M365 Changelog: Microsoft Teams: Lobby experience for external presenters in town hall and webinar

Summary

Microsoft Teams is updating the lobby experience for external presenters in town halls and webinars. Unauthenticated external guests will now wait in the lobby where organizers can approve or deny access. This rollout begins early July 2024 and requires no admin action but recommends informing event organizers.

MC807463 – In Microsoft Teams, town hall and webinar currently support the ability for an external user outside the organization to present in an event. External presenters can be guests who are federated, unfederated, or anonymous to the organization.

With this update, if a federated or unfederated guest has not been successfully authenticated, the guest will be brought into the lobby rather than being restricted access when joining the event. Once in the lobby, an internal organizer or presenter has the option to approve or deny the guest’s request to join the event.
Additional notes:

  • It is recommended to keep the lobby enabled for your event if you intend to invite external presenters.
  • An external presenter that is successfully authenticated will be brought into the event automatically without waiting in the lobby.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): Microsoft will begin rolling out in early July 2024 and expects to complete by mid-July 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Any events that are created or updated after the rollout of this improvement will receive the new lobby experience for external presenters.

For more information, see Schedule a town hall in Microsoft Teams.

What you need to do to prepare:

The improvement will be rolled out to organizations automatically with no admin action required. It is recommended that you notify your event organizers about this change and update any documentation as appropriate.