Meeting Policies

Configure meeting join settings, recording permissions, transcription, lobby behavior, and participant capabilities during Teams meetings. Meeting policies control the features available to meeting organizers and participants.

Note: Teams policies are available with any Microsoft 365 license that includes Teams. Advanced meeting features like webinars and town halls require Teams Premium. Policy management via Graph API requires TeamsPolicy.ReadWrite.All permissions.

Meeting Policy Settings

Setting	Options	Description
Cloud recording	Allow / Block	Enable meeting recording to OneDrive/SharePoint
Transcription	Allow / Block	Enable live transcription and captions
Who can present	Everyone / Organizer / People in org	Default presenter role for meetings
Lobby bypass	Configurable	Control who skips the lobby
Chat in meetings	Enabled / Disabled	Allow chat during meetings
Screen sharing	Entire screen / Single app / Disabled	Control screen sharing mode
Camera for attendees	Allow / Block	Allow video for participants
Reactions	Enabled / Disabled	Enable meeting reactions

Live Events Policies

Control who can create live events and configure production settings. Live events support large-scale broadcasts to up to 20,000 attendees with specialized production capabilities.

Setting	Options	Description
Allow scheduling	Enabled / Disabled	Users can create and schedule live events
Transcription	Enabled / Disabled	Allow live captions and transcription
Who can join	Everyone / Org / Invited	Default audience scope for live events
Recording	Always / Never / Organizer	Control who can enable recording

Update Policies

Teams update policies control which preview features users can access and how Teams client updates are delivered:

Warning: Public Preview features may contain bugs. Recommended only for IT admins and power users testing new capabilities before broader rollout.

Public Preview — Earliest access to new features, may contain bugs, recommended for IT admins only
Targeted Release — More stable features ahead of GA, good for pilot groups providing feedback
General Availability — Fully tested and stable features, default for most users

Policy Assignment

Policies follow a precedence order where direct user assignments override group assignments, which override the global default.

Assignment Type	Use Case	Scalability
Direct to User	Exceptions, VIPs, specific overrides	Manual, suitable for small numbers
Group Assignment	Departments, roles, teams	Automatic via group membership
Batch Assignment	Large user populations	Up to 5,000 users per batch

Assignment Precedence (Highest to Lowest)

Direct User Assignment — Policy assigned directly to a specific user
Group Assignment (Ranked) — Policy assigned via group with priority ranking
Global (Org-wide default) — Default policy applied to all users without specific assignment

Recording and Compliance

Recordings stored in OneDrive or SharePoint
Retention policies apply to recordings
Transcription available for compliance and accessibility
Meeting recordings automatically expire after a configurable period

Best Practices

Policy Design

Use group-based assignment for scalability
Keep the global policy restrictive as a baseline
Test policies in pilot groups before wide deployment
Use policy packages for common role types

Security Considerations

Restrict external meeting join for sensitive tenants
Enable meeting recording only where required
Configure lobby settings to prevent unauthorized access
Monitor policy changes via audit logs

API Reference


# Get meeting policies
GET /teams/policies/meetings


# Assign meeting policy to user via PowerShell
Grant-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity user@domain.com -PolicyName "RestrictedMeetings"


# OpsPilot365 API - Bulk deploy meeting policy
POST /api/teams/policies/deploy
{
  "policyType": "meeting",
  "policyName": "MSP-Standard-Meetings",
  "tenantIds": ["tenant-1", "tenant-2"],
  "assignmentType": "global",
  "conflictResolution": "overwrite"
}

GET /api/teams/policies/meetings — List meeting policies
POST /api/teams/policies/meetings — Create policy
PUT /api/teams/policies/meetings/:id — Update policy