Microsoft Teams gets bot detection

Microsoft wants to give Teams a new feature that will clearly mark external third-party bots while they wait in a meeting lobby. Additionally, messages about soon-to-be-deleted meeting recordings will be discontinued.

On the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, the developers added a bot identification function over the weekend. “When external third-party bots try to join meetings in Teams, organizers will receive a clear indication of the bots while they wait in the lobby,” Microsoft explains. Organizers must explicitly and separately admit these bots to the meeting if they deem it necessary. With this approach, Microsoft aims to ensure that no one unintentionally lets external bots into meetings, giving organizers full control over the presence of such bots. The feature is expected to be available worldwide starting May 2026 on Android and iOS as well as in macOS and Windows. Currently, however, the function is still under development.

Notifications about meeting recordings

In the Microsoft 365 Admin Message Center, Microsoft also announced over the weekend that Teams will no longer send messages about meeting recordings expiring soon (Copy of MC1245635 at mc.merill.net). Starting June 1, 2026, Microsoft will disable this on all Microsoft 365 tenants to reduce “notification noise.” Admins do not need to take any action. However, if necessary, they can inform users about this change and adjust documentation accordingly, Microsoft recommends. The company cites customer feedback as the reason, stating that these notifications generated a large volume of messages that resulted in little interaction.

Microsoft is quite active in Teams development. In mid-February, the company announced that Teams will introduce a private chat function for structured meetings, webinars, and town halls. This allows organizers, co-organizers, and presenters to have a separate communication channel and interact independently of the participant chat.

(dmk)