You may have noticed your Microsoft Teams meeting invites now include meeting IDs and passcodes, and there’s a new Join with an ID button on Calendar. In this blog post I’ll cover several meeting ID-related topics for meeting organizers:
- Find your Teams meeting ID and passcode
- Find your Teams meeting ID and passcode during a meeting
- Add someone to a Teams meeting already in progress
- Microsoft Teams meeting IDs vs join links
In a rush? Here’s the quick answer:
- Not in a meeting yet? Open the event on your calendar and you’ll find the meeting ID and passcode in the event details
- In a meeting already? Go to More | Meeting info
Find your Teams meeting ID and passcode (when not already in the meeting)
- Open Microsoft Teams and select Calendar from the left
- Double-click or edit the meeting for which you’d like to retrieve the meeting ID
- Copy the Meeting ID and Passcode from the meeting details
Note that you can also get the join link from the same section if you prefer. The contents you see here as the meeting organizer (join link, ID, passcode, and call-in info when relevant) is the same contents any invited participants received. They can find this on their calendar by opening the event and viewing its details.
Find your Teams meeting ID and passcode during a meeting
To find your Teams meeting join link, meeting ID, and passcode during a meeting, select More | Meeting info.
From here, you can scroll to the bottom for the join link, meeting ID, and passcode.
You can select Copy join info at the top of the same panel which resembles the following and includes both entry options as well as call-in info when you’re licensed appropriately. This might be handy to paste in a quick Teams message or email for last-minute requests:
Add someone to a Teams meeting already in progress
Now let’s imagine you’re in the middle of a Microsoft Teams meeting, and you’d like someone to join you. If they’re in your organization’s directory, you can simply:
- Open the People panel
- Type in their name and select Request to join next to it when it appears
However, you can’t invite external participants as easily because no matches show up.
So for external people, use the method described at the beginning of this post (More | Meeting info) and send the join link, meeting ID, and passcode to the individual you’re asking to join. If the link doesn’t work for them and they want to use the ID to join, they’ll go to Calendar in Microsoft Teams, select Join with an ID and enter the info you provided.
If they don’t have a Microsoft Teams account to utilize Calendar, there will also be a public join webpage soon where they can enter the meeting ID and passcode and join.
Microsoft Teams meeting IDs vs join links
When it comes to secure meetings, links and IDs are about the same. If someone forwards the meeting invite to a stranger, they can attempt to join the meeting. If you’re concerned about this, perhaps because you’re sharing NDA content in a meeting or just don’t want strangers hopping in, be sure to utilize the “People I Invite” lobby settings so you can decline any unfamiliar or uninvited persons attempting to enter.
Join links specifically are perfectly fine to continue using and they are very difficult for a bad agent (with the intention of crashing your meeting) to guess. Imagine trying to guess something this long and complex, even with bot assistance:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19:meeting_MGZlO23U4YjItOTE2MS00ZTSkLWIyMGUtNGRiMWRiYjc4ZjU2@thread.v2/0?context=%7B%22Tid%22:%225a447937-4988-4622-ab53-g1e384ec3c1a%22,%22Oid%22:%22c3db5526-5334-4d0a-ba50-bece903d370%22%7D
Join links are quick and easy for invitees to use. Click the link and you’re at the pre-join screen making sure your devices are setup properly.
Meeting IDs also take you directly to the pre-join screen, and may be a better option if someone is having difficulty using the link you provided. Perhaps their firewall is preventing the link from working or there are other restrictions on their machine that don’t allow them to utilize links normally. Meeting IDs give them an alternative entry method that isn’t dependent on an https:// url.
Why is there a passcode? Without a passcode, a stranger could simply start guessing meeting IDs (which are much easier to guess than the long, complicated join links) and they could pay you and your colleagues an unwanted visit.
Best practice would be to send people both options so they have a backup method if needed. Your meeting invites automatically include both already, and if you’re in a meeting attempting to add someone who wasn’t originally invited, you can go to More | Meeting info and select Copy join info which will copy both options to your clipboard for those last-minute invites via messages or emails.