Add or invite people outside your org to a chat in Microsoft Teams (2024)

With External Accessfor Teams, you can add or invite anyone outside of your Teams org whouses Teams, Teams for personal use, Skype (for consumers), and Skype for Business to a one-to-onechat.

You can also ask your admin to add external users to your organization’s extended directory using their phone number. Once added, you'll be able to search for them as you search for anyone inside your organization.

For those who useTeams or Teams for personal use, thisincludesboth one-to-one chats andnew or existing group chats.

First things to know

If you invite someone who doesn’t have a Teamsaccount, they’llreceive an invite to start an unmanaged Teams account and thenjoin the chat with all chat history included.
People from different Teams orgs canbe easily added to each other's chats without sending invites.
Admins can add known external contacts to your organization’s extended directory. Once added, these contacts can be searched using their name or phone number. To learn more, seeManage external meetings and chat.
People who useTeams for personal use must accept achat invite to participate in a chat. When a chatis created between a managed Teamsorg anda Teams for personal use account, only certain options are available.
External Access is turned on by default, but it can be turned off or restricted by an org’s admin, such as blocking certain addresses or domains.
An externallabel at the top of a chatindicates if there are anyexternal participants in the chat. You'll also see an identifying label beside the names of anyexternal participantsin one-to-one and group chat participant lists. On the upper-left side of Teams
A person'sstatusindicatoris always shown for people who use Teams and Skype for Business, only shown for people who use Teams for personal useafter they accept a chatinvite, and not shownfor people who use Skype.

Add or invite someone from outside your org to a one-on-one chat

People you add or invite outside of your orgto a one-to-one chat may includeanyonewho uses Teams, Teams for personal use, Skype, and Skype for Business.

Notes:

Anyone who uses Skype or Teams for personal use canaccept or block chat invites. You canblock any incoming communication from them as well.
You can use a phone number to search for someone who uses Teams for personal use.
See Also
How to Remove Chat from Taskbar in Windows 11: A Step-by-Step Guide - Live2Tech How to Uninstall Chat in Windows 11: A Step-by-Step Guide - Support Your Tech
Skype and Skype for Business participantscan only use plain text in a chat.

On the left side of Teams, select Chat
and then New chat
to start a new chat.
Type the person’s email addressor phone number that you want to invite to chat.
If their name appears, select it from below the command bar.If there isn’t a name match,selectSearch [email address] externally to send them a chat invite.
To start the chat, type a message in the text box at the bottom and then select Send .

Tip:To format the message before you send it, choose one of the formatting options at the bottom of the chat before sending.

Add someone who uses Teams outside of your org to a group chat

People you add who are outside of your orgto a new or existing group chat must use Teams or Teams for personal use.

Note:Chat participants from different orgsthat restrict or block communicationwith each other may be part of your group chat if your org is allowed to communicate with thoseorgs.

Start a new group chat and add participants

Type the email addressesor phone numbers of the peopleyou want to invite to chat.
Type a messagein the text box at the bottomor click the downarrowonthe right to add a group name (optional) before typing a message.

Note:A group chat is limited to 250 people, although each person may be from a different Teams org.

Add participants to an existing group chat

You may only add external access participants to existing or ongoingchats that already includeat least one external access participant. Otherwise, you’ll create a new group chat with the internal participants and the one or more external participants that you’re adding.

Choose or be active in the existing group chat that you needto add the participantsto.
Select View and add participants below your profile picture at the upper-right of Teams, and then chooseAdd people .
Select the added participant's name, thenchoose if and how much of the chat history you'd like to include. SelectAdd.

You’ll then see those people added to the group chat.

If there isn’t an immediate name match for a person (no results found), choose Search [email address of person] externally to send them a chat invite.
To start or continue the chat, type a message in the text box at the bottom and then selectSend .

Tip:If you'd liketo format the message before you send it (optional), choose one of the formatting options at the bottom of the chat before sending.

More things to know

External chat participants who use Teams and Teams for personal usemay edit and delete sent messages, set delivery options, format text, use emoji, stickers, and GIFsin conversations, use @mentions, andshow their statusin a chat. However, they can’t share or attach files or use tabsorapps.
In most cases, all chat participants can view each other’s profiles.
Some outside orgs or external access capabilities may be blocked by your org, or your org may be blocked by them.
You can host an external group chat with up to 249 other orgs.
An external chat remains external even if all external participants are no longer part of the chat.
When you join an external group chat within an org, you're subject to the policies ofthat org. Also, the shortest retention policy applies, which aresettings that determine how long a chat or message is kept.
An external chat becomes read-only if all participants in the org where the chat was created are removed from that org.
Data-loss prevention (DLP) and information barriers don't apply to External Access chats.

For more info about External Access and related settings,see Manage external access in Microsoft Teamsor check with your admin.

Start a chat with an external contact added to your organization's extended directory

If your org's admins have enabled the Teams ConnectExtended Directoryfor chat, you can find these external contacts by searching for them using their name or phone number.

Go toChat>New Chat .
In the To:field, enter the person'sname or phone number, then select them from the search results.
Select the correct contactand send your first message to start the chat.

The external contact can see your organization's privacy policies when they are making the decision to accept or block the invite.

To learn more, seeAccept, block, or delete chat or meeting requests from people outside your organization.

To view profile information for an external user added to your organization’s extended directory, go to their profile card. These details are available when provided by your organization's admins.