Do you organize large meetings or present material in them? To avoid random noise and distractions that can quickly disrupt the proceedings, you can mute the mics of all attendees and prevent them from unmuting. Then, when someone "raises their hand" to speak, you can allow them to unmute.
Note: Currently attendees who call in to a meeting using the phone number provided in the meeting details will not be prevented from unmuting.
For information on which meeting participants are classified as "attendees," see Roles in a Teams meeting.
In this article
Prevent unmuting
Before the meeting
After scheduling the meeting and sending out the invites, the meeting organizer can turn off the mics so that attendees can't unmute themselves during the meeting. All attendees (but not presenters) will be muted when they join the meeting.
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Go to Calendar and double-click the meeting.
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Select Meeting options near the top of the screen.
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Turn off the Allow attendees to unmute toggle and select Save.
During the meeting
The organizer and presenters can prevent attendees from unmuting at any time during the meeting.
Note: Currently organizers and presenters joining from mobile or Teams meeting room devices can't prevent attendees from unmuting.
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Select More options
next to Participants and then select Don't allow attendees to unmute.
Attendee mics will appear dimmed.
Alternatively, you can mute all the mics without preventing unmuting by selecting Mute all participants under Participants.
Requests to speak
Attendees who can't unmute can raise their hands to request to speak.
Allow unmuting
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Point to a raised hand, select More options
, and then select Allow to unmute.
The attendee can now unmute.
Note: Currently this functionality isn't available on mobile or Teams meeting room devices.
Prevent unmuting again
After an attendee has spoken, you can again prevent them from unmuting.
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Select More options
next to the attendee's name and then select Don't allow to unmute.
Note: Currently this functionality isn't available on mobile or Teams meeting room devices.
