Learn about how Audio Conferencing in Microsoft 365 or Office 365 allows users call in to meetings from their phones.
Audio Conferencing in Microsoft 365 and Office 365 enables users to call in to meetings from their phones. Audio Conferencing allows up to 1000 phone attendees.
Calling in (dialing in) to meetings is very useful for users who are on the road and can't attend a meeting using the Skype for Business or Microsoft Teams app on their laptops or mobile devices. But there are other scenarios in which using a phone to attend a Skype for Business or Microsoft Teams meeting can be a better option than using an app on a computer:
You only need to set up Audio Conferencing for people who plan to schedule or lead meetings. Meeting attendees who dial in don't need any licenses assigned to them or other setup.
After attendees have joined meeting, they can also dial out and invite other callers into a Skype for Business or Microsoft Teams meeting. See Dialing out from a Teams meeting so other people can join it or Dialing out from a Skype for Business meeting so other people can join it.
For pricing info, see Pricing for Audio Conferencing.
With Audio Conferencing, your users can use toll and toll-free phone numbers to dial in to meetings. Toll (service) numbers are automatically assigned as shared audio conferencing numbers to organizations when they're enabled for Audio Conferencing. Dedicated toll and toll-free numbers can be assigned to your organization from additional cities.
Toll-free phone numbers (service numbers) are available, but only in some countries/regions. To see what is available in your country or region, see Country and region availability for Audio Conferencing and Calling Plans.
After you have decided you want Audio Conferencing for your organization, you need to buy one Audio Conferencing license for each person in your organization who is going to schedule/host an audio meeting.
When you are setting up Audio Conferencing for Skype for Business or Microsoft Teams, you will get an audio conferencing bridge. A conferencing bridge can contain one or more phone numbers. The phone number you set will be included on the meeting invites for Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams apps. You can change the phone numbers on your conferencing bridge, and you can also change other audio conferencing bridge settings.
The audio conferencing bridge answers a call for people who are dialing in to a meeting using a phone. It answers the caller with voice prompts from an auto attendant, and then, depending on your settings, can play notifications and ask callers to record their name. Microsoft bridge settings allow you to change the settings for meeting notifications and the meeting join experience, and set the length of the PINs that are used by meeting organizers in Microsoft Teams or in Skype for Business Online. Meeting organizers use PINs to start meetings if they can't join the meeting using the Skype for Business or Microsoft Teams app.
There are two types of audio conferencing phone numbers that can be assigned to your conferencing bridge: Shared and Dedicated. Both types of numbers can be used by any caller to join audio meetings that are being held in your organization.
Dedicated phone numbers are those phone numbers that are only available to users within your organization. You can change the languages that are used when someone calls in to one of these numbers. You will need to get a service phone number for these.
Shared phone numbers are those phone numbers that can be shared with other Microsoft 365 or Office 365s. You can't change the languages that are used when someone calls in to one of these numbers.
While the default audio conferencing number that is assigned to an organizer is only included in the meeting invite, a caller can use any of the phone numbers that are assigned to your conferencing bridge to join a meeting. The list of phone numbers that can be used to join a meeting is available using the Find a local number link that is included on every meeting invite.
For more information, see Phone numbers for Audio Conferencing in Microsoft Teams or Phone numbers for Audio Conferencing in Skype for Business Online.
Shared audio conferencing phone numbers are automatically assigned to organizations when they're enabled for audio conferencing. When the phone numbers are assigned, a phone number is assigned as the default phone number of the conferencing bridge. The phone number assigned as the default number of the bridge will be one from the country/region of the organization.
Note
The country or region location of your organization can be found by signing in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and looking under Organization Profile.
Caution
Due to limited availability of toll phone numbers in Venezuela, Indonesia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE), organizations from these countries/regions won't have an Audio Conferencing toll number automatically assigned to them. Toll-free numbers from these locations are available depending on available inventory.
To see a list of those countries/regions that have phone numbers automatically assigned to organizations, see Country and region availability for Audio Conferencing and Calling Plans.
Dedicated audio conferencing phone numbers are service numbers that you can get and then assign to your organization. You can get dedicated toll and toll-free phone numbers for your conferencing bridges in one of three ways:
Use the Skype for Business admin center. For some countries/regions, you can get numbers for your conference bridges using the Skype for Business admin center. See Getting service phone numbers.
Port your existing numbers. You can port or transfer existing numbers from your current service provider or phone carrier to Microsoft 365 or Office 365. See Transfer phone numbers to Teams or Manage phone numbers for your organization for more information to help you do this.
Use a request form for new numbers. Sometimes (depending on your country/region) you won't be able to get your new phone numbers using the Skype for Business admin center, or you will need specific phone numbers or area codes. If so, you will need to download a form and send it back to us. See Manage phone numbers for your organization for more information.
After you have decided to set up Audio Conferencing for your users, see Set up Audio Conferencing for Microsoft Teams or Set up Audio Conferencing for Skype for Business Online for steps you can follow to do so.
Set up Skype for Business Online
Phone numbers for Audio Conferencing in Microsoft Teams
Phone numbers for Audio Conferencing in Skype for Business Online