How to Allow Guest Users to Take Control of a Shared Screen in Microsoft Teams
Question details
The organization needs to allow guest and external participants to request and take control of a shared screen during educational meetings.
- Product
- Microsoft Teams
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Hosting educational or external meetings where guest participants need to interact with the presenter's shared screen.
- Observed behavior
- Guest participants cannot request or control a shared screen, whereas users inside the organization have this capability.
Ensure you have Microsoft Teams administrator privileges, as enabling external screen control requires modifying meeting policies in the Teams admin center.
Enable External Participant Screen Control in Teams Admin Center
Modify the organization's meeting policies to grant screen control permissions to external participants.
The ability for guests to request or take control of a screen is dictated by the meeting organizer's policy. Therefore, the updated policy must be assigned to the organizer hosting the meeting, not the individual guest participants.
Log in to the Microsoft Teams admin center using your administrator credentials.
On the left navigation menu, go to 'Meetings' and then select 'Meeting policies'.
Select the policy that is currently assigned to your meeting organizers, or create a new policy specifically for educational meetings.
Scroll down to the 'Content sharing' section and turn on the toggle for 'Allow an external participant to give or request control'.
Assign this policy to the appropriate meeting organizers and click 'Save'. Remember that policy changes can take up to 24 hours to take effect.
Looking for a Free Office Suite for Your Educational Meetings?
While configuring Microsoft Teams for your organization, you might also need a reliable, cost-effective office suite to create and present educational materials. WPS Office is a highly compatible, free alternative to Microsoft Office that allows you to effortlessly create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to share during your Teams meetings.
- 1. Download the Installer: Visit the official WPS website to download the free installation package.
- 2. Install WPS Office: Run the downloaded installer and follow the simple on-screen instructions to complete the setup.
- 3. Create and Share: Open your presentation or document in WPS Office and share your screen in your next Microsoft Teams meeting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can internal users control the shared screen but guests cannot?
By default, Microsoft Teams restricts external participants and guests from controlling screens for security and privacy reasons. An administrator must explicitly enable the 'Allow an external participant to give or request control' setting in the meeting policies to bypass this restriction.
Do I need to assign the new screen control policy to the guest participant?
No. The meeting capabilities are governed by the meeting organizer's policy settings. You must assign the updated policy to the meeting organizer, and this will extend the permission to the guests attending that specific meeting.
I enabled the policy, but guests still cannot request control. What should I do?
Policy changes made in the Microsoft Teams admin center can take up to 24 hours to propagate globally. Please wait for the propagation time to complete, have both the organizer and guests restart their Teams applications, and test the screen control feature again.
Can guests without a business email account request screen control?
Depending on your organization's setup, guests using personal email accounts (not associated with a business) might face additional limitations. Ensure your IT department has properly configured external access and guest access restrictions to allow interaction with unmanaged accounts.
