here. If the operator isn't set to any key, the voice command "Operator" is also disabled.

For each menu option, specify the following settings:

  • Dial key - the key on the telephone keypad to access this option. The caller can press or say this key number and Teams Phone Agent will route the call.
  • Voice command - defines the voice command that a caller can give to access this option. It can contain multiple words like "Customer Service" or "Operations and Grounds."
  • Description - use this field to give Teams Phone Agent detailed information on when to use this option. This should include keywords a caller may use when identifying actions they are looking to perform.
  • Destination - the specific routing or resource for Teams Phone Agent to invoke.

Choose an option for Directory search.

  • Dial by name - If you enable this option, callers can say the user's name they want to speak with. Any online user or any user hosted on-premises using Skype for Business Server, is an eligible user and can be found with Dial by name.
  • Dial by extension - If you enable this option, callers can connect with users in your organization by dialing their phone extension. Any online user or any user hosted on-premises using Skype for Business Server, is an eligible user and can be found with Dial by extension.

Note

If you want to use both the Dial by name and Dial by extension features, you can assign a dial key on your main Auto attendant to reach an Auto attendant enabled for Dial by name. Within that Auto attendant, you can assign the 1 key (which has no letters associated with it) to reach the Dial by extension Auto attendant.

For more information, see the Dial by name or number reference.

After setting the after-hours call flow options, select Next.

Previous steps:
Step 5 - Holidays call flow (expand to see instructions)

Step 5: Holidays call flow (optional)

Important

On November 1, 2025 Changes to licensing required for Auto attendant and Call queue outbound PSTN calling occurred.

The auto attendant can have a different call flow for each Holiday you configure.

On the Holiday call settings page, select Add.

Name

Type a name for the holiday in the box at the top.

Holiday

From the Holiday dropdown, choose the holiday you want to use.

Greeting options

Select the greeting option that callers will receive during business hours.

  • Default Teams Phone Agent Greeting
    • Hello, you've reached Attendant agent. How can we help you today?
  • Play an audio file - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.
  • Add a greeting message - enter the text for the greeting.

The Teams Phone Agent greeting message can be entered in multiple languages. Teams Phone Agent will speak the greeting in each language to callers.

Note

After the greeting message, Teams Phone Agent will always play the following disclaimer message:

Please note that you are engaging with an AI assistant and this call may be monitored for compliance purposes. How can I assist you today?

This announcement will only be played in the default language that was selected in Step 1.

Call routing options

Select what happens to the call after the greeting is played.

  • Disconnect - the call is disconnected. Teams Phone Agent is not engaged.
  • Redirect call - the call is redirected to one of the call routing destinations. Teams Phone Agent is not engaged.
  • Play menu options - the call is presented with a list of options to choose from. Teams Phone Agent is engaged.

The routing options for Redirect call

  • Person in the organization - a person in your organization who can receive voice calls.
  • Voice app - Choose the Auto Attendant or Call Queue when choosing this destination. The call priority can be set when the destination is a Call Queue.
  • Resource account - Choose the resource account associated with the Teams Phone Agent, Auto Attendant or Call Queue when choosing this destination.
  • External phone number - any phone number. See Outbound calling line identification (number).
  • Voicemail - the voice mailbox associated with a Microsoft 365 group that you specify.
    • In Microsoft 365 admin center, enable Let people outside the organization email this team for the Microsoft 365 group that you specify.

The routing options for Play menu options are:

Teams Phone Agent can answer questions, book appointments, provide specialized workflows and redirect calls based on callers' input. The options are:

  • Operator - the operator defined for the Teams Phone Agent.
  • Person in the organization - a person in your organization who can receive voice calls.
  • Tools - access Questions and Answers andAppointments
  • Agents & queues - access Microsoft Copilot Studio (MCS) agents and third party IVRs
  • Voice app - Choose the Teams Phone Agent, Auto Attendant, or Call Queue when choosing this destination.
  • Resource account - Choose the resource account associated with the Teams Phone Agent, Auto Attendant or Call Queue when choosing this destination.
  • Voicemail - the voice mailbox associated with a Microsoft 365 group that you specify.
    • In Microsoft 365 admin center, enable Let people outside the organization email this team for the Microsoft 365 group that you specify.
  • External phone number - any phone number. See Outbound calling line identification (number).
  • Announcement (Audio file) - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.
  • Announcement (Typed) - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.

Note

When redirecting calls to a Person in the organization, that person must be voice enabled.

For details on enabling voice, see Assign Teams add-on licenses to users.

Play menu options
Force listen

This option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent

Setup the greeting and menu options

  • Play an audio file - this option is not supported with Teams Phone Agent.
  • Add a greeting message - enter the text for the greeting.
Set menu options

For dialing options, assign the 0-9, * (asterisk) and # (pound) keys on the telephone keypad to one of the call routing destinations.

Key mappings don't have to be continuous. It's possible to create a menu with keys 0, 1, and 3 mapped to options, while the number 2 key isn't used.

If you configured an operator in Step 1, make sure to map a key to it here. If the operator isn't set to any key, the voice command "Operator" is also disabled.

For each menu option, specify the following settings:

  • Dial key - the key on the telephone keypad to access this option. The caller can press or say this key number and Teams Phone Agent will route the call.
  • Voice command - defines the voice command that a caller can give to access this option. It can contain multiple words like "Customer Service" or "Operations and Grounds."
  • Description - use this field to give Teams Phone Agent detailed information on when to use this option. This should include keywords a caller may use when identifying actions they are looking to perform.
  • Destination - the specific routing or resource for Teams Phone Agent to invoke.

Choose an option for Directory search.

  • Dial by name - If you enable this option, callers can say the user's name they want to speak with. Any online user or any user hosted on-premises using Skype for Business Server, is an eligible user and can be found with Dial by name.
  • Dial by extension - If you enable this option, callers can connect with users in your organization by dialing their phone extension. Any online user or any user hosted on-premises using Skype for Business Server, is an eligible user and can be found with Dial by extension.

Note

If you want to use both the Dial by name and Dial by extension features, you can assign a dial key on your main Auto attendant to reach an Auto attendant enabled for Dial by name. Within that Auto attendant, you can assign the 1 key (which has no letters associated with it) to reach the Dial by extension Auto attendant.

For more information, see the Dial by name or number reference.

Repeat the procedure as needed for more holidays.

After setting the holidays call flow options, select Next

Previous steps:
Step 6 - Dial scope (expand to see instructions)

Step 6: Dial scope (optional)

The dial scope defines which users are available in the directory when a caller uses dial-by-name or dial-by-extension. The default of All online users includes all users in your organization that are Online users or hosted on-premises using Skype for Business Server.

You can include or exclude specific users by selecting Custom user group under Include or Exclude and choosing one or more Microsoft 365 groups, distribution lists, or security groups. For example, you might want to exclude executives in your organization from the dialing directory.

If a user is in both lists or if they're hidden from the Exchange GAL, they're excluded from the directory.

Note

It might take up to 36 hours for a new user to have their name listed in the directory.

After setting the Dial scope options, select Next.

Previous steps:
Step 7 - Authorized users (expand to see instructions)

Step 7: Authorized users (optional)

Authorized users specifies the users who are authorized to make changes to this Auto Attendant. The capabilities that the users have are determined based on the Teams voice applications policy that is assigned to the user.

Select Add, search for the user, select Add, and then select Add.

Important

A user needs a Voice Applications policy that allows at least one type of configuration change and must be an authorized user for at least one auto attendant, or call queue.

A user can't make any configuration changes if:

  • The user has a policy assigned but isn't assigned as an authorized user to at least one Auto attendant or Call queue.
  • The user is assigned as an authorized user to at least one Auto attendant or Call queue but doesn't have a policy assigned.

For more information, see Setup authorized users.

After setting the Authorized users option, select Submit.

Previous steps:

Extra functionality available through PowerShell cmdlets

Important

These configuration options are currently only available through PowerShell cmdlets and they don't appear in Teams admin center.

Dial by name improvements

When a dial by name search returns multiple people with the same name, the results can now be enhanced by appending additional information after the name. This makes it easier for callers to reach the correct person.

The default is to only say the name. However, the office or department information can now be added as part of the results.

For more information, see New-CsAutoAttendant -UserNameExtension.

PowerShell

For instructions on creating Teams Phone Agents using PowerShell, see Setup Teams Phone Agent with PowerShell.

Teams Phone Agent / Auto Attendant Diagnostic Tool

As an administrator, you can use the following diagnostic tool to validate that an Auto attendant is able to receive calls:

  1. Select Run Tests, which populates the diagnostic in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

    Run Tests: Teams Auto Attendant

  2. In the Run diagnostic pane, enter the Resource Account in the Username or Email field, and then select Run Tests.

The tests identify tenant, policy, or resource account configurations that are preventing the Auto attendant from receiving calls and also provide steps to fix any problems identified.

  • Last updated on