Turn waiting in the lobby on or off in Microsoft Teams

The lobby of a Teams meeting is a waiting room: attendees wait there until you let them in. Useful for a confidential conversation or a presentation with external people. But sometimes you want everyone to come straight in. With the lobby settings you decide who waits and who doesn't.

Set the lobby before the meeting

1. Open the meeting in your Teams Calendar.
2. Click Meeting options.
3. Under Who can bypass the lobby? choose one of the options (exact names may vary slightly):
   • Everyone: nobody waits, the lobby is effectively off.
   • People in my org, trusted orgs, and guests
   • People in my org and guests
   • People in my org
   • People I invite
   • Only organizers and co-organizers: everyone else waits.
4. Also choose whether people dialing in can bypass the lobby.
5. Click Save.

Change the lobby during the meeting

1. In the meeting, click More (the three dots) > Settings > Meeting options.
2. Change Who can bypass the lobby? and save.

People already waiting? You see them at the top of the People list. Click Admit or Admit all.

For admins: set the default

The default for new meetings comes from the meeting policy:

1. Open the Teams admin center.
2. Go to Meetings > Meeting policies and open a policy (for example Global).
3. Under the participant and guest settings, adjust Who can bypass the lobby and People dialing in can bypass the lobby.
4. There is also a separate setting that controls whether anonymous users or dial-in callers can start a meeting without the organizer.

Organizers can still deviate from the default per meeting, unless you enforce the choice in the policy.

Also see who can bypass the lobby and lock a Teams meeting.

Read also

Who can bypass the lobby in Microsoft Teams: every option explained
Lock a Microsoft Teams meeting
Join a Teams meeting without a Microsoft account

Nederlandstalige versie: Wachten in de lobby in- of uitschakelen in Microsoft Teams

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