Interact with Teams controls during meetings and calls by pairing third-party devices or apps with your desktop. To pair, your device must have a plug-in compatible with Teams, like the Stream Deck, and your IT admin must have enabled the global policy.

Use your device to:

  • Raise and lower your hand

  • Send reactions

  • Mute and unmute

  • Leave a meeting

  • Turn your camera on and off

  • Blur or unblur your background

Pair a device

  1. Connect your third-party device to your desktop.

  2. Open Teams for desktop.

  3. Select Settings and more Teams settings and more icon. in the top right of Teams, then select Settings Settings button > Privacy.

  4. Select Manage API under the Third-party app API section.

    1. If Manage API is greyed out, an IT admin from one of the accounts you used to sign into Teams has disabled third-party device pairing.

  5. Turn on the toggle next to Enable API.

  6. Join a Teams meeting and press any button on your third-party device.

  7. You will see a window to Allow or Block a new connection request. If the API token is empty, select Generate to generate a new one.

    1. Tapping Allow means the third-party device will pair and can interact with Teams; it will be added to the Allowed apps and devices list.

    2. Tapping Block means the device will not be allowed to interact with Teams and will be added to the Blocked apps and devices list.

    3. Remove a previously paired device by tapping Block.

    4. Re-pair a previously blocked device by tapping Forget. Once done, you can pair the device again.

For more help with your device, reference the device’s documentation or contact the device company’s support.

Turn off device pairing

  1. Open Teams for desktop.

  2. Select Settings and more Teams settings and more icon. in the top right of Teams, then select Settings Settings button> Privacy.

  3. Select Manage API under the Third-party app API section.

  4. Turn off the toggle next to Enable API.