(Updated) Microsoft Teams: Chat with anyone with an email address [MC1182004]

Message ID: MC1182004 (Updated)

Updated December 12, 2025: We have added additional content clarifying who is impacted by this feature. Thank you for your patience.

[Introduction]

Teams users in tenants with more open collaboration policies have long been able to start a chat with anyone who has an email address. However, recipients without a Teams account were previously asked to sign up for an account before being able to collaborate. We’re introducing a new capability in Microsoft Teams (for certain tenants) that allows these chat recipients without a Teams account to receive an email invitation to join the chat session as a guest, enabling seamless communication and collaboration.

This means that Teams users can truly start a chat with anyone who has an email address—even if they’re not currently using Teams and as long as it is allowed by the tenant’s existing policy configuration. This update simplifies external engagement and supports flexible work scenarios.

This capability is currently available only in public preview to a limited number of small and medium business customers with a Teams Essentials, Business Basic, Business Standard, or Business Premium license. Organizations without users enrolled in public preview or without users with these licenses may still see this communication to learn from customer feedback and interest.

This feature will be available across Android, Desktop, iOS, Linux, and Mac platforms.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 513271.

[When this will happen:]

• Targeted Release: Rollout for users with the aforementioned licenses begun in early November 2025 and was completed in mid-November 2025
• General Availability (Worldwide): TBA

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected:

• Targeted Release: Only organizations that have Guest access chat enabled and do not restrict guest collaboration to specific domains. Within these organizations, Microsoft Teams users with a Teams Essentials, Business Basic, Business Standard, or Business Premium license.
• General Availability (Worldwide): TBA

What will happen for those who are impacted:

• Recipients, who do not use Teams, of chats initiated by impacted users will receive an email invitation inviting them to join chats as guests.
• The chat experience will be governed by your organization’s Entra B2B Guest policy.
• Chats will remain within your organization’s boundary.
• This feature will be enabled by default but can only be used if your Guest Access policies allow. It will not override any existing Teams Admin Center policies.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• Update internal documentation to reflect this new capability.
• Inform helpdesk and support teams about the change.
• Review the documentation here: Chat with anyone not using Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
• To disable the feature, set the UseB2BInvitesToAddExternalUsers attribute of TeamsMessagingPolicy to false. Set-CsTeamsMessagingPolicy documentation here.

[Compliance considerations:]

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.

Source: Microsoft

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