Published Oct 31, 2025
Message Center
Updated December 12, 2025:May 8, 2026: We have added additional content clarifying who is impacted byare not releasing this feature. Thank youfeature at this time. We apologize for your patience.any inconvenience this may cause.
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 accountone before being able to collaborate. We're introducing a new capability in Microsoft Teams (for for certain tenants)tenants (see ‘Who is affected’ below) 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 anyoneguest— no account needed 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,Windows, Mac, Web, iOS, Linux, and MacAndroid platforms.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 513271.
When this will happen:
How this affects your organization:
Who is affected:
This capability is currently available only to small and do not restrict guest collaboration to specific domains. Within these organizations, Microsoft Teams usersmedium business customers enrolled in public preview with a Teams Essentials, Business Basic, Business Standard, or Business Premium license.
What will happen for those who are impacted:affected:
What you can do to prepare:
Compliance considerations:
No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.
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:
How this affects your organization:
Who is affected:
What will happen for those who are impacted:
What you can do to prepare:
Compliance considerations:
No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.