Microsoft Teams: Email OTP verification for external participants to join meetings

Microsoft Teams is set to introduce email OTP verification to allow external participants to join meetings. This will provide meeting organizers with a new option to demand email verification for anonymous participants, a setting that can be managed by tenant admins via a new policy in the Teams admin center. The rollout is expected to commence in mid-January 2024 for Targeted Release and late March 2025 for General Availability. Going forward, Microsoft Teams meeting organizers will have the option to require unverified participants to verify their email addresses with a one-time password (OTP) before joining the meeting, with tenant admins having the ability to manage and control this setting via a new meeting policy in the Teams admin center.

This feature is set to be available on various Teams platforms and admins should update their meeting policies ahead of the rollout to ensure compatibility. The new feature will be available by default and will enable an additional option for unverified (anonymous) users to join meetings without requiring a Microsoft Account or Microsoft Entra account. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 418125.

This announcement will affect tenants where the “Anonymous users can join a meeting” setting is currently disabled. Admins have the option to enable “Anonymous users can join a meeting after verifying by email code”, a new meeting policy that will complement existing meeting policies. This message applies to Microsoft Teams on Windows desktop, Teams on Mac desktop, Teams on the web, and Teams for iOS/Android.

Overall, this new feature will enhance the security of Teams meetings, so admins should take the necessary steps to ensure a smooth transition.

The post Microsoft Teams: Email OTP verification for external participants to join meetings originally appeared on M365 Admin.