Set up Audio Conferencing for Microsoft Teams
This article is for administrators and IT professionals who are deploying Audio Conferencing for Teams meetings. Before reading this article, see Plan for Audio Conferencing for information about Audio Conferencing concepts and prerequisites.
Sometimes people in your organization need to use a phone to call in to a meeting. Microsoft Teams includes the Audio Conferencing feature for just this situation. People can call in to Teams meetings using a phone, instead of using the Teams app on a mobile device or PC.
You only need to set up Audio Conferencing for people who plan to schedule or lead meetings. Meeting attendees who dial in don't need any licenses assigned to them or other setup.
For frequently asked questions about Audio Conferencing, see Audio Conferencing common questions.
Note
We are frequently updating how you can manage features, so the steps here might be a little different from what you see.
Step 1: Find out if Audio Conferencing is available in your country/region
Go to Country and region availability for Audio Conferencing and Calling Plans and select your country/ region to get availability information about Audio Conferencing. You can also get information about Phone System, Calling Plans, toll and toll-free numbers, and Communications Credits.
Step 2: Get and assign licenses
For Audio Conferencing, you need a license for each user who sets up dial-in meetings. To learn which licenses you need to buy for Audio Conferencing and how much they cost, see Microsoft Teams add-on licensing.
After you buy the Audio Conferencing licenses, you need to assign them to those people in your organization who are going to schedule or lead meetings. For more information, see Assign licenses to users in Microsoft 365 or Office 365 for business.
We also recommend that you assign Communications Credits licenses (they don’t cost anything) to the same people you assigned licenses to in the previous step. To learn how to set up Communications Credits, see Set up Communications Credits for your organization.
Note
You can also set up pay-per-minute Audio Conferencing.
Step 3: Get service numbers for your conferencing bridges
For Audio Conferencing, you can’t use phone numbers for users; you need to get service numbers. You can get either toll or toll-free service numbers for your conferencing bridges. There are three ways to get toll and toll-free service numbers:
Use the Microsoft Teams admin center. For some countries/regions, you can get service numbers for your conferencing bridges using the Microsoft Teams admin center. See Getting service phone numbers.
Port your existing service numbers. To port or transfer existing numbers from your current service provider or phone carrier to Microsoft 365 or Office 365. For more information, see Transfer phone numbers to Teams or Manage phone numbers for your organization.
Use a request form for new numbers. Sometimes (depending on your country/region) you can't get your new service numbers using the Microsoft Teams admin center, or you might need specific phone numbers or area codes. If so, you need to download a form and send it back to us. For more information, seeManage phone numbers for your organization.
Step 4: Assign a service number to the conferencing bridge
Once you get your toll and/or toll-free phone numbers for your conferencing bridge, you need to assign the numbers so they can be used on meeting invitations.
Follow these steps to assign a new phone number to your audio conferencing bridge.
Using the Microsoft Teams admin center:
- From the Home, go to Voice > Phone numbers.
- Select the phone number, and select Assign.
For more information, see Change the phone numbers on your Audio Conferencing bridge.
Step 5: Set the default and alternate languages for a conferencing bridge
Next, you want to Set auto attendant languages for Audio Conferencing in Microsoft Teams that the conferencing auto attendant uses to greet callers when they dial in to a phone number for Audio Conferencing.
Using the Microsoft Teams admin center:
- From the Home, go to Meetings > Conference bridges.
- Select the conferencing bridge phone number, select Edit, and then choose the default language.
Step 6: Set your conferencing bridge settings
After setting up your conferencing bridge and languages, verify that default settings, like entry/exit notifications and PIN length, suit your preferences. If they're not, you can change them.
Using the Microsoft Teams admin center:
- From the Home, go to Meetings > Conference bridges.
- Select Bridge settings to open the Bridge settings pane.
For more information, see Change the settings for an Audio Conferencing bridge.
Step 7: Assign dial-in phone numbers for users who lead meetings
Refer to Set the phone numbers included on invites in Microsoft Teams.
Note
You can also set phone numbers by adding them to the TeamsAudioconferencingpolicy and assigning the policy to your users. Toll and toll-free phone numbers added to the policy take precedence over the phone numbers set individually for users via the audio conferencing settings pane. If no phone numbers are added to the Teamsaudioconferencingpolicy, then the phone number set individually for users via the audio conferencing settings pane is displayed in Microsoft Teams meeting requests. Audio Conferencing policy settings for toll and toll-free numbers has more information.
Important
It can take up to 24 hours for the assigned phone numbers to show up on your meeting invite. If you aren't seeing updated numbers appear, please wait at least 24 hours before contacting support.
Step 8: Set up meeting invitations (optional)
The dial-in numbers that are set for the user are automatically added to the meeting invitations that are sent to meeting attendees. However, you can add your own help and legal links, a text message, and small company graphic if you want. See Customize meeting invitations.
Related topics
Audio Conferencing common questions