As we have to talk about Teams every week, the Microsoft platform is booming and it shows. It has a lot of good things and makes it very easy to work with people from all over the world. However, until now, Microsoft Teams had a limitation: it was not easy to work with people from others tenants or domains.
A tenant is a collection of users, groups, and resources that share a Microsoft 365 subscription. Each tenant has a unique domain, such as @contoso.com or @fabrikam.com. Sharers can easily access shared resources within their organization, but not those of other organizations. This was an issue for users who needed to collaborate with people outside of their tenant, such as customers, vendors, or partners.
To address this issue, Microsoft has announced a new feature that makes it easier to work with other people tenants in Microsoft Teams. This is the External Guest feature, which allows users to invite people from other domains to their teams and channels without having to switch accounts or apps.
How does the external guest feature work in Microsoft Teams?
The external guest feature in Microsoft Teams works as follows:
- The user who wants to invite an outsider to their team or channel must have permission to add invitees in their tenant. This permission can be set from the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- The user must send an email invitation to the external person they want to add. The external person must have a Microsoft 365 account or a personal Microsoft account (such as Outlook.com or Hotmail.com).
- The external person must accept the invitation and follow the instructions to join the team or channel. The outsider will be able to access the team or channel from their own Microsoft Teams app, without having to leave your tenant.
- The external person will be able to participate in the conversations, view the files and use the applications of the team or channel to which they have been invited. However, you will have some restrictions, such as not being able to create private channels, delete messages, or edit team settings.
This new feature in Microsoft Teams is available to all users with a Microsoft 365 commercial or educational license. The feature can be turned on or off from the Microsoft 365 admin center.
What benefits does the external guest feature have for Microsoft Teams users?
The external guest feature in Microsoft Teams offers several benefits for users, especially those who work with people from other organizations. Here are some of them:
- Facilitates collaboration: The feature allows users to work with outsiders without having to switch accounts or applications. This makes communication and information sharing faster and easier.
- Improve productivity: The role allows users to access all the resources and tools of the team or channel to which they have been invited. This helps them to carry out their tasks and projects with more efficiency and quality.
- Increase security: The feature allows administrators to control who can invite external people and what permissions these people have. This prevents unauthorized access or misuse of tenant data and resources.
The external guest feature in Microsoft Teams is an important innovation that improves the user experience and the competitiveness of the platform. Interested users can try it out now by enabling the feature from the admin center.