Using Microsoft Teams Direct Guest Join for Zoom Rooms

Microsoft Teams Direct Guest Join allows Zoom Rooms to join Microsoft Teams meetings without the need for additional infrastructure or licensing. Connecting to Microsoft Teams meetings previously required the Teams meeting host to be entitled to Microsoft Cloud Video Interop third-party services.

This article covers:

• How to enable or disable third-party conferencing dial-in for Zoom Rooms
• How to join a Microsoft Teams meeting using Direct Guest Join from a Zoom Room
• Troubleshooting Microsoft Teams Direct Guest Join for Zoom Rooms
  • If you see Join by Audio or no Join button at all on the Zoom Rooms controller meeting list
  • If you see the Join button on the Zoom Rooms Controller
  • If you have joined the Microsoft Teams meeting

Prerequisites for Microsoft Teams Direct Guest Join

• Account owner, admin, or role with edit access to Zoom Rooms
• Zoom Rooms for Windows version 5.13.0 or higher
• Zoom Rooms for Mac version 5.13.0 or higher
• Zoom Rooms for Appliances version 5.13.0 or higher
  • Supported on DTEN ME, Logitech Rally Bar, Logitech Rally Bar Mini, Neat Bar, Neat Bar Pro, Neat Board, Neat Frame, Poly X30, Poly X50, Poly X70, Poly G7500, Yealink A20, and Yealink A30
• Zoom Rooms controller for Android or iOS version 5.13.0 or higher
• Zoom Rooms controller for Windows version 5.13.0 or higher
• Calendar integration with Google, Exchange 2010, Exchange 2013 or later, or Office 365

How to enable or disable third-party conferencing dial-in for Zoom Rooms

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin with the privilege to edit Zoom Rooms settings.
2. In the navigation menu, click Room Management then Zoom Rooms.
3. Use the Zoom Rooms location hierarchy to enable third-party conferencing dial-in for Zoom Rooms from the account, location, or room settings. For this example, click Account Settings.
4. Click the Meeting tab.
5. Under Zoom Rooms, click the Support Interoperability for Zoom Rooms toggle to enable or disable it.
6. If a verification dialog displays, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
7. (Optional) If you want to make this setting mandatory for all Zoom Rooms you are editing, click the lock icon , and then click Lock to confirm.
8. Click the Support Microsoft Teams web client meeting on Zoom Rooms checkbox to enable Microsoft Teams Direct Guest Join.
9. (Optional) at the individual Zoom Room level, you may set the Guest Name and Email that will represent the Zoom Room in the Microsoft Teams meeting participant list.
10. (Optional) Click the Show on home screen checkbox to display a Microsoft Teams join button on the room controller or touch display. 

11.  (Optional) Under Connection method prioritization, click the up or down arrows next to the option you want to change.
    Note: If you prioritize the Dial SIP option, but no Microsoft Teams Cloud Video Interop (CVI) information is present for the meeting, Direct Guest Join will be used as a backup. 

How to join a Microsoft Teams meeting using Direct Guest Join from a Zoom Room

1. Invite a Zoom Room to a Microsoft Teams meeting by directly adding the calendar resource associated with the Zoom Room to the Teams invite or forwarding a Teams calendar invitation received from a third party to the calendar resource associated with the Zoom Room. Alternatively, a user may cut and paste the entire body of a meeting invitation received from an external third party to a new meeting invite that includes the Zoom Room’s calendar resource.
   Once the calendar resource receives the meeting invite, the Zoom Room will display the meeting on its upcoming meeting list with a Join option on the Zoom Rooms controller. If you see Join by Audio instead, double-check the steps above or see the Troubleshooting section.
   Note: Forwarding the invite may require modification of settings in Microsoft Office 365 or Exchange.  In Google Calendar, forwarding is not possible, but a user with appropriate permissions may add the appropriate room or duplicate the meeting to a room calendar.
2. Click Join on the controller. The Zoom Room will connect to the Teams meeting.
   Note: The join process will take longer than joining a Zoom meeting.
3. After joining, the following in-meeting controls are available: 
   • Mute Microphone
   • Start/Stop Video
   • Volume
   • Leave meeting  
   • Send problem report
   • Rejoin meeting
   • Share content
   • Zoom Rooms native controls (if configured)

The Zoom Room’s default camera and camera control mode, microphone and speaker will be used during the meeting, and cannot be changed mid-call. The Microsoft Teams meeting will only appear on the first display of the Zoom Room. A second or third display will not show additional Microsoft Teams meeting participants or shared content.

Note: Sharing User Content to the Microsoft Teams meeting requires access to the Microsoft Teams client. No wireless or HDMI-based sharing is available through the Zoom Room while joined to a Microsoft Teams call using Direct Guest Join.

Troubleshooting Microsoft Teams Direct Guest Join for Zoom Rooms

If you see Join by Audio or no Join button at all on the Zoom Rooms controller meeting list

1. Ensure that Support Interoperability for Zoom Rooms and Support Microsoft Teams web client meeting on Zoom Rooms are enabled for the Zoom Room.
2. If you are using Office 365 or Microsoft Exchange for your Zoom Rooms calendar integration, ensure that the "deletecomments" automated calendar processing option is set to "False" and "ProcessExternalMeetingMessages" is set to "True" in your Office 365 settings. For example:
   Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity calendar@accordion.com -AddOrganizerToSubject $false -OrganizerInfo $true -DeleteComments $false -DeleteSubject $false -RemovePrivateProperty $false -ProcessExternalMeetingMessages $True
3. Users leveraging link filtering or “safe links” services that rewrite the original Microsoft Teams meeting URL will not be able to use Microsoft Teams Direct Guest Join.  The original link must be preserved in order  for a Join button to appear in Zoom Rooms. Customers using Proofpoint URL Defense can safelist the teams.microsoft.com URL following the instructions here.  Customers using similar URL “safe links” services must safelist the teams.microsoft.com URL.
4. Make sure the Teams URL contains teams.microsoft.com, not teams.live.com or other domain.  The Zoom Rooms Microsoft Teams Direct Guest Join feature only supports  meetings hosted on teams.microsoft.com.
5. If the Teams meeting was initially received from an external third party, copy and paste the entire Teams meeting invite into the body of a new meeting invite that includes the calendar resource associated with the Zoom Room.

If you see the Join button on the Zoom Rooms Controller

• If it appears as though the Zoom Room attempts to Join the Teams meeting but fails, there may be firewall or other network security issues interfering with the connection to the Teams cloud server. Please check here for more information on Microsoft Teams network requirements.
  Note: When using Microsoft Direct Guest Join with Zoom Rooms Appliances, your firewall or web proxy may need to allow access to the following additional Microsoft URLs: statics.teams.cdn.office.net and substrate.office.com.
• The Microsoft Teams meeting host must permit guest access for Meetings. This setting may be checked and, if necessary, changed by an administrator of the meeting host’s Microsoft Teams services. Please check here for more information on Microsoft Teams guest access.
• The Microsoft Teams meeting host may have configured the meeting to require that guests, such as a Zoom Room using Direct Guest Join, be admitted from the Microsoft Teams meeting lobby. If this is the case, the host or possibly another authenticated user must admit the Zoom Room to the Microsoft Teams meeting. Please check here for more information on Microsoft Teams and automatic admission to meetings.

If you have joined the Microsoft Teams meeting

• If you are using a Zoom Room with Zoom Rooms for Touch capability to join the Microsoft Teams meeting, Zoom recommends controlling the meeting experience (e.g. volume, mute, etc) from a Zoom Rooms Controller.  Though the touch UI will allow manipulation of the Microsoft Teams meeting controls on the Zoom Rooms display, use of the touch UI is not supported for this function.
• A Zoom Room using Microsoft Teams Direct Guest Join will receive the lowest common denominator video resolution from the Microsoft Teams meeting.  This may lead to reduced video quality when other Microsoft Teams meeting participants request low-quality streams (e.g. mobile users, or users with limited bandwidth or encountering network issues), as the Microsoft Teams web client code on the Zoom Room will receive the same low-quality stream.
• Microsoft Teams web client code supports a maximum gallery view layout of 2x2, even if >4 participants are in the meeting.