Microsoft Teams: Send messages to attendees in the meeting lobby with Lobby chat

Microsoft Teams will introduce Lobby chat, allowing meeting organizers and co-organizers to send one-way messages to attendees in the meeting lobby. This feature will be on by default and can be managed in the Teams admin center. Rollout begins mid-June 2025 for targeted release and late June 2025 for general availability. Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: Meeting organizers and co-organizers will be able to send one-way messages to attendees in the meeting lobby using the Lobby chat. The Lobby chat is intended to optimize the lobby experience for all participants, ensuring that organizers are better equipped to run external meetings and external attendees are well informed about the meeting when it begins. This feature is on by default and admins can choose to disable it in the Teams admin center (TAC). This message applies to Teams on Windows desktop, Teams on Mac desktop, and Teams for iOS/Android. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 480716. When this will happen: Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-June 2025 and expect to complete by late June 2025. General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late June 2025 and expect to complete by mid-July 2025. How this will affect your organization: Admin controls: After this rollout, the policy for Lobby chat will be on by default in the TAC. Admins can enable or disable Lobby chat with a meeting policy in the TAC. Under Meeting policies > Global (Org-wide default) > Meeting engagement, admins will find a new toggle option for Organizers can chat with lobby participant. When the option is enabled, participants who can’t bypass the lobby due to meeting policy will be able to view messages sent by the organizer in a Lobby chat. To enable this policy, Meeting chat in the TAC must be set to On for everyone or On for everyone but anonymous users. Meeting organizer/co-organizer experience: When someone joins the lobby, the meeting organizer/co-organizer will see a new Lobby tab in their Chat experience (meeting chat, one-on-one chat, or group chats). The meeting organizer/co-organizer will be able to send […]

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