Microsoft Teams previews Dial In Conferencing

Laurent Giret

Microsoft Teams

Earlier this month, we learned that Microsoft was preparing to upgrade Skype for Business users to Microsoft Teams, a transition that would be opt-in while the company continues to enhance the Microsoft Teams experience. There are definitely a lot of synergies between the two products, and a new feature that lets users join Microsoft Teams Meetings using their Skype for Business dial-in number is apparently in public preview.

credit: Jeff Brown.

After creating a new Microsoft Teams Meeting yesterday, Skype for Business Technical Consultant Jeff Brown spotted the dial-in conferencing information in the meeting description, with a new “Join by Phone” section including dial-in number and conference ID details. When a participant joins the Teams Meeting using PSTN, he will be identified by his phone number in the participant list, explained Brown.

credit: Jeff Brown.

“The dial-in conferencing is a welcome feature and only goes to show that Microsoft Teams is rapidly taking on Skype for Business features,” shared Brown in a blog post yesterday. “One noticeable feature missing from meetings is the ability to dial-out or the “call me at” feature to dial out to a phone.” Despite the Dial In Conference ability being in public preview, it looks like Microsoft has yet to officially announce the new feature. There are a couple of Ignite sessions dedicated to Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business next week, and we expect to learn more about dial-in conferencing in Teams on this occasion.