External and unverified tags in Microsoft Teams

Overview

This article is intended to cover the potential for users to see one of these two tags next to themselves or other users in Microsoft Teams meetings or calls:

  • External
  • Unverified

This should not be effecting the majority of our users right now due to them being within our organization, but we are getting reports, as of February 27, 2024, that some users that are part of the organization are seeing one of the tags when they should not be.

As always, checking for an updated version of the desktop client and logging out and back into Teams may resolve some of the issues caused by how frequently Microsoft is updating the client since the release of Microsoft Teams (work or school).

Notice from Microsoft

Microsoft published this notice on February 14, 2024. Bracketed text was added for clarification.

In our continuous drive to increase the security of Microsoft Teams meetings, we [Microsoft, and throughout] are updating the labels for the participants' names.

  • To bring in consistency and accuracy to the user labels, we are introducing the term Unverified, which will be seen for all meeting participants who do not have a trusted relationship with the organizer.
  • All participants who are not part of the organizer's organization but are configured as a trusted relationship with the organizer will continue to be termed as External.

Additionally, we are ensuring that all areas within Team meetings - lobby, participant roster, meeting chat, and so on - will consistently show accurate user labels.

When this will happen:

We will begin rolling out mid-February 2024 and expect to complete by early March 2024 for all the in-meeting participant views. Other areas within Teams meetings will soon follow with these updates. This will be announced in a future post.

How this will affect your organization:

Organizers and meeting participants in your organization who attend meetings with users outside of their organization - with or without a Microsoft Entra ID - will see the changes in labels that reflect the trust level of the participant with the organizer (External, Unverified, or no label).

  • No label: All participants who are part of the organizer’s organization.
  • External: All participants who are external to the organizer’s organization but have a trusted relationship with the organizer or their organization.
  • Unverified: All other participants will be seen with this label. This will include Microsoft Entra ID users who belong to organizations that do not have an explicit external access setup with the organizer’s organization, Microsoft Account (personal) users, users who are not using any Microsoft ID while joining meetings, and others.

How this will affect your organization:

Organizers and meeting participants in your organization who attend meetings with users outside of their organization - with or without a Microsoft Entra ID - will see the changes in labels that reflect the trust level of the participant with the organizer (External, Unverified, or no label).

  • No label: All participants who are part of the organizer’s organization.
  • External: All participants who are external to the organizer’s organization but have a trusted relationship with the organizer or their organization.
  • Unverified: All other participants will be seen with this label. This will include Microsoft Entra ID users who belong to organizations that do not have an explicit external access setup with the organizer’s organization, Microsoft Account (personal) users, users who are not using any Microsoft ID while joining meetings, and others.

Need help?

For questions, please contact your IT support unit or the Technology Service Desk.

Details

Article ID: 140696
Created
Tue 2/27/24 5:33 PM
Modified
Tue 2/27/24 5:34 PM