Hosting or Joining a Microsoft Teams Meeting

This article explains how to host or join a Microsoft Teams meeting and how to share content during a meeting.

Hosting a Meeting

Scheduling a Meeting

You can schedule a meeting in Teams using two methods:

1. From the Calendar:

   • Open the Teams application and click Calendar (left panel on desktop or bottom menu on mobile).
   • Click New Meeting or Schedule a Meeting and fill out the details.

2. From a Chat:

   • Open a chat and click the Schedule a Meeting icon below the message box.
   • Complete the scheduling form, similar to Outlook, to set the meeting title, invite participants, and add details.
   • If you add a channel (e.g., Information Technology > General), all members of that channel can see and join the meeting.

Hosting a Meeting in a Channel

You can host a meeting within a Teams channel, allowing all team members to see and join directly from that channel. You can send out individual meeting invites so that it appears on their calendar.

Starting an Instant Meeting

To start an ad-hoc meeting:

1. Open Teams and click Calendar.
2. Click Meet Now (top-right corner).
3. Enter a meeting title and adjust settings, then click Join Now.

After starting the meeting, invite participants by:

• Clicking People (top-right) and typing a name or phone number.
• Clicking Copy Join Info and sharing the link.

Joining a Meeting

Join via Link

Click the Join Microsoft Teams Meeting link in your invitation. You will be prompted to join via:

• Web browser (if you don’t have the Teams app installed).
• Teams application (opens automatically if installed).

Join by Phone

If a phone number and conference ID are included in the invitation, you can:

1. Dial the phone number.
2. If necessary, click Local Numbers to find a regionally appropriate number.
3. If you are the meeting organizer, enter your PIN when prompted. If needed, reset your PIN here.

Join from the Teams Calendar

1. Open Teams and click Calendar.
2. Find the scheduled meeting and click Join.
3. If the meeting has already started, you will receive a notification to join.

Join from Chat

If a meeting is linked to a chat, you can join by:

• Opening the Chat list.
• Clicking Join at the top of the chat.

Sharing Content in a Meeting

Sharing Your Screen

1. Click Share in the meeting controls.
2. Choose what to share:
   • Desktop – Shares your entire screen, including notifications.
   • Window – Shares a specific application window only.
   • PowerPoint – Allows participants to interact with a PowerPoint file.
   • Whiteboard – Enables real-time collaboration on a digital whiteboard.
3. To share computer audio, select Include System Audio (useful for playing media).

Giving or Taking Control

• Give Control to another participant:
  1. Click Give Control on the sharing toolbar.
  2. Select a participant’s name.
  3. To regain control, click Take Back Control.
• Request Control from another presenter:
  1. Click Request Control.
  2. Wait for the presenter to approve.
  3. Click Release Control when finished.

Meeting Features

Attendance Reports

Gain insight into your meeting attendance with attendance reports. Enable these reports to view and download important details during and after your meetings. You can learn who attended, when each person joined and left, and more.

For organizers, attendance reports are stored with the organizer's other data, such as emails and contacts. These reports are permanently deleted if an organizer leaves the college, and no one else can access them. Organizers can also enable or disable attendance reports for meetings they created.

Co-organizers can view and download attendance reports when the meeting is scheduled in Teams, not Outlook. They can do this while the meeting is in progress and from the meeting chat afterward. However, co-organizers cannot view or download attendance reports from the meeting invite after the meeting has ended.

Organizers with a Teams Premium license can see engagement information that captures how attendees reacted and interacted during the meeting or event. The engagement data shows the total number of attendees who unmuted during the meeting or event, turned on their cameras, raised their hands, used each type of meeting reaction, and initiated questions, answers, and discussions through Q&A.

• Manage meeting attendance reports in Microsoft Teams (microsoft.com)
• Download attendance report after your meeting (microsoft.com)

Breakout Rooms

Microsoft Teams' breakout room feature allows meeting organizers to divide participants into smaller groups for focused discussions or activities. This feature is particularly useful for large meetings, educational settings, and workshops, facilitating better engagement and collaboration. Organizers can create multiple breakout rooms and assign participants either manually or automatically. During the breakout sessions, participants can have their own private audio, video, and chat capabilities. Organizers have the ability to move between rooms, broadcast messages to all rooms, and close the breakout rooms to bring participants back to the main meeting.

The breakout rooms can be managed through a simplified interface. Organizers can set time limits for the sessions, ensuring discussions remain concise and on schedule. They also have the flexibility to make changes on the fly, such as reassigning participants or opening and closing rooms as needed. After the breakout session, participants return to the main meeting, where the organizer can continue with the larger group agenda.

• Use breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams meetings (microsoft.com)

Meeting Settings

Organizers can manage settings before the meeting starts.

1. Open the meeting in the Teams calendar.
2. Select Meeting options.

• Meeting options in Microsoft Teams (microsoft.com)

Security

• Who can bypass the lobby? The organizer can determine which participants can join the meeting directly without waiting in the lobby.
• Turning off copying or forwarding of meeting chat: When enabled, participants are prevented from copying chat text (using right-click, Ctrl + C, or copy link), forwarding messages, or sharing chat content to Outlook.
• End-to-end encryption*: For meetings requiring heightened confidentiality, end-to-end encryption encrypts data at its origin and decrypts it at its destination. This feature is available for audio, video, and video-based screen sharing.
• Apply a watermark to shared content* and Apply a watermark to everyone's video feed*: A watermark is a faint image that appears over the meeting window to protect the confidentiality of visual content. When enabled, each participant sees their email address overlaid on shared content and/or the video feed, deterring unauthorized screenshots.

Audio and Video

• Apply mic for attendees: Turn this off to prevent attendees from unmuting themselves. Organizers can allow individual attendees to unmute as needed.
• Apply camera for attendees: Turn this off to prevent attendees from sharing their video. Organizers can allow individual attendees to share video as needed.
• Provide CART Captions: Organizers can set up and offer CART (Communication Access Real-time Translation) captioning, which provides human-generated captions instead of the automated live captions in Microsoft Teams.

Engagement

• Meeting chat: This setting allows organizers to enable or disable meeting chat or restrict it to only during the meeting.
• Q&A: Turn this on to enable the question-and-answer feature during meetings.
• Allow reactions: Enable participants to use reactions (like thumbs up, heart, etc.) during the meeting.

Roles

• Announce when people dialing in join or leave: Enable this to announce when participants who dial in by phone join or leave the meeting.
• Choose co-organizers: Assign co-organizers who can help manage the meeting.
• Who can present: Specify which participants can present during the meeting.
• Enable language interpretation: Allow interpreters to provide language translation for participants.

Recording & Transcript

• Record and transcribe automatically: Enable automatic recording and transcription of the meeting.
• Who can record and transcribe: Determine which participants have permission to record and transcribe the meeting.
• Who has access to the recording or transcript: Specify which participants can access the recorded meeting or transcript.

Muting

Muting is an essential feature in Microsoft Teams that helps maintain the order and efficiency of meetings.

To mute yourself, select the microphone icon in the meeting controls. The icon will change to a muted microphone, indicating your microphone is off. To unmute, select the muted microphone icon in the meeting controls. The icon will return to the active microphone, indicating that your microphone is on.

To mute participant(s), select People in the meeting controls. To mute an individual, select the microphone icon next to their name. The icon will change to a muted microphone, indicating the microphone is off. To mute all, select the Mute all button. All icons will change to muted microphones, indicating that the microphones are off. Organizers and presenters cannot unmute participants directly due to privacy concerns. Participants need to unmute themselves if they wish to speak.

• Muting and unmuting your mic in Microsoft Teams (microsoft.com)
• Manage attendee audio and video permissions in Microsoft Teams meetings (microsoft.com)

Managing Mute Settings Before the Meeting

Organizers can manage mute settings before the meeting starts.

1. Open the meeting in the Teams calendar.
2. Select Meeting options.
3. Under Audio & video settings, disselect Allow mic for attendees. You can allow them to unmute individually as needed.

Tips

• Use the Raise Hand Feature: Encourage participants to use the Raise hand feature if they want to speak. This helps maintain order during large meetings.
• Use Chat: Participants can use the chat to communicate if they are muted and need to convey a message without interrupting the speaker.

Screen Sharing

If you want another participant to edit a file, help with a presentation, or demonstrate something, you can give them control of your screen. Both you and the participant will have control, and you can take back control at any time.

• Giving Control: While in an online meeting, hover at the top-center of the Microsoft Teams window. On the sharing toolbar, select Give Control. Choose the name of the participant you want to give control to. Teams will notify the participant that you are sharing control. While sharing control, the participant can make selections, edits, and other modifications to the shared screen. Select Take Back Control on the sharing toolbar to take back control.
• Taking Control: While in an online meeting, hover at the top-center of the Microsoft Teams window. On the sharing toolbar, select Request Control. The person sharing their screen will receive your request and can approve or deny it. Once approved, you can make selections, edits, and other modifications to the shared screen. To give up control, select Release Control on the sharing toolbar.

• Show your screen during a meeting (microsoft.com)
• Present content in Microsoft Teams meetings (microsoft.com)

Further Reading

• Manage meeting attendance reports in Microsoft Teams (microsoft.com)
• Download attendance report after your meeting (microsoft.com)
• Use breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams meetings (microsoft.com)
• Meeting options in Microsoft Teams (microsoft.com)
• Muting and unmuting your mic in Microsoft Teams (microsoft.com)
• Manage attendee audio and video permissions in Microsoft Teams meetings (microsoft.com)
• Show your screen during a meeting (microsoft.com)
• Present content in Microsoft Teams meetings (microsoft.com)