Edit

Start an Audio Conference over the phone without a PIN in Microsoft Teams

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    Microsoft Teams

Users dialing into a meeting might feel frustrated as they wait in the lobby, listening to music, because the Microsoft Teams meeting organizer hasn't started the meeting.

If a meeting organizer calls in to the meeting, by default, a PIN is required to start a meeting. You can set it up so that anyone can dial in to a meeting and not be prompted for a PIN to start the meeting. You can use the admin center to enable or disable this setting for a single user.

A PIN isn't required for the meeting organizer if someone starts the meeting from the Microsoft Teams app. A PIN is only required when a meeting organizer joins their meeting over a phone. The PIN for meetings is sent to the audio user when they're assigned the Audio Conferencing license and are enabled for Audio Conferencing. See Send an email to a user with their Audio Conferencing information and Emails that are automatically sent to users when their Audio Conferencing settings change.

Note

We are frequently updating how you can manage features, so the steps here might be a little different from what you see.

Enable or disable anonymous callers from joining a meeting

Using the Microsoft Teams admin center

  1. In the left navigation, select Users.

  2. Select a user in the list, and then select Edit at the top of the page.

  3. Next to Audio Conferencing, select Edit.

  4. In the Audio Conferencing pane, enable or disable Dial-in callers can be the first person in a meeting.

  5. Select Apply.

Using Windows PowerShell

For more information, see Microsoft Teams PowerShell reference.

What else should you know?

  • If you want to reset the PIN, see Reset the Audio Conferencing PIN.

  • If anonymous access, or the option to start a meeting without requiring a PIN, is disabled:

    • If the meeting hasn't started (there's no one in the meeting yet): A caller is prompted if they're the organizer; if they say yes, they're prompted for their PIN. After they enter the PIN, the meeting starts and the user joins the meeting.

    • If the meeting already started (someone else is already in the meeting): A caller isn't be prompted if they're the organizer and they're never prompted for the PIN. The meeting is already started, and the caller joins it.

  • If anonymous access, or not requiring a PIN to start a meeting, is enabled:

    • If the meeting hasn't started (there's no one in the meeting yet): A caller isn't be prompted if they're the organizer, and they're never prompted for the PIN. Because the organizer's setting is off, the meeting starts and the anonymous callers join the meeting.

    • If the meeting already started (someone else is already in the meeting): A caller isn't be prompted if they're the organizer, and they're never prompted for the PIN. The meeting is already started, and the caller joins it.

Want to know more about Windows PowerShell?

Windows PowerShell is all about managing users and what users are allowed or not allowed to do. With Windows PowerShell, you can manage Microsoft 365 or Office 365 by using a single point of administration that can simplify your daily work when you have multiple tasks to do. To get started with Windows PowerShell, see these topics:

For more information about Windows PowerShell, see the Microsoft Teams PowerShell reference.