MC1266901 - Microsoft Teams: Retirement of legacy third‑party meeting and call control APIs

Introduction

To improve the reliability, security, and maintainability of Microsoft Teams, Microsoft will retire a legacy external Teams meeting controls integration capability in the Teams desktop client (Windows and Mac). This capability previously enabled select external hardware devices and applications to control Teams meeting or calling functionality from outside of the Teams client through a limited, non‑published integration method. This integration method is no longer supported or maintained. Retiring this functionality allows Microsoft Teams to continue investing in secure and supported integration models. 

When this will happen

Retirement date: June 30, 2026

On this date,

• The legacy external meeting controls integration capability will be permanently removed.
• The related user setting in the Teams desktop client will no longer be available.

This communication provides more than 30 days’ notice in alignment with Message center retirement best practices.

How this affects your organization 

Who is affected

This change may affect organizations where users enabled external hardware devices or applications to control Teams meetings (or Teams calls in some cases) functionality from outside of the Teams desktop client. Examples of affected scenarios may include external software or hardware used to:

• Mute or unmute the microphone
• Turn the camera on or off
• Apply or remove background blur
• Raise or lower hand
• Send meeting reactions
• End meeting

Microsoft Teams desktop users on Windows and Mac may experience changes if such integrations are in use.

What will happen

Beginning June 30, 2026:

• External applications or devices will no longer be able to control Teams meeting or calling functionality using this legacy integration capability.
• If basic media controls (for example, mute/unmute or camera on/off) were previously triggered during Teams calls by an external device or application, those controls may also no longer function when initiated externally.
• The Teams desktop client setting located at: Settings > Privacy that previously allowed external applications or devices to control meeting features will be removed.
• Previously configured third‑party meeting or calling control integrations that relied on this capability may stop functioning.

Native Microsoft Teams meeting and calling controls will continue to function normally. Select device or application providers may have previously notified customers regarding the end-of-support (EOS) for integrations that relied on this functionality. This change does not affect supported Microsoft Teams integration models or published Microsoft Graph APIs.

What you can do to prepare

No configuration change is required by admins within Microsoft 365 for this retirement. However, we recommend that you:

• Review whether any external meeting or calling control tools are used with Teams desktop.
• Notify impacted users and internal helpdesk teams.
• Update internal documentation referencing the external control privacy setting.
• Contact third‑party vendors to confirm supported Microsoft Teams integration methods are being used.

Original support documentation: Connect to third-party devices in Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Support 

Compliance considerations

No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.