Microsoft Teams: New Events templates with “Optimize for large audience” and policy-based behavior

Microsoft Teams is introducing new Events templates with an “Optimize for large audience” option to support events over 1,000 attendees, applying town hall policies via CsTeamsEventsPolicy. Rollout begins June 2026. No action is required, but admins should review policies to align settings with organizational needs. What and Why: Microsoft Teams is updating the new Events scheduling experience to ensure that Events continue to respect the existing CsTeamsEventsPolicy. With new Events templates, organizers will see a new option called Optimize for large audience. When enabled, the event uses the familiar Teams town hall attendee experience—designed for large audiences—so events can scale beyond 1,000 attendees while continuing to follow your organization’s policy settings. Rollout Schedule: Targeted Release (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in early June 2026 and expect to complete by mid-June 2026. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in late June 2026 and expect to complete by late June 2026. Impact on Your Organization: Who is affected: Teams admins managing CsTeamsEventsPolicy Organizers scheduling Events, including town halls and webinars, using the new Events templates Any event over 1,000 attendees (Optimize for large audience will be automatically enabled) or any event where Optimize for large audience is enabled Platforms/Services: Microsoft Teams (Events scheduling experience) Teams admin policies / PowerShell (CsTeamsEventsPolicy enforcement) What will happen: A new Optimize for large audience option will be available in new Events templates. When Optimize for large audience = ON, organizers may scale their event beyond 1,000 and the attendee experience will be optimized for large audiences: attendees can pause and rewind live content, attendees cannot turn on their camera or mic on demand, and attendees will utilize the eCDN if applicable. This is similar to the current Town hall attendee experience today. Events over 1,000 attendees will have Optimize for large audience automatically turned ON. When Optimize for large audience = ON, the event will respect all town hall settings in CsTeamsEventsPolicy, including AllowTownhalls, TownhallEventAttendeeAccess, AllowedTownhallTypesForRecordingPublish, TownhallChatExperience, RecordingForTownhall, TranscriptionForTownhall, TownhallMaxResolution, HighBitrateForTownhall, and UseMicrosoftECDN. When Optimize for large audience = OFF, the event will be governed by webinar policy settings. Town hall template events will follow […]

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