Microsoft Lets Admins Automatically Block External Bots in Teams Meetings

Overview

• Microsoft has begun a targeted rollout of a Teams meeting protection policy that will automatically block identified external meeting bots, with the release running through late August and general availability expected by late September.
• The setting appears under Manage bots in the Teams admin center and must be enabled by an administrator before it will block any external bot from joining meetings.
• Once activated, the policy can be assigned to particular users or groups through existing meeting policy controls so blocking applies only to meetings governed by that policy.
• Because the policy blocks any detected external bot, legitimate third-party tools such as AI meeting assistants, transcription services and recording add-ins could also be prevented from joining, which is the main reason Microsoft left the feature off by default.
• The change builds on earlier protections that labeled bots in the lobby and added organizer approval and follows Microsoft warnings about rising Teams abuse; Microsoft says it will add allow lists, admin reports and audit logs to give IT teams finer control and visibility.